I see from Traceys excellent Steering Group notes that Hull and Rovers will be combining at under 13s and 14s scholarship levels from next season. Do we think that if it is sucessful we will see the relationship spread throughout the entire youth structures?

At that age would it not be better to have more players experiencing higher class coaching and facilities?

The idea is that at that age players benefit alot from playing alongside the same lads and developing along with them. For example look at the lads that came through Hull's youth structure at around the same time, Cooke, Houghton, Yeaman, the Horne bros, etc. They were all at Hull cos basically there was no alternative, now lads are having to choose between Rovers and Hull and that then splits up these successful relationships, the idea of a combined 13s and 14s is to stop that happening and develop players alongside each other, if that makes sense?

Interesting to see that it is being done from bottom up. I'm curious to see how it develops. A regional higher quality under-20s comp as the proving ground for the first team makes sense to me, so it'd be a logical extension IMO.

Could be everybody's lercal second team.

I wonder if Cas and Wakefield or Bradford and Hudds might look at a similar link-up?

Also good that our head coach has an active involvement with our youth - he was at Wakefield with the scholarship teams lastnight

With Hull's new (and to be improved) facilities at sirius I think it will give them a significant advantage at academy levels so I can't see them being keen to share them with rovers. The relatively low cost would be swamped by the prospect of losing the better players IMO

I might be missing the point here, but wouldn't it be better to have two teams at this young stage, hence twice the ammount of players, bearing in mind there is a constant drop off as kids don't make it at next level up, lose interest in the game etc.
You've only got to think how many play the game as kids, or amateurs, and how many from that pool play top level amateur let alone pro rugby.

The amount of amateur rugby league teams in this area, i think its criminal that the clubs do not have more involvement with most of them... and this is the insular sort of thinking that closes out the youth structures instead of encouraging them...

other things that also discourage young players is this sort of thing..



for our teams to get back to the pinnacle of rugby league in this country, they need to have far far more involvement at the schoolboy levels...the current community programs fall well short atm... seeing the occasional second string player or injured first team player is not enough, both first team squads in this town should interact more at this level and make at least 1-2 days a week to go round into the schools... this is what may encourage more to go on and achieve....

The sirius programme is great with some cracking prospects coming along.

What i dont get is why rovers havent done the same with the new archie, 3 schools made into 1 very close to the rovers ground- get that set up and it will soon produce some great prospects.

The structures across the whole of the UK are to blame for lack of talent. In Aus they have sports schools that partake in at least 1 hour of sport a day and half a day of pure sport on one day per week. A badly written letter from mummy saying they can't do PE is not accepted and a school dr is the one who makes the decision.

Likewise schools offering burgers and chips for lunch rarely happens and pupils are not allowed off site to go and get fast fatty foods. They are lifting weights from younger ages than here and their school comps are the main comps not an amateur league where players only turn up if the weather is nice and training consists of a whole squad not 5 or 6 that want to play touch and pass as happens at many amateur clubs here.

If the talent is going to improve throughout the country then more needs to be done at school level and that comes from a lot higher than just the two Hull clubs or even the RFL. As the sport is not a class A sport it will never be on the priority list for schools to include it but sport as a whole needs to be. If pupils had to do sports every day we'd have less weight problems, they'd be fitter and even if their training was in Rugby Union, the transferable skills would be easy for RL teams to spot.

As for the combining of younger age groups, it is a good idea IMO, the talent is spread too thinly at the moment and watching Sirius academy wipe the floor with most teams they play against across the country shows their dominance and the beauty of having such good training facilities at their disposal. I'd probably say up to U18 level could be much better with the clubs having an even pick of the talent.

It is certainly something to keep our eyes on to see if it works plus a real money saver for both clubs as these teams are not cheap to run.