I have been watching the reserves this season and it is noticeable that the standard is variable. Given that we have a lot of good young forwards I was wondering who would benefit most from the various grades on offer below SL first team. Looking at young Pierce-Paul you can see the talent but would he benefit yet from being mashed up weekly by the bruisers in the Championship? (probably not yet). Ben Kilner has already been around the block at that level and looks nearly ready to step up so how do you keep him progressing? I am assuming that The Championship is a higher grade than reserves.

Is the reserves meant to be a higher standard than dual reg?

was meant to be but not sure with some SL clubs still adopting dual reg so sending their fringe out will decrease the reserves

At one point we used to send lads down to league 1 but that often seemed like a death knell. There are some good squads in The Championship and we might benefit from that. I thought that the reserves was all about controlling the development of our own players but I can see that some would benefit from playing for a few weeks with older pros.

Wigan reserves are equivalent to bottom of Championship/top of League 1 IMO.

gave Leigh a good game at the start of the year and they are probably the best team in the championship now

Realistically that side was a lot stronger than any reserves side we'll put out all year. J.Burgess, Manfredi, Smith, Bullock, Clark, Greenwood and Havard all started, and we still lost. How many of them will play reserves this weekend, two? On a good day our reserves may be more like a mid-table Championship side, but over the course of the season I think bottom of Champ/top of League 1 is a fairer reflection. Our normal reserves side isn't at the same standard as London/Tolouse/Leigh/Fev first team.

5 of them played the first game, others came in due to injury

Unrated benefit of Reserves is when determine, style of player, what position, how many minutes etc

Hypothetical examples, Hankinson can be tried out at right and left centre.

Mitch Clark can be given long minutes to improve fitness etc

You’re at the mercy of other clubs who need short term results with the other methods.

Yep, that's what happens with reserves, hence the quality will fluctuate a lot as I already wrote. NSW has just nailed the benefits of reserves, plus obviously it keeps the lads together.