Warrington coach Steve Price has put a focus on the importance of providing pathways for the sport’s upcoming talent following the Wolves’ narrow defeat to Salford.
Price handed debuts to four players while the likes of Ellis Longstaff, Ellis Robson, Riley Dean, Keanan Brand, Josh Thewlis, Samy Kibula and Eribe Doro were all given rare opportunities to impress.
But impress they did as they lost narrowly to the Red Devils, with Krisnan Inu’s late penalty goal seeing them go down 20-18.
However, with reserve grade and both the Championship and League 1 cancelled this year, opportunities to play are currently sparse.
There has been no confirmation of reserve grade’s return next year but Price said support to young talent is crucial.
“It’s just unfortunate that the game has gone down this path with the pandemic and the reserve grade system,” he said.
“They need to be playing regular football, if you look at the other side of the world they’re in the same position too.
“We try to simulate game scenarios as much as we can in training. We go on metrics of 115, 118 metres per minute at a top rate. I’m not quite sure what the metrics were tonight but I thought a lot of guys held their own tonight when we needed to be in those type of scenarios.
“We put them in those situations as much as we can but it’s nothing like a game day.
“I don’t know the definite (answer) to be honest but they need to be playing rugby league. They need to be playing week in, week out, whether that’s in Championship or reserve grade.
“I don’t know the correct answer there, but they definitely need to be playing.”
