i drove past Rose Bridge last night on the way to the gym. Cars parked everywhere, so i have a feeling that there may have been a nice little crowd on to watch the game too.

One of my friends has been doing some work at Wigan, and he said he's looking forwards to seeing some of them develop and hopefully onto 1st team. You have a mix of abilities / attitudes with the lads at that age, and it may not always be the ones you think who make it. I'll ask for his views on the Saints team to see if anyone stood out for you

Cheers. Rogues is usually the man for the Academy games. I wonder if he went last night. I went to the game last year at St Jude’s and there must have been 400-500 there. It was rammed last year but I couldn’t make it last night.

It’s all cycles in Sport. Wigans Academy was poor last season but the U16s were outstanding. Now all that U16s team are playing Academy and it’s a great Academy team this season.

There’ll be one or two superstars for both teams. As mentioned previously Farrimond was the best player on the pitch last season followed by Robertson at Saints. I’d be amazed if those two don’t break through

It does seem too that Warrington have got their act together with their youth set up.

Didn't one of the Warrington schools or amateur sides sweep all before them at age 15 or something and pretty much all sign for Warrington?

They've always had the academy but they usually just sign the players that the two of us don't and then they never break through because of their obsession with big names on big money.

Perhaps they've seen finally that all good sides have good youth setups. Can only be good for the game if they have (provided they still choke at first team level )

That's the one.

To be fair I watched that rylands team for about 4/5 years as my son played in another rylands team in the same age group and there was only 3 or 4 I was gutted Warrington didn't sign(and one of them isn't even playing any more!). It was more to do with how well coached they were that impressed me. Oh, and the one lad saints didn't get ended up at Wigan, Ryan Brown. I believe he's doing pretty well(according to his dad! )

Saints don’t look the same side.

Are they still tired from a game that ended 5 weeks ago ?

They're so un-saints like it's untrue at the moment, lazy in the ruck lying on instead of physically dominating like they usually do.

They'll still be the side to beat come October, but worrying signs for them: Hudds were missing a lot of players weren't they?

I think it’s more the fact we played 79 minutes with 16 men and got hammered with the ref resulting in lots of tackles that we needed to make.

Still players to come back and that’s a big win under all the circumstances.

Incidentally Penrith have lost 2 already.

Lees did 80 mins there and over 65 tackles. Outstanding.

No they aren’t. Warringtons scholars are light years away from saints and Wigan! I can’t believe you even claimed that!! I know you like to think you are “well connected” but if you really were, you would know the standard of the players Warrington have in theirs scholars. Even though St Helens beat Wigan, Wigan have the absolute crop of the scholars and you shouldn’t read into St Helens beating them

Only caught the second half, did Lussick only come on with 10 mins left ?

That Senior try was a ridiculous decision, clear he dropped it on the the first reply.

Pretty much yeah.

And I agree I think he dropped it.

The other point is Lomax getting a green card. Unbelievable. I guarantee Ashworth will get charged for that. Lomax milks it and they are down to 12 yet we are penalised for how tough Lomax is

Couldn’t believe that! Cost me money as well (had Saints -3.5). The angle they used to show that he hadn’t gone in touch showed clear separation and they missed it and never went back!

As for Saints, they’ll be fine. They’re never the flashiest of watches but it’s even more turgid at the moment but these wins are massive. There are some creaking bodies in that squad and it feels like they’ll need a freshen up in the next couple of years but they’ve got more trophy challenges in them yet (sadly).

No Stu, I didn't go, I was hoping it would be shown live on Wigan t.v.
I've just seen the trys and Saints looked a bit bigger, their fullback looked very good, I'll watch the full game at some point. Didn't Saints sign four players from Wigan St, Judes?

It's always difficult with the scholars as they are U15 and U16 age groups and that can make a bid difference at this level.
I'm looking forward to the Wigan v Saints academy game on the 8th April at Robin Park and particularly the Farrimond v Robertson duel, both really exciting prospects.