Quote ="Ferocious Aardvark"Not at the last one, no. But I reckon the stuff about the time and effort rebuilding and improving the youth setup is on the money. I'm not saying it mitigates the woeful stuff some first team players have turned out much of the time, it hasn't been the youth players serving this up.'"
I think the problem is that the balance is all wrong. It's ok putting plenty into the long term but that shouldn't mean sacrificing the current first team fortunes to the extent where we're 12th in the table and showing no sign of any improvement.
When we do bring in the young lads do we really think they're going into the best first team environment? A team that seeemingly has problems with some players not pulling their weight and a coach who doesn't know how to address it? What example are the kids going to be set? We risk them picking up bad habits. It's ok having Steve Menzies in the side for his professional example but what about the other blokes?
Thing is we need more quality in the first team and that means a more balanced investment by the club. Recruitment should be tightened up to ensure we sign more quality players who will improve the side. The likes of Hall and L'Strange may come from a good side but it's backs and halfbacks we need and quality ones. If we have to run a smaller squad with a sprinkling of quality made up mainly of academy players I think that would play better rugby and be a better platform for the kids. At the moment we have too many average players who are seemingly content to be average.
