So, 8/9 games in how do we all see it panning out? OSJ unbeaten, bodes the question...why did they welsh out of promotion? So they can stick 40/50 points on teams every week? Pathetic.

We beat LHR today 23-10. Decent side they've got going now couple of big forwards I've seen knocking around the amateur circuit before.

Our aim this season is a bit of consolidation and bring some of our younger lads in. Think we had 12 under 21 today and a couple of old blokes!

Ashton Bears A 28-18 Pilks A.
1st time we've ever played Pilks at A team level & a decent game.

With the obvious exception of OSJ I think the leagues fairly well balanced with a lot of closely matched teams. The OSJ decision is a strange one & only they'll know why they opted to drop down a division. A lad who played prop for our 1st team in the Prem a couple of seasons ago is playing there so it'll be interesting to see how he's doing when we play them.
Strangest result of the day is Wigan St Cuthberts A putting 40 on Wigan Bulldogs, maybe all their NCL lads haven't drifted away to other clubs after all.
One over-riding thing that I've picked up talking to other coaches is the numbers involved in the game. It seems universal that the number of players available to make it to training & available to play is an issue that's getting bigger.

Think from a Langworthy perspective, so far we are going OK. Should have picked up a couple more wins perhaps but the most encouraging thing has been that we have not been blown off the park by any team with Orrell scoring the most point against us so far at their place and that was only 34. Always was going to be a building and establishing year for us and blooding the young lads coming through.

No surprises to see the teams who are up at the top there and as said by Morning Glory, on the whole a well balanced division with quite a few close games which is what you want and not blow out scores as that's how you do lose players from the teams suffering.

On the point of numbers, it certainly does seem a lot of players are being lost to the game.

From a Bury point of view (even though I've been less involved this year so far), numbers are not currently a problem. After years of struggling to find 17 lads for each game (Ayres Rock you'll remember those days!), suddenly we've seen a huge influx of lads. The weekend we played Bolton and Rochdale A we had 25 missing (10 1st-team) and still field two full squads.

We've also got a good u-18s side ready to break into open-age next year and are trying to field a Masters team at Eccles this weekend, not sure how numbers are looking for that.

Most of the new faces are RU lads, with a few RL lads coming to us from other clubs. We're seeing many of them (especially the youngsters) preferring RL and committing themselves to us over their old RU clubs. That said, our good relations with local RU clubs has been key and we don't want to burn bridges! It also means that while numbers are great, they are often RL novices and can take a while to pick the game up.

No idea why Orrell chose to forgo promotion, seems pointless and not particularly positive for anyone. They may have had concerns over player numbers this year but that doesn't appear to be a problem. That said, other clubs have dropped down divisions over squad concerns so they wouldn't be the first. Other than Orrell and a couple of strugglers it seems to be a fairly even division so far with some good contests.

I would say clubs now need squads of between 30-40 lads to field a team throughout the summer. With holidays, weddings, festivals and weekend work you can have 30 available one week and down to a bare 13 the next. It's a problem with summer I don't think anyone foresaw.

Numbers of registered players doesn't seem to be the issue - we've got more than enough for 3 Saturday teams it's players commitment to train regularly & play at the weekend. As a result teams seem to be having inconsistent 17's and the quality is going down for me. There are some good teams around the divisions but not the depth of quality teams there used to be. If the problems at youth level continue I can only see that continuing too. Maybe it's just a transition period & it will improve but the signs aren't too good at the moment.

That would be the same with us Morning Glory. We have 40 lads signed on but getting a steady 17 is the challenge.

I think the amateur game will continue in this vein for the next 10 years or so because those playing and those at the higher end of the youth game are so use to playing winter and having the summer available. It will be those kids now playing from about 13 and down, where they wont know any different to playing rugby in the summer so natural to continue to do so in the open age.

I don't think though it will ever be like the 80's and 90's (Which i know of) where the game was thriving. Cold Saturday days in the winter there was just nothing to do, these days playing in the summer there is far more options available and only the true dedicated players will be available week in, week out when sun, family days out, drinking and any other things will be more appealing.

Widnes Tigers 17 RAF A Grade 16

We had a great game on Friday evening against the RAF 2nd team. We had several lads decide they'd rather take in the game with a few pints and we found ourselves 16-0 down at oranges, but we fought back to 16-16 and with the actual last kick of the game dropped a goal from the touchline which went over via the post! Remarkable game. We host Bury this week in a 2nd vs 3rd class and having won our last 5 games we hope to keep our good run going!

Big game in Div 3 this week as teams jockey for position, it's Widnes Tigers Vs Bury as 3rd play 2nd!

Who we all taking in this?

I say Tigers by 8!

How bad was that weather today!!

Widnes Tigers 8 Bury 4

Bury scored with their first possession and it was a full on arm wrestle for most of the game. We scored in corner off a kick and converted and added a penalty in the second half. We had Harold Bishop reffing and he had his usual shocker including stopping the game to change his specs! We move up to 2nd now and the top 4 are the same as Div 4 last season!

Langworthy up next for us at home!