Although this is becoming a Sammy Kibula thread I will throw my tuppence worth in. Sammy is a fabulously talented player. He has played in front and second row as well as in the centres. He has great hands as he showed in the Wakey game. The big worry is in managing the development of that massive frame. He is never going to play very long minutes with that size. Wether he makes it may depend on how the coaches manages the change of puppy day to muscle and how his general fitness comes on. At the moment he is bullying lads with his size, that will not happen in the reserves or first team.

Strange how things turn out isn't it? IMO if he had stayed we would never have signed Escaré.

It'll always be a massive transition to first team for a big lad like that because as you say he's not going to be able to physically bully teams anymore.

The best opppsition forward I ever say at junior level was Ryan Bailey! I'm sure he got about 4 or 5 try's in one game and opposition teams just couldn't handle him. Fast forward to first team level and he's a nobody. He's easily handled so basically goes down the route of being a trouble maker with an exceptionallly limited ability to damage teams in the right ways.

I'm sure young Kibula would love all Ryan Baileys medals but he's a prime example of a junior beast who couldn't do the same things at first team level.

Looks a special talent to me Kibula.

I watched the U19 game yesterday. Kibula was great, and I thought Joe Shorrocks looked a likely lad, he got through an enormous amount of work. Is he Jake's brother?

Don't think so. At the Saints game the other week Lee Briers and Tommy Martyn were sat behind us and were discussing him, was an excellent footballer by all accounts. (Round ball version)

Nope, no relation. Agree he's an excellent prospect, though, as are many of the young lads. I expect to see a lot of them make the breakthrough into the first team squad in the next few years.

Bailey wasn't a nobody in his early years, in fact he was very good around 2003-2004 and deservedly played for GB. His problem came when we signed Peacock and Leuluai and instead of fighting to be a starter he happily accepted being a sub. You'd still get some games when he showed what he could do if he put his mind to it and one particular game vs Saints when Peacock was missing so Bailey started and he was brilliant. If he had the heart and drive of Peacock or JJB he could've been extremely good at SL level.

He was a nobody in comparison to his junior days is what I'm getting at. At academy level he was barn storming all over teams and they just couldn't contain him (much like Sammy Kibula).

Even at his best, which as you point out was when he played a test or two for GB (One I was at against the Aussies at the DW iirc), he wasn't anything like a destructive runner. A solid, workmanlike prop who liked to stir the pot but anything but barn storming. I've rarely seen a prop over his full career be as easy to handle.

Compared to his junior days he was chalk and cheese.

No player is a certainty to make it at Super League level, and sometimes the ones you expect to make it big never do (Hampshire could end up being one of those unless things improve), whereas some who weren't expected to do much end up being much better than expected.

Sammy Kibula has a lot going for him at the moment but there is always that question of how well he'll do against bigger players. Iain Thornley used to practically bully players at academy level and looked an absolute beast at times. In Super League he looks like a run of the mill centre.

At the moment we don't really know how well he will cope with players running at him and trying to target him. It practically never happens in the under 19's. That's hardly surprising given his size and power compared to most of the players he plays against. But stick him in a Super League game against a team like Leeds and you'd bet Burrow would be running at him all night. The only way anyone will see how he fares is when he makes the step up, but he's not ready for that just yet.

Fitness may be an issue. He does seem to tire when teams make him move around a lot in defence. However, he's been playing increased minutes in the last few games, up to 55 minutes at times, and they get him taking a couple of carries per set so they look to be pushing him a bit more.

There's an awful lot to be positive about though. Not every big player is slow and ponderous and Kibula looks quite athletic and there are ways to improve mobility. He's quicker than he looks, has good footwork and his handling is very impressive. He's a player who has plenty to work on but it's definitely worth giving him time and patience because he could be a real star player.

However, to bring this back to the original topic - Hampshire? Just let it go. It didn't work out for us despite all the promise and he's not exactly been a huge success at Cas or Leigh. If we were looking to bring someone in I'd hope it was someone with a bit more experience. Why bring in a young player who's yet to convince when we're already packing the team with youngsters as it is?

Lots of comments here saying that Sammy is some way off being ready for SL rugby, which is fair enough at his age.

Any chance of him making it into the 17 against Swinton given our ridiculous injury problems?

I doubt it. The U19's have a big game on Saturday v Cas at Orrell (k.o. 2 p.m.) That's 1st v 2nd.

I remember a lad from my age group (u16's around 2005) called Gerry Bridge, was on Wigan's books for a while as a junior and was an absolute beast at amateur level. The scariest thing I ever did was to try and tackle him. I retired not long after that!

But same story with him, just bullied his way through the younger age groups but ultimately struggled when everyone else caught up to him physically.

So who is next in line to make the step up? Will it interfere with their exams?

Shouldn't think so, it'll be a while before the 11+ is back up and running.