HIS dad may not have been playing for Bradford Bulls over the weekend, as he continues his recovery from a dislocated thumb, but George Flanagan Jr was in action, for Yorkshire against Lancashire no less.

The teenage Flanagan was selected to start at full-back against the Red Rose, in the first of three Academy Origin games between the two rivals.

Flanagan had been selected by Yorkshire head coach Chev Walker alongside his Bulls team-mates Bailey Arnold and Myles Lawford, but the latter two did not make the final cut for the 17-man matchday squad.

And in a high-scoring encounter at the DCBL Stadium in Widnes yesterday, Flanagan and his Yorkshire team-mates slid to a 56-34 defeat.

Hull winger Lewis Martin scored a second-half hat-trick for Yorkshire, but Lancashire ran in 10 tries, including a treble of their own from Junior Nsemba, to secure an easy win.

After the game, Yorkshire head coach Walker said: “We’ve only had a couple of games together, and I’ve now more of a picture of where my players are.

“They’ve worked hard in camp and today, but they’ve also shown that they are not quite ready for the next level.

“The intensity is greater at this level and the fitness needs to match. We ran out of gas.

“There’s no question about talent and when we strung sets together we showed that we can score points.

“We’ll be better for this.”

The next game in the Origin series is at Salford’s AJ Bell Stadium on June 26, with the final match of the series on July 24 at Wakefield.