I don't think hardly any rovers fan will have seen charnley play, the argument isn't about how good your lad is, the argument is about bringing in a young lad who's never played first team (who we wont have a chance to sign for good no matter how well he does) when we should be giving our own lads a chance.

Whilst I agree the centres currently playing for the u20's are really from the u18's and not ready, I also agree Mariano who has been playing 2nd row isn't good enough as a superleague centre, we could easily play matt cook in the centres as he's had a number of games there for bradford and bring a youngster from the 20's in on the bench as a forward sub, someone like dominic dee, young green or even frankie.

I haven't seen him play.

My point isn't one of ability its one of principle. Why have young players at your club if your not going to play them. Charnley could end up a world beater, though he could also end up a panel beater. U-20's form is very unreliable as the competition is very ordinary imho.

To effectively give up on a player without giving him the chance to impress is what i am against.

I understand he trained today

Id have liked to see Mariano given the chance being honest but the lad is here now so lets hope he goes well.

Ok he goes straight into the side after an 1/2 hour team run.

Tough one really, if Mariano isn't up to it (which it would appear JM thinks he isn't) then in order to maintain our position then we do currently need somone to patch up the backs. Exactly how we expect an eighteen year old whose probably never even been to Craven Park, never mind learned our systems in a little over twenty four hours to achieve this is a bit beyond me.

This lads only 19, if we sign him in a few years time on a mega bucks contract when hes just scored 5 against the Aussies, can we count him as homegrown

Bless you. It's to meet the RFL homegrown quota requirements.

Looks that way doesn't it

You could very well be right....would it beyond the realms of comprehension to suggest all other super league clubs have to comply with this rule aswell.

Without any senior club-trained players, Rovers' (less mature) development system has been under more pressure than most. More players have had to be elevated, some of whom, I assume, would not 'normally' have been. The results are predictable. What you say is true, but I view it as a natural outcome, not an especially negative one.
Morgan seems to be the bringing the best of them through gradually now. This is, hopefully, just the start.
I know you don't like the gradualist approach and prefer to point to Horne being blooded at 16, which allegedly did him no harm. Half your forum think he is spent force at 27/28 though, so [i[umaybe[/u[/i, it didn't do him that much good in the longer term. Just to be clear, I'm talking about injuries, not illness.

What I think of Rovers approach has nothing to do with it. The rather lovely Mr Gekko asked a question, which was what's the point of naming Mariano, a centre, in the first team squad, then when you have 4 centres out (Welham, Webster, Walker, Ratu) you get an unproven back in on loan from another club. There will never be a more obvious time for him to play. To bring someone else in suggests there was never an intention to play him anyway, hence the conclusion that Mariano was named purely to tick the 8 homegrown players box. Not sure what that has to do with Richard Horne, but there you go. You must think Wigan made a mistake giving a debut to Tomkins as a teenager, Salford with Myler, Cas with Westerman, then?