Great to see youth given its chance this week in Super League – Luke Gale

I didn’t get to watch the whole game, because of problems with the live stream, but from what I did see, our young kids did a great job.

You’re never happy with a loss, but it was a game when we weren’t really bothered about the scoreline; it was more about how they went out and how they went about their business.

I thought in that regard, they were great.

Towards the end they were still mixing it and working hard for each other and I think Catalans had to earn their tries.

There was probably only one, in their 34-6 win, which you’d be disappointed with.

The boys can hold their heads up high and should be proud of their effort – as I am sure their parents and families are.

I remember my debut, against Wigan and I know these boys will as well.

If Liam Tindall had scored, after his amazing run, it would have been the highlight of the season, but to be fair, he does that in training.

He is a bit of a machine, so one to watch out for – but so are Muizz Mustapha, Sam Walters and in fact everybody who played in that game.

I think it will be the first of many for a lot of them.

The potential is real, I see that every day at training.

We can put two 13s out and the 13 who plays you is a great side. The important thing is if, down the line, we have injuries or Rich Agar needs to put them in, we know we can rely on these young lads.

I watched the Warrington and Wigan games earlier in the week and their kids were great as well. It has been quite refreshing.

It was tough for the Wigan youngsters against a full-strength St Helens, who were ruthless, but Warrington’s youngsters were excellent and could have won against Salford, so I think the future is bright for the whole game.

But we need to get these lads playing, week in and week out.

They are too good not to and if we don’t let them play we are going to lose them.

They need to be playing to develop into top-class players, but some of our lads on Wednesday hadn’t played in months.

We need to get the academy sorted or find a way for them to play in the Championship.

So on to tomorrow and the Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan. We have our team run today and so far preparations have gone great, it has been a good week, if a bit of a strange one.

We have had two teams so it has been a bit different, but we are used to that now and it is exciting.

Most of the preparations are set and we are ready for the weekend.

It’s the biggest week of the year so far and these are the games you want to play in.

For me personally, it is a big one. As I mentioned in my last column, I’ve never played in a Challenge Cup semi-final so I can’t wait.

This is what I signed for Leeds to do, play in the big games.

It is a big stage and I love playing on a big stage. It’s disappointing there won’t be a crowd, but that’s something we’ve got to grips with now and it is still a semi-final, 80 minutes away from Wembley.

Every professional wants to play in these games, you go to bed at night a little bit more excited and with a few more nerves.

It is obviously going to be a tough game against a very good Wigan team, but we are in decent shape.

Our performances have been improving and Rich has nearly a full-strength squad to choose from so I think we can go into it quietly confident.

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