Closer to home, Littleborough rugby club's rising talent and future stars are embarking on the next steps towards their dreams of playing professional rugby and maybe one day adorning a country cap.

The youngsters all of whom have been breeded in the vibrant and progressive Littleborough mini and junior programme have excelled in their age group and been worthy of attention from the professional clubs in the North including the likes of Sale Sharks and Huddersfield.

Sale Sharks have particularly taken an interest in a number of Littleborough young stars within the boy age groups through it's Development Player Pathway. The DPP runs from October till May and ranges from Under 13 level up to Under 16 age group. At Under 15 level across the 7 sites (Lancashire and Cheshire) the trial stage had approx 600 boys nominated in October, then from that approximately 375 boys were selected into the DPP programme. At that age group, Littleborough's representatives were brothers Jack and Sam Bennetta, Christian Brookes, Tom Mills and Matty Gibson.

In January, only 45 boys were selected/invited into Sale Sharks Academy. This included 2 from Littleborough in Sam Bennetta and Thomas Mills. These boys have enjoyed a storming season that has seen them score more than 10+ tries and are well deserving of their place.

Littleborough had further exposure at the earlier stages of the programme in the younger age groups as well as Bradley Chrimes, Ben Crabtree, Thomas Kelly from the Under 14's were selected while in the Under 13 category Sam Deacon, Billy Blake, Joe Deegan, Bailey Howarth, Riley Keegan were all nominated onto the first stage.

Within the promising junior colts setup at Rakewood, there are a number of diamonds that are being unearthed. David Mills and Charlie Sutcliffe are currently on the books at Super League and Challenge Cup runners up Warrington Wolves. Playing at prop or second row and centre respectively, the youngsters will be donning the yellow and blue rather than yellow and green of Littleborough on the 6th March as they kick off the brand new league season against Hull FC academy.

For David Mills, he also has to contend with the decision as to which code he picks as he was also selected on the Sale Sharks development player pathway and Lancashire County squad for 2 games against Yorkshire and Cheshire.

Starring in the game at Keighley in February for the county against Yorkshire, David certainly demonstrated the quality he has in abundance and will go on to be a real asset in either code of the sport.

Mr Mills is not the only one catching the eye of county selectors either as Robbie Nolan and Ben Stott have in the past 2 weeks been selected on the Wider Development Squad to commence a 2-year journey with this age-group through to North U18's and England Counties U18's next season.

This is a fantastic achievement for the two youngsters who have undoubted skill and technique to excel at that level and progress further under the tutelage of not only brilliant Littleborough coaches but those at county level also.

While in the girls section, Ben is not the only Stott with the potential to have a chance of making it professional as Erin Stott, who turns 16 in a months time has been selected in Rugby league side Huddersfield Giants' senior ladies squad alongside Great Britain internationals. Huddersfield Giants Women are currently in the midst of preseason before the Championship season commences on Sunday April 7th.

Erin like David Mills is finding herself having to pick between the two codes as she as been training with ladies rugby union Premier 15's side Firwood Waterloo as well as being selected for Lancashire at Under 18 age group alongside her Littleborough captain Georgia Turner.

Last Sunday saw them add to their county caps with appearances against Cheshire and Yorkshire. In the first match at Doncaster Knights Castle Park ground, Lancashire convincing beat Cheshire 27 points to nil before narrowly losing a roses clash to Yorkshire by a close 5 nil scoreline.

In the below age group, Littleborough had a record 6 representatives selected for a place in the Lancashire Under 15's squad, where the likes of Ellie Overton, Ellie Fitzgerald, Morgan Pearson, Kirsty Bella and Tilda Robinson-Burgess joined captain and county regular Courtney Mills for matches against Cheshire, Yorkshire and Northumbria.

Unfortunately, there were some players at both Under 18 and 15 level for Littleborough that were unlucky not to have been selected in the squad and will in no doubt be in and amongst the selection again come the next audition. All of whom represented the club in an incredibly positive light.

These were Chloe Boardman, Maisie Webb, Nayab Malik, Imogen Moules, Megan Greenwood and Grace Shepherd at Under 18 level, while in the Under 15 category: Ella Fearnley, Kiera Boardman, Molly Yates, Ebony Clegg and Amy Perren all trialled.