Leeds head coach Richard Agar is looking forward to having to choose between Richie Myler and Jack Walker at fullback, once the latter returns from injury.
The 21-year-old has been out since March, having had operations on his shoulder and on an ankle problem sustained before lockdown, and in his absence, utility player Myler has been in outstanding form.
Walker is due to return in the next few weeks and Agar is excited about the competition it will create in his side.
“It’s great for us,” he said. “If we’ve got a player of such high quality as Jack coming back into our team and the guy in the shirt is obviously playing to such a standard that it gives us a bit of a headache, then it must mean Richie’s doing something right.
“Competition for places creates a great culture and a great competition in your club and hopefully it shows in a good performance on a weekend.
“I think that’s a real testament to Richie. Richie’s been, in my eyes, a wonderful success story for us this year. I’m really pleased we got him over the line on a new contract.
Myler scored a hat-trick from fullback against Salford two weeks ago. Credit: Craig Milner/News Images
“His attitude from the moment we brought Luke Gale and Rob Lui into the club has been one that is ‘team first’ and whether he’s playing at hooker, half or at fullback this year, he’s done a great job. I think his performances at fullback have been outstanding.
“So when Jack comes back, if Richie’s still in form then yes, it will give us a headache, but they’re better headaches than we had two or three weeks ago when we were looking around our team, shuffling the deckchairs a bit when we weren’t getting the performances.”
Agar has several players back in contention for this Friday’s game against Huddersfield, having had an extra week’s break after their fixture against Wakefield was postponed due to two of Chris Chester’s players testing positive for Covid-19.
It means there will likely be no debut for teenage prospect Jarrod O’Connor, who was in line to make his first appearance against Trinity, but Agar insists it won’t knock the youngster’s confidence
He added: “(He’s) probably unlikely (to play) and he knows that too. We’ve got James Donaldson definitely back in the mix, Alex Mellor back in the mix, Konrad’s back fit too.
Agar has hinted that Konrad Hurrell, James Donaldson and Alex Mellor could return against Huddersfield on Thursday. Credit: Mark Cosgrove/News Images
“So that probably pushes Jarrod a couple of spots further out. We’ve got a little bit more experienced (players) fit and available to us with another week of training under their belt but he’ll still be in and around our 21/22-man squad coming into the game.
“We’ve got to take all those players to a game just in case there’s any failed temperature checks late on, and also we need some ball boys too.
“He’s very smart is Jarrod, he always goes and gets the blue ‘water carrier’ shirt first. He sprints into the sheds to get the water shirt so he doesn’t have to do ball boy duties.
“So he’s a little bit smarter than his dad (ex-Great Britain prop Terry) but also a bit better looking too.”
