Yorkshire Rugby

I can confirm Pock 2s and Selby 2s were originally in Y2.
From a Pock perspective, it would of being a bigger step up than Y3A. The 2nd teams in that league bar Malton ( who blow most teams away last season and rightly deserve to be in Y2) have being in the merit premiership for some time and are a lil class above. Onions did drop down leagues but easily won it and went back up.

Sorry Flaggy, that was a typo in my last post - it's Northallerton in Y2A, not their twos.

I knew that. Only having a bit of banter. Sincerely hope all you gents at Ripon have summered well and PLEASE pass on my personal best regards to ANDY Proud. He is, as your goodself, held in high regard by us lads at North Ribb.

Too kind Flaggy. I didn't want to set hares running, or upset the shiny one!

I certainly will pass on regards thanks. 

Sorry if I missed something but has there been official notification on which players are eligible to play in the leagues at first and second team level. Is it just open registration within a club or are there restrictions?

Great question JND!

There is much official blurb flying around regarding player registration for 1st and 2nd XVs and what's included/excluded from eligibility. If in one of the Counties 2 leagues, contact Peter Morgan for details.

Essentially, despite some semblance of order about how you manage two effectively separate squads, clubs will be expected to self-police things. Not sure how that'll work in reality, but if everyone takes a sporting position what could possibly go wrong?

Morning all.

Have we had clarification in relation to the promotion and relegation picture for the upcoming season yet?

Of course not. In a meeting with Peter Morgan and county chair Ian Connell I was told it would be managed through GMS, but at that time no details were forthcoming. Clear as mud as usual. Maybe some clairvoyant with a crystal ball could give you details. Its that clear. Lets see but I can see a situation where a lad plays lets say six games in the first xv early season. Gets dropped to the seconds and then in an injury crisis gets picked for the first XV but is unable to play due to not thought out rules. Lets see but I can see choppy waters ahead for some including us who dont ahve two squads but merely a group of players who want to play rugby.

Surely it should be a step up scenario. First 15s name 30 players then anyone extra who steps up to first team more than 5 (or whatever) amount of times is classed as a first teamer. No named first teamers should be stepping down in my opinion.

Quote from: Dropped It on Jul 26, 2026, 05:18 PMSurely it should be a step up scenario. First 15s name 30 players then anyone extra who steps up to first team more than 5 (or whatever) amount of times is classed as a first teamer. No named first teamers should be stepping down in my opinion.

So a named 1st team player gets injured on the 5th game of the season, misses the next 5 or so games. What happens to this player? Straight back to the 1st team when not match fit? Drops down to 3rd team to get fitness (for those that have a 3rd team)?

Or simply is not allowed to play any rugby for those clubs that dont have a third team. Complete madness. The whole point of introducing second XVs into the system was to help retain players. Not to exclude them for being fringe players in a first team squad.

How do you stop first teamers being shifted into a 2nd team when there's a gap in the fixtures for the firsts and seconds are short a player or two or doing badly in the league? How's that fair on teams that can't rely on national league first team to bring players in from?

I offered an opinion to keep it fair to the teams that were in Y2 before the second teams were allowed in. I really don't care about injured national league players in clubs which say they can field two full teams all season..... until they can't. I do care about the teams that were already in those leagues potentially getting pumped every week losing players to those bigger teams and dropping out the leagues.

Look at it from the other side of the argument. A 1st gets a number of injuries, the better 2nd team players will be called up.

Those 1st teams that were already in the league aren't going to be losing their better players week after week to sit in the bench for another side.

So it works both ways.

Can see the arguement for when the 1st XV doesn't have a fixture, that's when some management needs to come into play. But if the 1st and 2nd team are playing on the same weekend then the club should be able to select whichever players they want for each side.

I feel that's a fair argument for a merit league 2nd team. Not for a league squad.

Let's not forget this whole thing is only beneficial for the big club 2nd teams not the small club 1st.

We get the same amount of games as we did before. We're not getting extra fixtures to raise more money for the club in this league. We don't know how promotion looks but if it's one from each side of Y2 leagues, it makes it twice as hard to be promoted but just as easy as last season to be demoted.

Seems there's lots going for the big teams being gifted access into Y2 (not having to be promoted into Y2 by winning Y4&3) pushing more players into those clubs on the promise of playing higher levels. I feel that something needs to be done to protect the integrity of the league and give more of a level playing field to those original Yorkshire 2 teams.

I only gave my opinion on how it may be done fairly as I see it. Feel free to disagree. But something does need doing.

Well said Dropper Man,
                       We were promised (I was personally by county chair Ian Connell in a meeting) that  the main reason for allowing 2nd XVs into the system was to increase leagues to 14 to assist sustainability. That seemes to have been forgotten/ swept aside and one of the new lwagues actually has only 11 teams. Ten games at home in a season seems to me to be a huge backwards step.