Oh look, someone who has actually seen him play and knows what they are talking about, unlike the Wigan fans on here that have wrote him off for "not being a big name"

Well said. You are seemingly not allowed to be unhappy about the fact the standard of player we can recruit is going down.

Before Tommy and Finch were known to be leaving I can guarantee you there isn't a regular poster on here would say Smith and Green were better players. Now we have got these two as half backs for 2013 its as if they dare not state the obvious - that our 2013 half backs won't be as good as our 2012 ones.

We may still do very well with these two in the side (if the standard of players in other teams also drops) and I will cheer them on as loud as I do Finch and Tommy but I am not going to delude myself as to their abilities. I hope I am pleasantly surprised by Green as I know little about him and the HKR fans seem to rate him but I already know Smith isn't a patch on Tommy.

Totally agree

Especially after you've quit your original club and gravitated to either Pats or IRB when you're about 14.

I wonder why that happens so much?

As a HKR supporter I am sorry to see Blake Green leave as he is a great player, maybe over exagerated using great but a good stand off, but having said that I do believe we have got the better deal we have signed the guy Travis Burns from Penrith who is supposed to be a better player Wigan will pay his first years contract, using the transfer fee, so we get him for nowt, the rest of his 3 yr contract is the same as what Blake Green was getting ,I assume, he is younger than Green and as I said earlier supposedly a better player. Only time will tell

What has that got to do with Wigan scouts watching other teams?

Lads leave clubs all the time for many different reasons and not because they've been told that thet have to play for either IRB or Pats to be picked up.

In the current under 15's Wigan squad there's 3 players who play for Shevy, 1 whose the current captain of Wigan and 1 who made the England Youth squad. How many Pats players?...none!

Kinda blows your argument out of the water!

In a roundabout way, you've answered your own question there.

Clearly this is a concept you're not unfamiliar with.

As to the rest, maybe NWC have finally grown a pair.

Also, a scrum half from Shevington 15s is on the St Helen's scholarship.
If your good enough, you will be spotted.

Yeah, there are quite a few lads who make it to Saints, Wire, Salford etc from the likes of Orrel, Judes, Shevy. But that only underlines the original point.

Also quite a few who originally get picked up from the likes off Judes, orrell and Shevington at Wigan, don't make out that the Wigan scouts only pick up players from IRB and Pats because you know that isn't the case.

Okay. (Psst ... there goes that flying pig again).

Seriously though, if super-team building has now become a thing of the past at junior level, I'll be delighted.

I'll be watching my grandson play this weekend. Be interesting to see if those involved can confirm what you say.

At the end off the day if the Wigan scouts pick up the correct players, which by the looks off the 16s,18s and 20s results, they do. Then it is irrelevant where the players come from.