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Role Models for Tomorrows Stars

Young Rugby League players from the South Yorkshire area with ambitions to play the game professionally were given a boost recently as three local young players made their first team debuts in the professional ranks.

 

The players Eddie Battye (Sheffield Eagles) and Doncaster duo Craig Holt (former Trinity Student) and Lee Parnell are the first players to emerge from the South Yorkshire Service Area since it was re-formed in 2006.  Doncaster RL Chief Executive Dave Marshall added  ‘The Service Area plays a vital role in the development of rugby league across South Yorkshire.  We’re entering our 4th year since it was re-established and each year the programme has improved.  Our club is delighted for both Lee Parnell and Craig Holt who are both over the moon about making their full-professional debuts for their home town team, with both being from Doncaster.  Service Area provided both players with an opportunity to perform within a performance squad and also progress on the rugby league pathway’

 

It is anticipated that a host of other young players will emerge in the next couple as years as more and more young player’s progress from the service area onto the books of the areas two pro clubs who both run scholarship progarmmes for promising young players. Sheffield Eagles Head of Youth Performance Dean Thomas added ‘ Eddie is the first young player to come through the service area and onto the clubs youth performance system. Further to this Dan Hawksworth would have also made is debut last year but was held back by a knee injury. The hope is for more players who are on the clubs books to progress through our scholarship and academy systems and one day for the club to field a side made of local young players’

 

South Yorkshire Rugby League Development Officer Darren Higgins added ‘ we have seen a significant increase in the amount of young players we have playing the game in the last 3 – 4 years and standards are also improving. Last year 10 local young players went on to attend RFL performance camps during the summer having been identified by RFL performance analysts as being among the most promising young players in the county. The systems and structures we have in place now will hopefully result in more young players progressing into the professional game joining the likes of Eddie, Craig & Lee’

 

For more information about junior Rugby League in the South Yorkshire Area contact Darren Higgins on 01226 203509 or email Daz.higgins@tiscali.co.uk