TEENAGE rugby starlet George Elliott has the qualities to go all the way to the top.

That's the opinion of York rugby league legend Richie Hayes, who coached the 16-year-old at junior club New Earswick All Blacks ARLC.

Elliott has the chance to hit the big time in either code of the game, having played internationally at under-16s level in both league and union, and having signed a dual-code deal with Leeds Rugby.

The Easingwold School pupil agreed to join Guinness Premiership outfit Leeds Carnegie back in September, and he has now put pen to paper on a two-and-a-half-year dual-code contract after linking up with Super League champions Leeds Rhinos.

Hayes, the former York Wasps and York City Knights prop, who coaches All Blacks under-17s, said: "He really is a talented kid.

"He can go all the way, without a doubt. He's got fantastic feet, speed, strength, good hands, good awareness, and he's a good lad with a good attitude towards training.

"It speaks volumes, the fact he's signed over there at such a young age. He's the real deal.

"I think we will definitely see George Elliott playing for Great Britain or England. I hope so anyway.

"He would do well in either code. I really think he will go far in whatever code he decides."

Elliott, a centre, started out in union at the age of 13 with his school and with York RUFC. He started playing league aged 15, and now has no preference which code he ends up in.

"Sometimes I prefer rugby union and hate rugby league, and sometimes it's the other way around. It depends on how I've played," said the teenager, who is the son of the late former York Wasps chief executive Phil Elliott.

"I began playing league to boost my fitness for rugby union, but I liked it and so I thought I could play that as well.

"My goal now is to see if I can turn professional in one code or the other and, by the age of 18 or 19, be in the first team."

Elliott, of Easingwold, has represented North Yorkshire and Yorkshire in league, and North Yorkshire, Yorkshire and North of England in union.

He is now an under-16s England international in both codes, while his rugby playing ability has also won him a sixth-form scholarship at Giggleswick School.

Elliott added: "If I could be professional in both codes I would do, but these days people go to do one or the other. I'll just have to see how it goes."

Another Carnegie player, Chris McTurk, a pupil at St Peter's School, York, is also in the England U16s squad.