Debating this on twitter. Basically the Championship 1 attendances are dire and the Under 20s comp is pretty poor standard I think so I was suggesting this as an idea to improve both standards....



Championship



Barrow

Batley

Dewsbury

Featherstone

Halifax

Hunslet

Leigh

Sheffield

Toulouse

Widnes

Widnes

York



=#FF0000Team Finishing Bottom is Relegated.



League 1 (Based on 2010 Table Finishes)



Hunslet

York

Whitehaven

Keighley

Oldham

Rochdale

Warrington U20s

St Helens U20s

Wigan U20s

Hull FC U20s

Huddersfield U20s

Bradford U20s



They would compete against each other but technically be competing on two different levels.



They would compete but technically competing on two different levels. The Under 20s sides CANNOT be promoted but the highest played side would be declared Under 20s champions.

=#FF0000The best Semi-Pro side gets promoted regardless of their position, being replaced the year after by the relegated championship side.

=#0000FFAlso the worst semi-pro side and the two worst Under 20s sides get relegated to the New League 2 at the end of the season (regardless of end finish position).



New League 2 (Based on 2010 Table Finishes)



Swinton

Doncaster

London Skolars

Gateshead Thunder

South Wales

Salford U20s

Leeds U20s

Castleford U20s

Hull KR U20s

Harlequins U20s



=#0000FFThe Best Semi Pro side and the two best Under 20s sides would go up at the end of the season replaced by the worst equivalents from League 1.



I think that would work well. Leeds, Cas, Hull KR all have great youth systems and would be desperate for promotion whilst even Wigan, Warrington and Saints in League 1 would have to considering possible relegation. I think all the sides would have to battle every single week for something.



Similar the semi pro sides I reckon would all get attendance boosts from even playing Super League Under 20s sides. I reckon Wigan would have a 2,000 at least (good crowds for that standard of rugby) playing Oldham or Rochdale on a Sunday afternoon at Orrell. And to make it fair I'd make it that ALL gate reciepts home or away were shared. Even Leeds in New League 2 would take a few fans on a Sunday to places like Gateshead or South Wales, probably better than what they get now.



Any thoughts?

Seems to work for football on the continent, don't see why it wouldn't work here.

This is largely along the lines of what they do in French football (soccer) and it seems to be a good way of letting second teams find their true level, rather than playing other reserve teams of waywardly varying quality from one week to the next. It means that players coming into the first team are well used to playing competitive fixtures that matter, usually against more partizan crowds than they otherwise would have faced in a true reserve league.



If U20 games were still thrown in free part of a first team season ticket, I'd love to go and see how our U20s (Wigan) get on against teams like Keighley, Oldham, etc, and would probably go to the majority of home games against those sides and maybe even venture to a few aways.



I'd like to see a few more expansion teams in the new League 2 if there's scope for it to grow; maybe the likes of Hemel and Coventry, plus maybe successful heartlands clubs in the tier below like Bramley, Warrington Wizards, as is being discussed in this month's Rugby League World.

Cracking idea. Throw Salford, Crusaders and Wakefield in there with them.

Where's the "like" button?



I've argued for years about the poor overall standard of the U20's comp. You are correct, Wigan would get 2,000 at Orrell for those bigger games, however there would need to be some investment at the ground.



I'm also sure that some Wigan fans would travel away to the likes of Oldham, Swinton, Rochdale etc for a Sunday afternoon game.

Anywhere is better than Wigan I suppose. No wonder why you want to get out of they as much as possible!

No , stupid idea , I expect it to be announced next week

It would have to be reasonably priced following two sides but I'd pay tenner on for a Sunday afternoon match. I mean just looking at the Champ 1 attendances and most of them are about 300odd ish. We'd take at least away on a Sunday to some of these places IF the thing was reasonably priced! A 1,000 attendance paying £10 each must be worth more than 300ish paying whatever they charge and you'd do it so the Semi-Pro side got most of the money because the Super League sides wouldn't really need that cash would they?

Except the fans of the Championship 1 clubs would probably not bother going any more , and neither would your fans after visiting clubs with no home fans , totally stupid idea

It's a good idea on the surface, but the problem is that many Under 20's aspire to be full time SL players whereas many NL1 players don't.



I think it would cause problems.



As for your attendance figures - I don't have the stats to hand but I can't remember the last time I was at a NL1 game and only 300 turned up? Usually for a team like Batley its about 800 - 1200. For teams like Fev/Fax and Widnes it's a lot more.

Time to shut semi pro RL up and walk away!!!

Why would they stop going to watch what in my opinion would be a superior product? And looking at the attendances from last week's league express you could argue they don't really go anyway in Championship 1. The average last weekend was about 400.



Surely Swinton v South Wales can't be more appealing that Swinton v Wigan Under 20s? Likewise for South Wales, playing Leeds Under 20s would inspire me more than playing Swinton!

Look at his leagues.

He is not on about Wigan U20's playing against Fev, Widnes, Batley etc. He mentions them playing the likes of Rochdale, Oldham Keighley etc.

Its predictable that the league one teams' fans would hate this, but when they actually started playing against teams with guenuine stars in them, returning from injury or young future stars, they would see how it could improve both comps and all the players. The U20's lads would gain alot from this, which could only help their progression and therefore eventually the england rl team