That could be the case, Harry Smith, Lewis Dodd are not in the Lancashire squad and Morgan Smithies is not in the Yorkshire squad.

I saw a pic of the England squad at training and Morgan Smithies, Sam Walters Harry Newman, Cameron Scott, Oli Wilson & the Senior twins were all there but are not playing in the Yorks or Lancs game.

Liam whitton added to yorkshire academy squad for tomorrows game. How do people rate him as a prospect? Had a pretty good first year in the 19s last season.

York’s v Aus on Our League. Currently 6-0 Yorks Holroyd scoring

How good is this Yorkshire side? Hugely impressed. Don’t think those Leeds boys are far from 1st grade.

Really strong set of forwards but if Aus play with more composure and shape they’re more athletic in the backs.

...and sure enough that’s now proving the case.

Yep Aussies were predictably very classy. Of our boys, all stood up well I thought. Read that Holroyd is still only 17??? He was bossing the middle. Mustapha was great, like a human missile. McLelland some nice touches although some rustiness. Dupree also good but couple of handling errors. Liked Johnson, skilful. Trout looked lacking in strength at this level, needs to bulk up a bit. The backs were good but that it probably where the schoolboys had biggest advantage (although their 1, 6, ,7, 9 were excellent). Great game to watch though and Rhinos fans have another generation coming through.

What was the score?

Did that Pele kid play for Aus? He looks like a monster.

Absolute madness if Tyler Dupree misses out on the England 17 man squad after that, him & Mustapha have to be in alongside Holroyd & Trout. Both were awesome.

A couple of spells I think, but both sides were using unlimited interchange and testing each other out a bit before the full England v Australia games. Think the Yorks lads shocked the Aussies to be honest. Holroyd and Dupree in particular had really nice impact at this level, bodes very well. Don't know about their attitudes but if both work hard enough would be a shout for the full England national side down the track.
I liked a lot of what McLelland showed too - showed that he's not played RL competitively for a while, but he has a bag of tricks and is aggressive.

Did not realise mclelland was playing, thats worrying, thought both halfs were fairly average. Don’t think he will be anywere near dual reg never mind furst team next year. Needs 12 months in academy, but it was a cold wet windy night, may be different on summer field and a full preseason.

He had a couple of nice runs; has a nice drop off pass and a kicking game. Timing was a bit off at times. The Aussie halves looked sensational at times so a high comparison; there might be another Thurston or Lockyer in the side so we have to be realistic. McLelland put at least one shot on which left the opponent on his haunches. I thought he was pretty decent. Can see why some rate Corey Johnson so highly.

Was Johnson the hooker, if so yes he looked good

It was a bit hard to tell but I think they might have spelled him for a while? But yes, Johnson was at 9 and at times looked very good I thought. At the end of the day, the core of that Yorkshire side were signed up to the Leeds club, minus Harry Newman. Not sure if Cam Smith and Oledzki are qualified still? Either way, to run an Aus national schoolboy side so close bodes really well for the club going forward.
I was wondering again about the players we develop in England: we do seem to have good forwards who can mix it, but struggle with the outside backs and halves compared to Aus. Wonder if football in this country has something to do with that? Many of the most skilful sportsmen, hate to say it, are drawn into football rather than rugby? Need to do more to make the game attractive to these talented lads at junior levels if we're going to really make it at international level.

Pretty much GH's take on the reserves debate in terms of how he thinks the cash might be better spent.

This debate comes up far too often, and far too often people make comments without the bigger picture, and that is not a dig at you.

We have always more than matched them at this level, it has never been a problem. We have a large quantity of talented young players upto that age group. Our problems in the UK, and more so in the last decade, is the development of them after that age group. That is where the significant differnence in ability and talent becomes apparent between the two hemispheres.

That is not to say there is not massive improvements that could and should be made at junior level, but more a case that to focus on that is entirely wrong. And GH arguments of the merits of reserve and dual reg, whilst he gives very good points, and sensible, it can not be argued that the game has suffered since the changes to dual reg, and perhaps the majority of the game calling for the change might be correct.

I do not hink we lose a lot in of players to football, and I don't think footballers are that skilful or certainly not more skilled than RL players, it's just a completely different skill set, Australia simply has a bigger player pool centred in there biggest city 3rd and to some what 2nd biggest city. RL Has some low presence in our capital and nothing in our second biggest city and metopolitan area, less and less in Manchester area and only Leeds of England's biggest cities. There will be kids in Birmingham Bristol Liverpool who's ski ll set is suited to our game, who simply never get introduced to RL, some will end up in union, or in London and Birmingham and Tyneside track n field which is very strong in those regions.
Look at Germany for example, their big strong athletes end up pushing bobsleigh, downhill/ super g skiers, hockey players, highly skilled field athletes pole vault discuss javelin, and decathlon. These are the type of players we need, as Austrailia has very little other completion for this type of players, they have a few good cyclists and very sp track n field.

Yeah agree the overall player pool needs to grow, it's a numbers game to some extent. But if you look at Leeds, we are consistently hunting in Cas/Wakefield/Halifax areas for academy talent aren't we? We pick up some of the best lads because Leeds is a relatively sexy club with relatively good facilities and a strong culture. But as a city of around 1m people I think the club is not great at attracting enough really local Leeds lads (I know we do get some of course). Growing up in North Leeds just a few miles from Headingley, my high school didn't play rugby league and many of my more middle-class mates played RU instead (some talented lads too). My point is that we can always do more to farm our own back yard. None of this is easy of course.

RL has always been stronger in Leeds south of the river.
I can't think of many recent examples of players from North Leeds making the grade. Alex Foster is the only one that springs to mind.

Smith, Oledski and Walker are too old for selection by one age group, they were 3rd year 19's last season , these Yorkshire, Lancashire and england teams are made up of players who were second and first year 19's this past season.

I think it’s true that at least in part it’s a numbers game. I can remember I was given a stat by someone involved in the England setup trying to get clubs to do more for local participation, that Sydney alone has something like 4-5 times the numbers of 12-16 year olds playing the game than England does.

Yep and other one big stat is the ~3x salary cap NRL clubs have compared to SL. Easy to forget that when you watch a world club challenge.
There is an argument that the cream of the crop would find their way into the game regardless - if you’re big, athletic, tough then it’s a natural match. But just taking North Leeds into account; it’s heavily populated and there should be less overlap with other RL clubs as you head towards Otley and Harrogate for example. RU much stronger in these areas but lots of untapped RL potential. It’s the old class divide - but doesn’t seem to have changed too much in... 30 years?

This is coaching issue - we simply don't have the quality of coaches in this country that they do in Australia. Add to that the participation and lack of progression of some young players then it is pretty obvious why the Aussies have more strength in depth at senior level.

Then you have the relevant strengths of the elite competitions - it is no suprise that England have become more competitive as the number of British players playing in the NRL increases.

I genuinely don't want this to sound how it may sound to some.

Why aren't out and out black kids coming thru into RL? We have half castes playing the sport but how many coloured lads play the game at junior level and why aren't they coming through? I remember watching players like Des Drummond, Roy Powell, Henderson Gill, Ellery Hanley who was all magnificent athletes. Look at McGillvray at Hudds, strong, powerful and fast. Coloured people seem to be genuinely better athletic people than whites.

What are the club's foundations, the RFL doing in places such as Chapeltown in Leeds to develop the game and get those kids playing?

I often hear our foundation is in places like Adel and Otley, sorry but those kids ain't gonna play RL.

How many out and out coloured players are currently in SL? Not that many. McGillvray, Springer, Matongo at Hull. Very few.

Seems a large potential talent pool that is untapped to me.

90% of NFL is black. RL should be attractive to these lads. Why isn't it? I genuinely would love to know.

As I say this isn't in any way meant in a racist way, quite the opposite.

We need these lads playing RL.