HEAD coach James Ford insists York City Knights are using dual-registration the right way by "integrating players into the group" rather than just chucking them in on match-days.
Liam Harris became the second Hull KR player in quick succession to turn out for York on dual-reg, when he donned the shirt a fortnight ago in Sunday's Challenge Cup win over Rochdale, keeping his place for last week's League One loss to North Wales Crusaders.
George Milton was the first, having played against South Wales in the league, while Will Jubb and Kieran Moran have also played on loan from the Championship giants.
Flying threequarter Nick Rawsthorne, meanwhile, joined on loan from Rovers' cross-city rivals, Hull FC, this week and is likely to make his York debut in next week's trip to Oxford.
Ford says all of the dual-reg incomers trained with the Knights before being selected, and it will be the same for Rawsthorne, too, as he gets over a week at Nestle Rowntree Park before donning the shirt.
"We've had a few Hull KR players training with us on an evening through the week so that they integrate into the group first," said Ford, when asked specifically about Harris having been named at full-back at what appeared to be short notice two weeks ago.
"We don't want to use dual-reg where players turn up for the team run (on a Friday) and drop into the team on a weekend, as that can alienate people. We want them to be part of the group, part of our club. That's the right way to go about it.
"So far I've also been impressed by what they've brought to training."
WHAT a difference a week makes.
After the highs of the Challenge Cup win over Championship side Rochdale came the League One home defeat to North Wales Crusaders.
It was a surprise to many, too, given the Knights' splendid performance against the Hornets and the Crusaders' run of losses since winning at Bootham Crescent in the season-opening League One Cup tie in February.
Anyway, half-back Harry Tyson-Wilson was our man of the match on the day after scoring 14 of the Knights' 22 points and so gets onto The Press Player of the Year leaderboard with three points.
Joe Batchelor had another decent game in the second row, scoring the try of the game too, and so gets two points as our second-best player.
The aforementioned dual-reg ace Liam Harris had another good show at full-back, too, and was deemed our third-best performer, picking up one point. On that note, head coach James Ford may have a bit of a headache as regards who plays at full-back next week with Ash Robson expected to be fit again.
The deadline for Player of the Month votes, meanwhile, is Wednesday - email them to peter.martini@thepress.co.uk
The Press Player of the Year standings: Ed Smith 7, Joe Porter 5, Tim Spears 5, Adam Robinson 4, Joe Batchelor 4, Brad Hey 3, Harry Tyson-Wilson 3, Ash Robson 2, Andy Ellis 1, Jonny Presley 1, Liam Harris 1.
THE Knights have a brand new website.
The site is part of the ongoing overhaul of the operation on and off the field by the new owners.
It can be found at www.yorkcityknights.com and the club are happy to receive all feedback.
The domain for staff members' email addresses has also changed. Rather than being joebloggs@ycknights.co.uk, for example, the address is joebloggs@yorkcityknights.com.
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