Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:33 am  

Ruddy Duck wrote:

From what I have seen of the Under 19 Academy squad this season, the only other three that have stood out to me apart from Logan Astley have been Michael Nicholson, Junior N'Samba and Alex Sutton.

To be fair, the U19's only lost two games all season (both by two points) and played a lot of U17 and U18 players. There is a lot of talent in there Eckersley, Hill, Makin etc, plus they left out Hanley and O'Neill for most of the games.

Matty Nicholson will be in the 1st team squad next season, no doubt.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:44 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

To be fair, the U19's only lost two games all season (both by two points) and played a lot of U17 and U18 players. There is a lot of talent in there Eckersley, Hill, Makin etc, plus they left out Hanley and O'Neill for most of the games.

Matty Nicholson will be in the 1st team squad next season, no doubt.

Another back-rower! Can he play centre?

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:10 pm  

moto748 wrote:

Another back-rower! Can he play centre?

He has got a great pair of hands and offload.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:22 pm  

Sweaty Betty's wrote:

He has got a great pair of hands and offload.

Yeah, I have watched him a couple of times and been very impressed.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:55 pm  

It’s going to take some player for any young forward to break in to the first team now, given how many options we have at 19-22 years of age. The bits I’ve seen of Nicholson suggests he’ll give it one hell of a go.

It’s what we need now really across the board, absolute quality breaking through and not just quantity. This last 4 or 5 years feel like we’ve got plenty of lads through but we’re waiting still for them to kick on. A lot of that to be fair to them, is a lack of experienced quality around them.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Oct 15, 2021 3:05 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

It’s going to take some player for any young forward to break in to the first team now, given how many options we have at 19-22 years of age. The bits I’ve seen of Nicholson suggests he’ll give it one hell of a go.

It’s what we need now really across the board, absolute quality breaking through and not just quantity. This last 4 or 5 years feel like we’ve got plenty of lads through but we’re waiting still for them to kick on. A lot of that to be fair to them, is a lack of experienced quality around them.

I really like him, looks robust with a cracking skill set.

Can step off both feet but particularly good with a late left to right skip close to the line and deft offload. Slightly different to some of the forwards we have been producing of late.

Not a bad turn of pace either.

I just hope when he gets his opportunity people don’t expect too much from him he looks like he is the kind of player that will need a little time to get used to first team rugby before he starts to show off his full skill set.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:41 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

To be fair, the U19's only lost two games all season (both by two points) and played a lot of U17 and U18 players. There is a lot of talent in there Eckersley, Hill, Makin etc, plus they left out Hanley and O'Neill for most of the games.

Matty Nicholson will be in the 1st team squad next season, no doubt.

He sure will as from what I gathered, he will be too old for the Academy.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Oct 15, 2021 9:38 am  

Ruddy Duck wrote:

He sure will as from what I gathered, he will be too old for the Academy.

This is where reserve grade rugby should be useful next season, unless it is used as an alternative to the U-18s as i believe they are running on alternate weeks (reserve week 1 and under 18s week 2)

you would hope that it gives a bit of a pathway to those players who may not have fully developed / progressed at U18 to the 1st team squad

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Oct 15, 2021 9:48 am  

Been a while since I was on here....


I think we could do a lot worse than Stef Ratchford as a short term solution

-Can play centre
-Can cover 1 and 6
-Kicks goals
-Experienced
-Wigan Lad

A bit like how Paul Deacon finished his career

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Fri Oct 15, 2021 10:07 am  

Fordy85 wrote:

Been a while since I was on here....


I think we could do a lot worse than Stef Ratchford as a short term solution

-Can play centre
-Can cover 1 and 6
-Kicks goals
-Experienced
-Wigan Lad

A bit like how Paul Deacon finished his career

Is he available? It's his testimonial year so can't see that happening.