THE Press Player of the Month for March, Harry Carter, reclaimed his advantage at the top of The Press Player of the Year leaderboard this week.

The diminutive hooker, having by far his best season to date, was rated our man of the match in last week's win over South Wales Scorpions and the prize for that of three player of the year points sent him clear again in the charts.

Second-row Josh Tonks was rated our second-best player, as one of the few who maintained pretty high individual standards in a rather drab second half, so gets two points.

Jordan Crowther might have wasted a try-scoring chance when ignoring winger Austin Buchanan on his outside after a rare second-half break, but he was still also one of the better performers so picks up the remaining point.

Tonks, who departed the action late on last week with a hamstring injury which rules him out of tomorrow's iPro Sport Cup semi-final against Gloucestershire All Golds, was also in fine hard-running form in the bruising Challenge Cup defeat to his former club, Dewsbury Rams, the previous weekend, and was rated our third-best performer that night (1pt).

Also putting in an excellent shift against his former club, Austin Buchanan was rated our second-best player (2pts) behind our man-of-the-match Mark Applegarth (3pts).

We also need to update the player of the year leaderboard from the previous match at Hemel Stags.

Kriss Brining was our star man (3pts) that day thanks to his second hat-trick on Hemel's Pennine Way pitch in as many visits, and the free-scoring hooker, not before time, jumps into this year's charts.

Crowther was deemed our second best that day (2pts), coming into his own during his loan from Wakefield, while it was a toss-up for the remainder, Wilkinson (1pt) getting the nod courtesy of his try brace. That point had put him level, for a fortnight, with Carter at the top of the standings.

The Press Player of the Year leaderboard: Carter 11pts, Wilkinson 8, E Smith 5, Spiers 4, Emmett 3, Brining 3, Presley 3, Nicklas 3, Turner 3, Applegarth 3, Tonks 3, Crowther 3, Morland 2, Buchanan 2, Mallinder 1.

DON'T forget it is Player of the Month time after tomorrow's iPro Sport Cup clash with Gloucestershire All Golds.

Get your votes in by emailing peter.martini@thepress.co.uk.

The games to think about are the iPro Cup quarter-final win at Rochdale, the win at Hemel, the Challenge Cup defeat to Championship side Dewsbury, last week's trot against South Wales and tomorrow's semi-final.