Fantastic player Murrell, okay we didn't bring him through ourselves, but Morgan deserves credit for trusting the 20 year old Murrell (at the time) with the crucial stand-off role during our promotion season (and having had faith in him since) when he could have gone for say a veteran Aussie for the role.

I know that.

But the 3 Harlequins players I saw turning out for Skolars against Hunslet a couple of weeks back were all definitely from the academy - with the young lad at full back looking like he might be pretty useful when he's finished growing. If you're saying that Harlequins are going to start sending fringe first-teamers instead then I apologise, as that will have a bit more of an impact. Although TBH, it probably means scraping home wins against Workington & Rochdale rather than making the play-offs.

the point is......this is the start of something bigger. If the RFL sanction this "loan" agreement, then expect to see the reservve grade players from Superleague flooding championship sides.
Not saying it's bad/good......it is the thin edge of the wedge, that's all.
As for O'Callaghan (lad you refer to)...he is local (Hammersmith) and a real prospect....and to be honest, the tip of a very large iceberg.

Completely serious point/question now. I can see that Quins do have some promising young players and clearly a good youth set-up. So, if there has been a strong flow of talented young people taking up RL over say the last 10 years, why do you think this hasn't translated into improved crowds?
I.e. surely the more young people playing, the more would go to watch Skolars or Quins? I found that when I decided to play rugby at a young age it went hand-in-hand with becoming a fan and supporting Rovers.
Again, this isn't a dig (for once eh ), just a thought.

So the ' rumour ' is true then

Feeder clubs on the way

tbh I thought it sounds like a great deal. Coupled with the announcement of 'themed' days, if you like, the RU guys plugging RL matches, I get the sense that maybe there is a change of direction, or, if you think there was no direction at all, then a commencing of a direction with the marketing people?! (not sure that makes sense but I hope people see what I mean).

In an expansion area (and yes, it will be an expansion area for decades) it makes sense to use scarce resources in a twinned fashion so I think this is a top notch, thinking out of the box type thingy.

personally I found the City angle a lot more interesting and I for one shall look forward to watching that bit closely. Good luck to both clubs, they both deserve the success and this may well be the start of better things...?

was it always not inevitable? makes sense to stop duplicating resources, doesn't it?

Wonder what Bramley think about it?

Depends on how it will work , if these Quins reserves replace some of the Skolars holidaying assuies and kiwi's then fine

If on the other hand Skolars end up with a team of Quins reserves and lots of ' strine ' then it isnt really achieving much

then they will have completely disregarded their own Operational Rules which state that all loan arrangements must be for a minimum of 28 days.

[newsflash mode] they have just changed them, that's the story [/newsflash mode]