Midlands duo join Super League Wildcats
Two players from the Midlands have landed a scholarship with Super League side Wakefield.
Peter Wilson and Zak White, both from Nottingham Outlaws, have spent the last two months on trial at Belle Vue and are products of the Midlands Regional Player Development Centre (RPDC), which only founded last year.
After impressing during the trial period, both players have been now been registered as scholarship players and will go onto represent the club against other Super League giants during the spring scholarship fixture programme.
The progression of these local players follows on from the likes of Northampton duo Dan Brotherton (St Helens) and Will Lovell (Harlequins) experiencing Academy Rugby at Super League level and England Under 18’s representatives Sam Hull (North Derbyshire Chargers) and George Leng, Jack Powley and Callum Corley (all Leicester Storm) signing professional forms with Sheffield Eagles.
In addition to this, England & Great Britain Under 18s representative Ryan Millar (Birmingham Bulldogs) has also caught the attention of London based Super League club Harlequins after coming through the RPDC programme and impressing for the Midlands Under 18’s last year.
Commenting on the progression of the players to the professional game, Midlands Talent & Coaching Manager Martyn Rothwell said “The emergence of the players from the Regional Player Development Centre and the representative structures we now have place in the region is hopefully a sign of things to come.”
“The RPDC programme is very much a long term project, so to see players progress to professional clubs is very encouraging.
“As the RPDC becomes more established and players access more hours of coaching in the player development environment I am sure we will continue to see more and more players progress onto pro clubs which is what the programme aims to do.
“Over the last 12 months we have not only developed the RPDC programme but further developed our representative structures and worked closely with coaches at community club level to give young players in the region the best possible chance to be the best they can be.”