WARRINGTON Wolves chiefs have warned the RFL that changes to the Super League’s youth structures may lead to a ‘lost generation’ of rugby league players in Britain.

Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith and director of youth development John Bastian are ‘nervous’ that rule changes coming into force from the start of next year will undermine the significant investment made into youth programmes by many clubs, and will result in potential first-graders falling through the cracks that are left between new youth competitions and Super League.

The changes to the existing four-tier structure will scrap individual age group competitions at under 15s, under 16s, under 18s and under 20s levels, combining the under 15s and 16s into a single competition and removing the Valvoline Cup and Academy competitions altogether.

As a result, a new competition will be created for players aged 19 and under, meaning that players aged 20 and over – including first-team players feeling their way back from injury – will be forced to dual register with partner clubs or go out on loan in order to get match time.

“What we have been producing in the last few years, both at our club and at many others, has been very exciting,” said Smith.

“Wolves haven’t made any first-team signings this year because I am keen for some of our young players to act as the new signings for next year.

“So to change that system is risky and I’m nervous that we may lose a generation of players.”

That sentiment is echoed by Bastian, who has spent the last four years developing Wolves’ youth set-up into one of the strongest in Super League, improvements recently justified by the club’s Valvoline Cup Grand Final victory.

“At Warrington we have some marvellous young talent that we hope will be the foundations of our Super League team for maybe 10 years,” he said.

“I think had these changes been brought in earlier on, we would have lost a generation, or at least several of the current generation.

“We will see players slip through the cracks and to a certain extent we have already lost some players to quotas this year.

“Basically we have nowhere to play some of these guys and we have had to let go some, such as Brad Brennan and Bobbie Goulding, that we would have liked to have kept and played in an under 20s competition next year.”

Considering the first-team impact youngsters such as Brad Dwyer, Ben Currie and Rhys Evans made last season, it seems ominous that the club’s control on how young players make their graduation has been affected.

And with the number of players allowed to register with a single partner club restricted to five, it means Wolves will find it difficult to ensure all of their budding talent – including a host of Wolves’ Valvoline Cup winner’s squad like Rhys and Ben Evans, Ben Currie, James Laithwaite, Ryan Shaw and James Mendeika – is getting the match experience necessary to fulfil their potential.

Bastian points to the example of players such as Challenge Cup Final try scorer Tyrone McCarthy and Matty Blythe as players that may well have slipped through the cracks had the changes been brought in several years ago, with forwards particularly susceptible to the fact that youth coaches will have to make earlier calls on whether players will make the grade.

“I am a big fan of patience and time when it comes to developing players, particularly forwards, as young players need time to mature, physically and mentally develop,” he said.

“Blythe and McCarthy are both 24 years old and over the last couple of years we have seen them develop into Super League players.

“But at the age of 19 or 20 they were still a year or two off and that is probably one of the dangers of this new concept.

“Where we used to have four or five years to make a judgement on them to get to first grade, now we have three years, so it has intensified the pressure on everyone involved.”