Reserves at Robin Park Arena Spoiler Result

[Dreamteam]

Just another reason to merge cas and wakey. How embarrassing was it watching that, going short off every kick off must have won 1 out of about 12 then not even moving up in defence

[fozzieskem]

The issue that we are finding with our young players is that the step up from academy, reserves or duel reg is too much into first team.

I think that’s why we are seeing more players mature at a later age or realise they aren’t good enough at a later age. Because we have to factor in the level of quality that precedes super league.

It’s a fundamental problem in UK rugby league that the academy and reserves and lower leagues has such a drop off in quality.

It’s probably financially impossible or would get thrown out by the powers that be but I’d love to see us have a B team in the lower leagues. I look at the lesser teams in league one and a couple would be blown away like tonight (but even they have men playing) but you’d get plenty of competitive fixtures with these young forwards playing against fully grown men and it would be a great bridge over that gap you mention.

We do have the link up with Newcastle in the meantime however and that certainly looks to have helped get Halsall, O’Neill and Nicholson ready for first team action this season. The gap is bigger for guys like Astley, who went to Oldham, who are at a lower level but if they were all put in a side together, at that level, I think it would be a great learning curve for them.

A lot of merit in what you say,it’s becoming clear with scores such as these clubs don’t seem to be buying into the reserve comp and if I’m honest I’d be amazed if it’s still going in a year or two,but then that leaves the flawed dual reg as the only pathway for players it’s not an easy to solution to find.

[josie andrews]

Caslteford Tigers reserves lose 100-0 in incredible defeat

Losing a game of rugby league is bad enough for players, but to get absolutely thrashed is heartbreaking.

That is exactly what happened to Castleford Tigers reserves last night who travelled to Robin Park to take on Wigan Warriors reserves hoping for a decent result.

First-teamer Cheyse Blair was included in the second-row for the Tigers as was Cain Robb whilst Wigan had the likes of Sam Halsall and Umyla Hanley playing.

However, the writing was on the wall at half-time as the Warriors led 46-0, and then, to make matters worse, the second forty minutes got even tougher for the West Yorkshire side.

Wigan ended up posting 100 points on Castleford in one of the biggest thrashings ever seen at that level with Halsall crossing for a remarkable five tries in the second-half alone.

The Tigers rarely had an attack whilst Wigan posted over a point a minute in a devastating display to continue their unbeaten run in the reserves league.

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/casltefo ... eat-53613/

[Charriots Offiah]

I want to see SL better reward teams for bringing juniors through their ranks by allowing less of their salary count against the cap.

If we are going to raise the bar, regarding quality, we have to get every SL team producing players. Secondly, if for instance only 50% counted against the cap then we would be able to pay these lads a decent wage and have more chance of keeping them out of the clutches of NRL teams.

[Dreamteam]

I want to see SL better reward teams for bringing juniors through their ranks by allowing less of their salary count against the cap.

If we are going to raise the bar, regarding quality, we have to get every SL team producing players. Secondly, if for instance only 50% counted against the cap then we would be able to pay these lads a decent wage and have more chance of keeping them out of the clutches of NRL teams.

Spot on but it won’t happen. Because this disadvantages more of the teams in the league than it advantages. Us and saints would win 9 /10 grand finals. Teams like wakey cas Salford have too much power imo

[Mike]

Nobody benefits from a result like this. Reserve league isn't fit for purpose if it's going to throw up mis-matches this big.

Nice round scoreline though! I always used to like the 50-0s we'd sometimes get!

[josie andrews]

Reserves record Century against Cas

Match Report as Wigan Warriors Reserves run riot against Castleford Tigers at Robin Park Arena.
Wigan scored 18 tries in a relentless performance on home turf.
FT | Wigan Warriors Reserves 100-0 Castleford Tigers Reserves.
Match Report as Wigan Warriors Reserves thundered to a huge 100-0 victory over Castleford Tigers at Robin Park Arena on Wednesday evening.

Both sides featured a mix of Super League experience with Brad Martin and Cheyse Blair for the Tigers and the quintet of Umyla Hanley, Sam Halsall, Logan Astley, James McDonnell and Matty Nicholson for the Warriors.

Wigan ran in 18 tries on the evening as they were unphased by the Castleford defence.

Report

Wigan flew out of the blocks as Ben O’Keefe dashed down the wing to cross for the opening try inside three minutes but was unable add the conversion at 4-0. The next attack saw a superb cross-field kick swept out of the air by Tom Mitchell who dived over for a try which O’Keefe improved for a 10-0 lead.

Junior Nsemba made the most of a gap in the Tigers line to cross for a try on 14 minutes and O’Keefe converted for 16-0 before the visitors were helpless to deny Matty Nicholson as he backed up his recent brace against Huddersfield with a dash down the middle to score with O’Keefe kicking for 22-0.

Wigan’s attacking pace seemed to be the key undoing of the Tigers defence and it was clear to see when Adam Jones broke through the line and utilised the support of Mitchell who collected an offload to claim his second try of the game, converted for 28-0. Toby Brannan crossed on the half hour mark after a clever passing play and O’Keefe sealed his fourth success with the boot for a 34-0 advantage.

Wigan completed a stunning first half with a late double as James McDonnell latched onto a chipped kick to touch down and Nsemba claimed his second try by collecting a short pass with O’Keefe improving both for a huge 46-0 lead into the half-time interval.

The Tigers barely had time to action any half-time plans as Wigan resumed the scoring spree with a quick offload from Logan Astley finding the run of Sam Halsall who collected and crossed for a try before completing a ten minute hat-trick with two superb efforts on the left edge with O’Keefe converting the latter score for 54-0.

O’Keefe claimed his second try of the evening after capitalising on a short restart to race down the wing for 64-0 and then on the hour mark, Max Wood went in for a try after collecting a pass from McDonnell and O’Keefe kicked the lead to 70-0.

Wigan’s offload skill continued to impress as Kieran Tyrer benefitted to cross for a try which O’Keefe improved for 76-0 before a short-kick off from the Tigers resulted in a double offload which allowed Halsall to cross for his fourth try of the evening with O’Keefe reaching ten successes from the kicking tee to extend the lead to 82-0.

Nicholson and Tyrer both utilised gaps in the tiring Tigers defence to claim their second tries of the match with Tyrer finishing off a clever passing play and O’Keefe converted both efforts to make it 94-0. The final minute of the action saw a superb fifth try for Halsall as he collected a chip kick to touch down and O’Keefe rounded off a fine evening with the boot with a lucky 13th success as his conversion pinged in off the post for 100-0.

Wigan Warriors: Umyla Hanley, Tom Mitchell, Alex Sutton, Sam Halsall, Ben O’Keefe, Adam Jones, Logan Astley, Jack Bibby, Tom Forber, Harvie Hill, Junior Nsemba, James McDonnell, Matty Nicholson.

Interchanges: Toby Brannan, Ramon Silva, Max Wood, Kieran Tyrer.

Tries: O’ Keefe (4′, 55′) Mitchell (8′, 27′), Nsemba (14′, 40′), Nicholson (22′, 70′), Brannan (31′), McDonnell (37′), Halsall (42′, 44′, 53′, 64′, 77′) Wood (60′), Tyrer (62′, 74′).

Goals: O’Keefe 14/18

Castleford Tigers: Cain Robb, Alfie Mitchell, Jamie Mvula, Caleb Stanley, Abdullah Balogun, Charlie Harris, Calvin Sandhu, Kieran Hudson, Chris Cullimore, Brad Martin, Cheyse Blair, Josh Thornton, Danny Atley.

Interchanges: Toby Millinson, Anthony Boardman, Callum Beety, Alfie Dean.

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/05/ ... ainst-cas/

[the pieman]

reading through some of the comments and this is just a clear statement of what some clubs feel about RL in this country.

Every club should be forced to have an academy side at every level (whether that be 16,18 etc) and a reserve team. It just shows the lack of ambition or desire to develop their own players i.e. just let Wigan, Saints, Leeds and Hull do it, and we'll take their cast offs

The pandemic has caused some issues, and a generation of players have potentially missed out or only just getting opportunities now, but that cant be used as an excuse now, for not doing anything.

How are we going to give the young players the opportunity to develop into 1st team players? that can only be through a pathway to the 1st team with regular rugby week in, week out at what ever age group and then into reserves / 1st team. without those opportunities, how does a 16 year old lad, become a 1st team player, there is virtually no chance without the right network / pathway.

I'm sure all clubs are currently benchmarked against various criteria. I would make academy / reserve teams a mandatory element of that, and if they dont progress over the next 2-3 years, then sorry, but they'd be kicked out of SL (i know the chances of that happening are slim to nil). For far too long, the bottom clubs have stopped the game from progressing and its time that someone grabbed the bull by the horns and dragged us into the 21st Century. We have sub-standard grounds (yes, some of us may still like going there), but they have been promising things for years, we have a low salary cap, which has been held back by the same clubs for years and we have them not participating in academy / reserve leagues, so what in reality after the 1st team (that they dont pay full cap to) are they adding to the game, besides holding it back?

[WarriorWinger]

The issue that we are finding with our young players is that the step up from academy, reserves or duel reg is too much into first team.

I think that’s why we are seeing more players mature at a later age or realise they aren’t good enough at a later age. Because we have to factor in the level of quality that precedes super league.

It’s a fundamental problem in UK rugby league that the academy and reserves and lower leagues has such a drop off in quality.

It’s probably financially impossible or would get thrown out by the powers that be but I’d love to see us have a B team in the lower leagues. I look at the lesser teams in league one and a couple would be blown away like tonight (but even they have men playing) but you’d get plenty of competitive fixtures with these young forwards playing against fully grown men and it would be a great bridge over that gap you mention.

We do have the link up with Newcastle in the meantime however and that certainly looks to have helped get Halsall, O’Neill and Nicholson ready for first team action this season. The gap is bigger for guys like Astley, who went to Oldham, who are at a lower level but if they were all put in a side together, at that level, I think it would be a great learning curve for them.

A lot of merit in what you say,it’s becoming clear with scores such as these clubs don’t seem to be buying into the reserve comp and if I’m honest I’d be amazed if it’s still going in a year or two,but then that leaves the flawed dual reg as the only pathway for players it’s not an easy to solution to find.

Tricky also with promotion and relegation, we wouldnt want a Wigan B, Saints B and Leeds B team playing in Superleague becasue they are superior to the part time lower leagues, a long thought out stretch I know but yu never know it could happen and if they were prevented from progressing it make it harder to determine who should