A lot of the cap on very average players. Not to mention quota places.

I think they are there next Sat 14th v Halifax iirc, 2pm

www.hullfc.com/article/43229/u23 ... -confirmed

www.hullfc.com/article/43229/u23 ... -confirmed

Regarding what Peacock has said, he has never said that he wants Rovers to start an U23's team, he said that he wants to start a reserve team .....It's just another term for the old "A" team format.

Do you remember the old "A" team format? .......It was competitive rugby played by youngsters coming through the ranks to play regularly against men instead of just training and then being thrown into first team rugby when the first team were injury ridden ......It was competitive rugby played by all those first team players that had experienced a loss of form and had a chance to prove themselves once again through actual playing time instead of just going through the motions of training ......It was competitive rugby that gave a first team player the chance to ease themselves back into competitive rugby after recovering from an injury .......And, it was competitive rugby that gave a player from the amateur game an opportunity to prove that they have the skills to make it in the professional game (Do you remember "A n other" and "S o else"?).

We all know that "A" team rugby is the right way forward for our game, but, unfortunately, the RFL are too proud and stubborn to admit that they made a mistake abandoning "A" team rugby in favour for the youth academy structure.

And, regarding the "fair pay structure" .......Is it fair to pay an up and coming local talent, say, 16 grand a year when they are performing at the best of their abilities and doing everything right in the academy structure then offer them 14 grand a year at the next contract negotiations?

If your employer did the same with you would you be ok with that? ......This is what I meant by forcing young players out of the game.

Personally, I think that young players shouldn't be paid until they are offered a contract to step up to the first team. They should seek a profession outside of rugby and play rugby for the love of it and aim to be a professional first team player ......Paying youngsters a wage to be a part of the academy structure only makes them vulnerable to feeling unwanted when they are offered less money or told that they are not wanted and makes them make the decision to turn their back on the game completely .......This is what the current academy structure is doing and has done for the previous years ......And we wonder why the game is growing less popular as the years go by!

Hard to say if this is true or not, we all know you have a vested interest and hate hull with a passion, but for me we have to trust the club to know what they are doing, they seem to be getting it right at youth level.

On another note, Abdul seems to be going well at Fev, I read a couple of things to say he has played well in both games, he got the Fev TV MOTM yesterday.

Good point on us getting it right Dave.
We can't contain every player that goes through our academy system, we let some go we keep a few, some get dropped at 18/19 years old & never play again, it's sad when this happens but this is when they think they are no good, the reserve grade will be good for this situation. Imo

Seems a bit bizarre that we feel a young player is worth 14 grand but not 16 and we lose him because someone else coughs up the extra 2 grand. It's chicken feed. I know we have this structure in place but if the kid is worth a contract then surely we shouldn't be losing him over such a small amount. Wasn't that what happened over Josh Hodgson too?

With josh we had berrigan & houghton in front of him, we tried to move him to the back row, kr come along offered him more first team game time in his position, no brainier for him. Sometimes we have a lot of talent in a certain position coming through & sometimes we have very little, we are struggling with hookers atm through the club.

Are we? I thought litten was the next big thing plus houghton isn't on the verge of retiring

Not much cover though is it? If houghton gets injured kitten couldn't step up.

Please tell me that's his nickname.

It never was and the club have gone with it since we binned 2 hookers last year.