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.

Not if specific rules were in place regarding squad selection

Ahh was PSV who played their reserves. PSV won 3-0. Ajax nearly played their reserves in the FINAL in 2002. Sadly the Ajax reserves lost their semi-final match.

But how could they do that? The first team would need about 25-30 players registered for the cup, otherwise we could get left short due to injuries or a reserve might find good enough form to make the squad but be inelligeble. If there were no injuries however, there would be 8-13 lads who couldn't make the first team but were ineligible for the reserves.

The Northern rail cup could be a good starting point.

Format it a little different so it's a pool based comp like the champions league or RU European cup.

That would guarntee you'd get a few games at least.

At the start of the season, both sides name a 25 man squad with the proviso that 5 from each can play in both giving each a 30 man squad.

So, for example, Charnley, Marsh, Mellor, Logan and Tuson are named as the 5 1st team members that can play in the reserves. Therefore if Wigan were knocked out then Wigan reserves could only call on those 5 for the next round.

That's a good way round it actually