HOW good was it to see Jonny Lomax make a big impression on his return to Saints first team.

And it probably helped that the week before he took his first tentative steps back into a competitive rugby league match in the reserve grade the week before.

Once again the reserve grade showed its value in being the perfect place for players to get a feel for contact, rather than being tipped into the deep end.

But that is just one of many values to the reserve competition.

A look down the Saints Reserves teamsheet also showed Travis Burns, currently being overlooked for Theo Fages at number six in the first team.

I am sure he wants to be playing at a higher level, but at least he is playing, which is more than could have been said for someone like Lance Hohaia in the spells of his career at Saints when he was not picked.

If an overseas player is out of favour, out of form or returning from injury then there was nowhere for him to play prior to the setting up of this reserves comp.

And at the other end of the age spectrum we have Welsh flier Regan Grace and centre partner and compatriot Calvin Wellington who are both learning their trade alongside a host of other youngsters.

Among those juniors taking tentative steps up, playing against more physically mature players, we also see half back Danny Richardson show what a smart footballer he is developing into.

The beauty of the reserves, ahead of the Dual Registration system, is that a club like Saints can keep control of who plays where and how they are played.

It must irk fans of Championship club when they hear talk that player so-and-so, who has been dropped this week WILL play for them this week. I am sure there is give and take on that.

But given the unusually fluid situation, given the middle eights, promotion and Challenge Cup games it means that the Super league now collides more frequently with the tiers below.

No longer is the top flight aloof in splendid isolation – and four of those teams will find just all about that come August.

Although it is far- fetched, imagine if a Super League club contributed to their own downfall by loaning out players to a club that would become its rival.

Keep loans, but for me dual reg should have been axed and it should have been made mandatory for all top flight clubs to run a reserves.

It should be a natural pathway from the junior academy to the first team, a final bridge to the Super League.

Look at the advantages it gives, especially to clubs who can monitor the development of forwards into physical maturity rather than making a guess at the age of 19 and then having nowhere to play them for a couple of seasons.

Nobody wants to go back to the old A team when players, often in their late 20s, were stockpiled and that put a block on juniors coming through.

But Eric Hughes got rid of that at Saints and gave youth its head – and the club have been good at pushing the juniors through at this level ever since.

Surely reserves is the way to go for the whole comp – and one that should be endorsed by the governing body.