YORK City Knights will again be without their Castleford loanees when they go to Barrow on Saturday aiming to continue winning form in the Championship.
Nevertheless, boss Dave Woods says he still faces a few selection dilemmas after leaving five front-line players out of Sunday’s Challenge Cup loss to Hull KR.
Dual-registered prop Nathan Massey and former loan three-quarter Jordan Thompson have both been in the Tigers’ first team recently, with Massey scoring two tries off the bench in Sunday’s cup win at Rochdale while Thompson played on the wing.
Furthermore, second-row John Davies, whom the Knights had hoped would be available to resume his Huntington Stadium spell, is also staying at Wheldon Road for the time-being after being told he is still in Cas’s first-team picture.
Davies, the runaway leader in The Press Player of the Year leaderboard, saw his season-long loan at Huntington Stadium cut short last month as Cas said they wanted him as cover for their first team over Easter – only to then play him in their under-20s side. He again played for their Valvoline Cup team on Saturday.
However, the Knights have won their last two league games without any of the trio – at Toulouse on Easter Monday and against Dewsbury 11 days ago – and, while Woods had been optimistic 20-year-old Davies would return for Saturday’s trip to Cumbria, the Aussie reckons his side can continue winning form without them, aided by new-found competition for places.
Woods said: “We’ve got players who are capable but having him (Davies) here in the squad would add even more. He won’t be here this week now, but we’ve got a fair few players to come back. It will be tough to pick a team.”
Definitely out of the running is half-back Benn Hardcastle, whose knee injury picked up against Hull KR was being assessed this week, while full-back Tom Bush is also a major doubt after his dead leg.
But the quintet rested on Sunday – hooker Jack Lee, playmaker Chris Thorman, winger Dave Sutton, forward Rhys Clarke and centre-turned-back-rower Duane Straugheir – are all seeking recalls.
Woods’ biggest dilemma could come in the pivots, where Jonny Presley, Mark Barlow, Anthony Thackeray and Hardcastle all impressed against Rovers, while Lee and Thorman are almost certain to return to the starting 13.
Hardcastle’s injury makes Woods’ selection job easier, especially if he continues to use Thorman at loose-forward, but getting the best out of Barlow and Presley could be key.
Those two earned praise from Woods after Sunday’s tie, when the former came in for Lee at hooker and scored two tries, while the latter did well off the bench.
He had to fill in on the wing in the reshuffle following Bush’s early injury before going in, as had been planned, in a pivotal role when Barlow was spelled and after Hardcastle was stretchered off.
Woods said: “Mark played well. He’s a completely different player to Jack Lee, but he defends well and does a lot of clean-up work that a lot of people don’t see. He played more game-time than we wanted (because of the injuries to Bush and Hardcastle) but he did all right.
“Jonny was going to go in as hooker replacement but we had to throw him on the wing. He did a pretty decent job there and he went really well at hooker when he went in there. He knows he’s got to play well to get a spot.”
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