Friday 5th March 10

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats coach John Kear says the emergence of a crop of promising youngsters have given him a selection headache ahead of tomorrow’s Engage Super League derby with Huddersfield Giants.

Kear is agonising over whether to recall Ireland’s World Cup winger Damien Blanch, who has recovered from a broken hand and proved his fitness playing for the Under-20s last week.

But the Wildcats boss admits it would be unfair to drop either Aaron Murphy, 21, or Dale Morton 19, who have been outstanding during the Yorkshire club’s impressive start to the season.

“Damien played very well last week,” said Kear. “He showed great leadership qualities and, more importantly for me, he got 80 minutes of tough rugby league under his belt.

“When there is a quality player like that putting his hand up, you’ve got to seriously consider him.

“But it’s a dilemma. If you are looking at players of the season so far, you’d have to say Aaron Murphy has been absolutely outstanding and Dale Morton hasn’t been that far behind.

“It will be really tough to step someone down from the wing position but Damien is a high quality rugby league player and his strike rate is very high.”

Kear has been equally impressed by the impact made by another novice, hooker James Davey, who got his chance against St Helens last week following the departure of Terry Newton, and says there are more gifted youngsters waiting in the wings.

The 20-year-old Davey made his Engage Super League debut 12 months ago when he was an apprentice electrician but has gone full-time with the club this year and is tipped to make the grade.

“I’m really pleased with James,” said Kear. “After the problems we had with Terry leaving the club, everybody asked if we were going to sign another hooker.

“Well James demonstrated in that 40 minutes at St Helens that he is very competent and sits easy at this level. I think he will become an established Super League player during the course of this season.

“We’re very happy with the production line we’ve got. I don’t think Aaron Murphy, Dale Morton, James Davey and Luke George are the last of them.”

Huddersfield, who triumphed 54-6 at Belle Vue last season, are forced to re-shuffle their back division with the loss of captain and inspirational full-back Brett Hodgson.

Giants coach Nathan Brown admits the injury to the 2009 Man of Steel, who damaged ankle ligaments in Sunday’s defeat by Warrington Wolves, is a major blow but he has every confidence in Hodgson’s understudy Leroy Cudjoe, who kicked seven goals and scored one of his side’s 10 tries in the corresponding game last year.

“Leroy makes no secret of the fact he sees himself as the player to fill Brett’s shoes when he calls it a day,” said Brown. “Now he’s got another chance to prove that to us all, which I’m sure he will.

“He did a great job when he stood in for Brett last season, including a top effort when we won at Wakefield so convincingly. He took his limited chances with both hands.”