On the back of the slightly cringe-worthy piece by Phil Clarke on Sky just now, I am interested to know of the last 10 years of Super League (2003 onwards), how many Grand Final winners played for Wigan amateur clubs or Wigan Youth as juniors. Also how does this compare to other areas of the country?



Clarke's point for those who missed it was that Wigan produce more talented players than anywhere else.



I will start with the easy one, the Wigan side who won the 2010 Grand Final, I make that one 8:



S Tomkins

J Tomkins

D Goulding

P Deacon

M McIlorum

S O'Loughlin

P Prescott

L Farrell

From a Wigan fan, that segment was unbelievably cringey.

Isn't Mcllorum a Leeds lad? And S Tompkins played for Crosfields in Warrington before going to Wigan St Patricks for a year before being signed up.

Right you are, McIlorum is from Leeds, I think they signed him from Stanningley. I remember S Tomkins being at the Pats first but he didn't get a game as that was a very strong side at that age group, so it is possible that he then went over to Crosfields but I'm not sure on that one.

Not quite a pointless thread but the answer is pretty obvious...why. Well it always has been thus.

The Wigan area (not just the town but the Metroplitain area circa 300k pop) has always been the biggest hotbed for rugby players, I think socio-historic reasons is the main determining factor along with economic & geographic location in that order.

It is extremely deep rooted in the surroundings and culturally has been very important to the area far more than soccer, deffo more so than anywhere else, certainly factors as to why RL hasn't/won't take off in London.

Leeds/West Yorkshire is probably not far shy numerically however with Leeds(& Bradford) having a far greater condensed (& generally bigger ) population that skews it somewhat.

Sean long

Martin gleeson

Mike forshaw

Chris joynt

Harrison Hanson

Signed from Folly Lane (Salford) at 17

Years old played town team rugby for Salford too.

Oldham chris joint isn't he

And yet the OP said who played for Wigan youths, Hansen clearly did! Played at least 2 seasons in the academy.