It should definately been done. Think it was one of the first things Madge suggested when he came over. He wasn't impressed with the standard of the U.20 comp. It would solve all the hassle of having to loan out half your U.20s team like we did last year.

I'm undecided on this, the way I see it -

Positives:
Better test for young players - better development - eventually stronger England team and SL
Stronger Championship
Good championship players may be more likely to get noticed by SL clubs

Negatives:
Devalues the championship
If a team has an injury crisis we could see either under 18s getting knocked around by hardened veterans or games getting cancelled
Would any team apart from ourselves be competitive in the championship?
Health and safety worry of pitching young lads against fully developed men week in week out. If a fight kicks off there could be real trouble, go on video site and find England A v Tonga for a good example.

In my opinion, this could work better for the clubs and the national side than the current set up. Gives them a challenge from a young age, so they always have to improve their game.

Would deffo catch the train over to Dewsbury game, and a couple of pints in the Boltmakers before & after the Keighley match would go down a treat, bring it on

Agreed on both accounts. I think the German clubs problem is there's not many fans willing to travel across to the other side of the country to see the reserves the day before/after a first team game.

Would allow teams to protect their young talent better, with a SL and a Championship salary cap to cover their entire squad. Maybe restrict the number of Championship registered players that can represent the SL team during a season. Play the Championship fixtures as curtainraisers to SL when possible. It's got potential.

Add it 2 the proposed SL vs All stars game and then IMO we could see more a competitive England side in 5/10 years.

just send your best on loan.

I totally agree and i have been advocating this for a while.

If not the actual league, then what about the northern rail or Challenge cups? This way they will not have to put their body through a whole punishing season.

These young lads will get lots out of playing against fully grown men who are playing for more than just pride

I can just see the draw now:

Brian Carney: Number 14
Ray French: Wigan Warriors, will play
Carney: Number 5
French: Wigan Warriors reserves
Richard Lewis:



Seriously that scenario wouldn't even be that unlikely, they would only have to turn over a couple of amateur teams and maybe one championship side and they're in the mix with the big boys.

Happened in the Dutch Cup once didn't it? Ajax vs Ajax Reserves.

Did they bother playing it? If I was Leneghan I'd just have the reserves forfeit to save injuries and paying to put on a glorified training session in front of a tiny crowd. Actually no, I'd have the first team forfeit so that we could win the challenge up under the name of 'Wigan Warriors Reserves"

. Just thought of another reason it wouldn't work, if Wigan got knocked out in round 4, but the reserves went through to round 5, the first team would end up playing the reserves fixtures, thus effectively cheating the system.