Hull KR 30-16 Widnes Vikings Hull KR: Atkin, Shaw, Crookes, Keinhorst, Hall, McGuire, Drinkwater, Mulhern, Lee, Garbutt, Tomkins, Linnett, Hauraki. Interchanges: Addy, Dagger, Greenwood, Johnson, Rooks, Vaivai, Lannon, Lawler, Masoe, Oakes, Lewis. Tries: Crooks (11), Shaw (25), Hauraki (29), Linnett (35), Vaivai (47), Tomkins (55) Goals: Shaw 1/4, Dagger 2/2 Widnes Vikings: Lloyd Roby, Owen Buckley, Keanan Brand, Chris Dean, Ryan Ince, Jack Owens, Joe Lyons, Jay Chapelhow, Liam Hood, Ted Chapelhow, Sam Wilde, Harrison Hansen, Adam Tangata. Interchanges: Wellington Albert, Jordan Johnstone, MacGraff Leuluai, Brad Walker, Owen Farnworth, Liam Walsh, Sam Freeman, Ben Davies, Joe Edge, Lewis Else, Ollie Brookes, Dom Speakman (T). Tries: J. Chapelhow (4), Hansen (17, 40) Goals: Owens 2/3 Full match report (links to Widnes Vikings website) www.widnesvikings.co.uk/news/art ... es-vikings

Hull KR 30-16 Widnes Vikings Hull KR: Atkin, Shaw, Crookes, Keinhorst, Hall, McGuire, Drinkwater, Mulhern, Lee, Garbutt, Tomkins, Linnett, Hauraki. Interchanges: Addy, Dagger, Greenwood, Johnson, Rooks, Vaivai, Lannon, Lawler, Masoe, Oakes, Lewis. Tries: Crooks (11), Shaw (25), Hauraki (29), Linnett (35), Vaivai (47), Tomkins (55) Goals: Shaw 1/4, Dagger 2/2 Widnes Vikings: Lloyd Roby, Owen Buckley, Keanan Brand, Chris Dean, Ryan Ince, Jack Owens, Joe Lyons, Jay Chapelhow, Liam Hood, Ted Chapelhow, Sam Wilde, Harrison Hansen, Adam Tangata. Interchanges: Wellington Albert, Jordan Johnstone, MacGraff Leuluai, Brad Walker, Owen Farnworth, Liam Walsh, Sam Freeman, Ben Davies, Joe Edge, Lewis Else, Ollie Brookes, Dom Speakman (T). Tries: J. Chapelhow (4), Hansen (17, 40) Goals: Owens 2/3 Full match report (links to Widnes Vikings website) www.widnesvikings.co.uk/news/art ... es-vikings

Looking at the team sheets the Hull fans should be much happier. Wakey pretty much full strength whilst Hull still missing a few and plenty more youngsters playing.

hull lead 24 - 20 with 6 mins left. wakey won it with a superb solo breakaway try and a last second johnstone effort. really enjoyable game with positives fro both sides. hull had very few first teamers for the second half. Connor was excellent. hicks was over fussy and should have let the sides play more

Starting 9 Wood didn’t play. Ashurst, Tupou, both starting half’s brough Nd Miller and also fifita sat out the second half with some young lads like Crowther and batch playing good minutes through the 80. Fringe players like baldwinson, Reynolds, annakin and Hirst getting good runs. Both teams were testing out their depth. I think it proved useful to both teams but it isn’t any indication to how either clubs season will go.

I found parts a little frustrating from a wakey perspective in that we dropped a lot of ball and gave a number of last tackle penalties away putting ourselves under pressure unnecessarily but there’s things to work on and plenty per season to go yet. I think both coaches will be fairly happy tbh. Looking forward to round 1 I have to say. Should be a good trip out to London and with another 2 friendlies wakey should be ready to hopefully put a marker down.

Think Hull had Griffin, Talanoa, Carlos, Sneyd, Green, Bowden, Manu, Minichiello and Westerman to come back in. Kelly, Fash and Levy went off injured during the game....but thankfully not too bad. Connor played 7 and was very classy

Given the changes on number of interchanges this season I don’t see the idea behind naming 13 subs like you did today and players playing half matches. Get the minutes into them and used to playing longer minutes. Leeds went with 6 subs today and agreed on 6 each on Boxing Day vs Wakey even though Chester went and named 8 and had to be reminded on the day that 2 of those named couldn’t play.

I think the idea is to give them all a run with having a big squad, but with your knowledge of all things Wakey, plus being a coach yourself(be it only armchair) I bow down to your experience

If you want to give them all a run then arrange more friendlies, duh!

Depends on what you want to get out of the game I guess. Hull play Saints next week and I imagine that will be pretty close to the side that will feature in round 1, and maybe with a handful of the youngsters who impressed today getting another chance. I expect the trialist Naulago might get another run as well because Radford seems keen on him. He's new to the game and is raw as you would expect but he is a specimen.

Agree I think both Coaches will be reasonably happy. I think CC will be a little disappointed we were going for that killer pass once too often especially in that first half and let a few soft tries in and seemed to take our foot off the gas a little after the first try that let Hull get into the game far more.

But with 26 players used and all SL tried and tested, I'm really happy with the depth and quality we have this season.

As you say Chester got most of his starting 13 plus Fifita, who came on as the first interchange and like many others didn't come back on. We then moved to Reynolds and Hampshire in the Halves and Hirst, Baldwinson, Huby and King in the front row. We managed to give game time to 8 props while getting good match time as you say into the young lads like Jowitt, Batchelor, and Crowther, plus minutes into squad players like some I've already mentioned plus Arundel & Annakin, so it was a useful game all around.

From CC's interview after the match, he says he's very wary of injuries in these friendlies so didn't give players any longer than they needed and got a good look at certain guys who probably wasn't in his matchday 17/19 but have given him something to think about.

Obviously, with a few weeks to go and a couple more warm-up matches, we'll be looking to sharpen our attack and work on the defense but it's hard to take too much out of a game with so many different bodies on the pitch and so many different combinations tried.

Apparently, according to a couple of the players who were interviewed before the boxing day game, we've been working far more on fitness in the Preseason, much more than any other and as the friendlies & season close in they're spending more time on attack and defensive structures - which I imagine will be similar for all teams.

Like you say it does depend on what each team wants out of the game. In this, both teams probably wanted to just get some minutes into most of their squad. We've got another 2 friendlies, one against Newcastle, which will most likely be a reserve team, unless he feels one or two need more game time. Then we finish off against Hudds, which I imagine will be more like the starting 17 under an 8 man interchange.