Terrible conditions, after six mins there have been several handling errors. Sculthorpe puts Wigan ahead but KR starting to put something together. Good defence from Wigan.

Ah summer rugby. The knockonathon continues. The wind is with KR in the first half. The big lads are being called on up the middle. 15 in and Escare still has a clean kit.

Good passage of play with Escare putting Halsall free on the left. When he surrendered to stay in play the inside ball was put down by McDonald, a player who impressed me.
A complex passing move opens up K R but Morgan drops it. Manfred drops a high ball directly back towards his posts but knock on given. K R lose the ball just short and Halsall goes 60m but finally nothing comes from it.

With the wind KR usually able to take the pressure off but signs of the Wigan forwards taking charge however K R scrambling well. Kilner on and looking strong. The problem is that so many sets and up in a knock on. Manfred is eager but virtually every player is having to play like a prop. As soon as any player gets near touch they are in danger of sliding over.
On 37 Shorrocks goes over. He always looks strong at this level. Pierce-Paul on and continuing to develop well.

Can’t say I’m gutted I’ve decided to watch it from home, the conditions look terrible. It’s not a pretty game to watch but it’s a good opportunity to get guys like Manfredi and Escare back in match shape. I agree on Ben Kilner, he looks a really tough and uncomplicated forward. He’s as ready if not more so for a first team crack as guys like Havard and Byrne. All three look really strong and it’s exciting to have those guys coming through.

Pearce-Paul looks strong as well.

On the downside Greenwood looks slow and sluggish and looks like he'd rather be literally anywhere else.

After 55 Wigan go 22-0 up. Pretty dominant in poor conditions. It is a day for going through the tackles and getting a good kick in. With the wind we can take kick meters easily.

61 Rivers sin binned for a tackle on Kilner. Escape runs the width of the pitch twice and we knock on the pass.

63. Shortcuts outs Pierce-Paul through on half way, he draws the full back and Estate scores.
Half of the tackles come about because of players slipping over. Look on the bright side, at least it is warming and wet rather than real winter weather.

71. Hull K R get on the score sheet. A good chip into the wind holds up allowing the winger to run into it.

I have only just realised that Greenwood was playing and he is still very clean.

In the last seconds Greenwood makes a charge towards the line and softly loses control. He did not look interested. Final score 28-4. Senior players did not look as good as the youngsters today. I do not think that they have played themselves into contention ahead of the likes of Havard and Kilner

Wasn’t just me thinking that then. In the last five mins he knocked on twice and one incident summed up his willingness to be there with about 2 mins left. HKR dropped the ball about 40 metres from their line and Greenwood had broken field to run in to if he could be bothered to pick the ball up but he instead just decided to hoof the ball away. No player with a desire to impress would do that.

He can’t and won’t be picked next week on the back of that. I had him in the bench in my team but I’d put Jack Wells in now. He was eager to get involved, took numerous tough carries, made an excellent break in the second half and got through loads of work in defence.

I just don’t see a long term future for Greenwood at Wigan.

He sadly just seems to lack the heart and toughness to succeed.

I assume he will be on a decent wage as well.

All the physical gifts to be a cracking player but simply won’t be unless there is a significant improvement in his mental approach to the game.

Bitterly disappointing if he can't get his act together, that first spell with us before he started picking up the concussions was everything we've been crying out for, a big, fast off-loading back rower.

It’s a frustrating situation because Wane got enough out of him. He looks like a guy who happens to be good at rugby because of his size and athletic ability but doesn’t love the game. I look at guys like Isa and Partington who’d love that size but aren’t the biggest but they build careers on sheer guts and desire.

How long left on his contract? I think with our new breed of youth coming through we need to be really ruthless when it comes to contract extensions. Players like Greenwood, Escare, Navarette need to be let go. No room for sentiment for even Ben Flower I'm afraid. "It's always another week....."

I'm still disappointed we extended Clubb, 12 months extension would have been better if only to bring the young lads through, but two years? We may live to regret that, definitely not getting value for money.

We need a pack that can get us 50,60 metres up the field, have that and we have a back line that can beat anyone

We have got as good a set of young forwards going through at the same time as I can remember but we do not have a senior set capable of providing them with the support to make a comfortable transition. You just cannot play them all in the first x111.

You’d have thought Greenwood would come out all guns blazing if he had anything about him, perhaps a change of clubs is what’s needed. What we need is a big offloading second rower, someone like Mike McMeekin or an out of favour NRL Polynesian player.

Does anyone think Manfredi has done enough to force his way in to the 1st team next week

It was exceptionally tough conditions but he made a few uncharacteristic errors I thought. He looked rusty and it was an error strewn match but it’ll stand him in good stead.

I’d probably give him another game or two in the reserves.

Terrible conditions so hard to judge but Kilner looked good and took his try well

I could only watch the first 20 minutes which was a bit scrappy but still enjoyable
How did Wells go?
Did Rushton get a run out?

Thought Wells got better as the game went on. He was still smashing the ball up late in the game and made plenty of ground. I couldn’t help but laugh towards the end of the game looking at Wells flying in, with just his eyeballs not covered in mud, whilst Joe Greenwood couldn’t be bothered to bend his back and pick a loose ball up (instead just kicking it away), all whilst having a kit still looking reasonably clean. It was a pretty damming performance from Greenwood today.

As for Rushton, he got the last twenty or so. One or two decent carries but he didn’t have long to make an impact. He’s another big lad who should have a good future here.

Thanks NK
I really do hope that Wells gets a few first team games this season. People quite rightly go on about Manfredi and his bad luck with injuries but Wells has had a lot of bad luck too.
Rushton is the lad who I can see being a really top player.

We have some fantastic potential coming through