east stander wrote:
Smurfy
Did I hear one of them 2 Widnes idiots (Cullen and blocked nose) on B n A last week saying franchises should be about locals in the team and not buying in big names! Let see who the big buyers are next year
i have no idea what you heard Easty. I didnt watch it
Bu i believe the jist of their point (which they have stated many times before) is that franchises allow teams to blood upcoming youngsters without the immediate fear of relegation as a result, because not all young superstars hit the ground running in first team rugby, many grow into it. so some hammerings are inevitable regardless.
that being said, of course no team in their right mind is going to field a team of seventeen year olds all freshly promoted from the valvoline academy team squad, thats insanity.
such a team would get completely destroyed every week.
any team going up, (or any established superleague team for that matter) needs to buy in experienced pros to blend with and aid the aforementioned young talent.
lets see who the 'big' buyers are next year? probably Wigan, Warrington and saints more than anyone. widnes are not in a position to sign top class players, neither financially or indeed by reputation.
no team going up these days can go without signing in many new players. its the reality of the gulf between the two divisions. to pretend otherwise is both disengenous and unfair.
