Saints won 22-18 in Sydney this afternoon.

Well done to the boys, great start to the tour.

Great stuff.

How did Costello go at full back ? And Matty Lees at prop ?

I'm sure "The Eclipse" will post unbiased summary on here at some stage.

That's a good result for Saints' juniors isn't it?

Of course it is. I just happen to know "The Eclipse" and value his opinion on the junior game, particularly in Australia.
Saints have done very well on their previous tours over to Aus and I know they use the use them as a selling point to young players looking to join the club, and quite rightly so.

Put it one way rogues we at Saints do not throw silly money at juniors from Yorkshire.

That's Leeds and Wires prerogative. Saying that Cameron Smith is the best young player I've seen in quite a while, it'll be interesting to see how he develops.
I didn't realise Levy, Knowles, Grace and Wellington were from Bold Miners.



The truth is teams will offer kids what they think they are worth, and in most cases it's not just about money. Lewis Fairhurst for instance went to Saints because he thought it would be difficult to get in front of Williams, Hampshire and Shorrocks who were only a year or two older than him.

A lot of kids will reject Wigan now because of Shaun Wane's behaviour on the tour documentary. If you are a parent who lets your son join that organisation after seeing that, you should be ashamed of yourself.

All those kids you mentioned are from development areas France, Wales and Cumbria. Wigan are throwing silly money at the youth in yorkshire, fact! Ryan Hampshire was probably the highest paid u16 there has ever been.

Wrong, but this is about Saints academy in Aus, so let's not derail the thread.

If you want to compare salaries/incentives for young players look no further than Smith and Smith.

I think he was implying Hampshire was at the time - I believe wigan even paid a transfer fee to Hull for him? 5k if I remember rightly.

The Smith brothers though topple all academy records in that respect - and didn't Leeds break the rules by signing Cameron before the rules let them? It'll be interesting to see if either of them develop into first teamers. So many academy superstars fall by the wayside ...

Sounded a good win for the Saints kids in their first outing, and a fantastic opportunity to open for Tonga v Cook Islands - all it can do is enhance our rep.