Well, as you clearly manage to shuffle into your busy schedule the time to watch more Rovers games than I do then of course, you are uniquely qualified to express this opinion.

I've watched plenty of Championship rugby I am most surprised that you've managed to surpass me in that also.

I've clearly fallen for your ruse as being part of the Band of Brothers that is The West's Wittering Wankers.

Silly me, you're not just making this up.

Paying for steaks but eating chops. Enjoy mongoose.

We have got youth filtering through your starting props to name two

I actually thought he had been injured a few times, but just looked and I was wrong played lots of games last year, I missed be getting him mixed up with someone else.

Are you really counting Watts as coming through your youth system?

Let him have his moment if it makes him feel better, takes his mind off tilse.

We got him at 17 so he was in our under 19s.

I still wouldn't count that as coming through your youth, same as when you signed Hodgson or if you sign Reece Dean.

Did he ever play for your under 19's?

That's it?

You ain't worth my time.

Well if St Helens can count Jon Wilkin as coming through there youth (and they do) after he played 17 first team games for us then yes I am counting Watts

I don't agree, Wilkin and Taylor came through Rovers youth system, players like Watts, Hodgson didn't IMO, they were signed after going through the youth system at Hull and Cas. I certainly wouldn't count Tom Lineham as coming through our youth system even though he played for our Under 21's ( no under 19s when Watts and Lineham syarted)

The Wilkin thing at Saints is a RFL rule, similar to Lovegrove counting as a youth product at Rovers which is total rubbish.

I've seen Hull fans counting Tom Briscoe and Whiting.

And Watts did qualify under the (now scrapped) rules. Iirc he played very few first team games in 2008, then went out on loan to Gateshead in 2009 before having his breakthrough in 2010. I suspect he'll have played for the 19s or 20s or whatever a few times in 2008. He was a good couple of years younger when he joined than Hodgson was when he did.

Not that it matters much to me. It's what a team does rather than how it is put together that matters. I genuinely don't attribute a big chunk of Rovers current struggles to the shortcomings in our scouting, recruitment and development of young players - though shortcomings there have certainly been.

I agree with you about Watts and Hodgson, I wrote a lengthy piece earlier that new tablet helpfully translated into Chinese and then deleted.

Hodgson was featured in a Guardian Australia article about two months ago (which linking to sent my post wrong) where I think it shows his development at Hull was more important than his progression at Hull.

Lovegrove is a strange case, I've never been quite sure how we came to sign a complete unknown nineteen year old other than he shared Riolo as a manager with, erm, well, he just did didn't he...

The thing is though, my goosey friend, that Hodgson is nearly a year older than Watts and joined us two years later. I think that three year differential, between joining at 17 and joining at 20 is important - or certainly the rules made a distinction.

I just don't see what the justification for excluding Watts would be. If it is age or being on another club's register, then can Hull claim Jordan Abdul?

Watts did play one game for Castleford's first team, I think - but against amateur opposition.

Doesn't matter now anyway, not sure it ever did tbh, apart for my innate fondness for pedantry.

Briscoe surley was, he never played for any other professional club and I'm sure he was at Hull through the scholarship since he was 14/15, Whiting certainly didn't come through our youth system.

Anyway as you say it doesn't matter, it started as a petty arguement and I was bored.

Biggest failings is signing the wrong type of players, too much cap on individual players, injury prone players and I really do think a reserve team would have helped and as I have mentioned before I joint one with Hull would have made more sense than a joint academy.