Morgan wants to substitute replacement rules (From Ilkley Gazette)

Morgan wants to substitute replacement rules

10:42am Thursday 20th September 2012 in Sport

llkley coach Rhys Morgan would like to see teams able to use more than three replacements in Yorkshire Division One matches.

He believes it would give clubs the opportunity to blood more players and enable them to make greater use of their squads.

Morgan, who saw his men defeat Driffield 23-10 away last Saturday, has a plethora of players competing for first team places and feels that having allowing more replacements would give clubs the opportunity to give fringe players valuable game time.

He said: “The current rules make it hard for you to bring somebody in to see what they can do. You always have an eye on possible injuries.

“We had a situation last Saturday where one of our substitutes Sam Boot pulled a hamstring in the warm up.

“We were left with no cover for the back division. Thankfully we didn’t have any further injury problems, but it showed up why having more replacements would be beneficial.”

Morgan has Mark Kirkby, fit-again Alastair Monks and Nathan Bland pushing for inclusion this Saturday for the home game with Heath.

“It’s a nice position to be in,” said Morgan, “especially as the team is playing well.”

Ilkley’s assistant coach Neil Spence has left the club. Senior players Ollie Renton and Iain McKenzie are helping with training the forwards.

“We have leaders throughout our team and they all have something to contribute.”