FIRST it was Logan Astley and Tom Forber, then came Dane Windrow — and now it’s Connor Carr.
Shortly after extending the loan agreements of half-back Astley and hooker Forber with Wigan Warriors, Roughyeds landed back-row man Windrow from Wakefield Trinity on a similar arrangement and have now announced the arrival of Carr, a centre or wing from Huddersfield Giants, initially on loan for a month.
Common denominators? All four are teenagers, all four are from a Super League background, all four are with us on loan.
More significantly, head coach Stu Littler says all four will be available for selection this weekend when we welcome new club Cornwall RLFC to the Vestacare Stadium on Sunday (3pm kick-off).
Also in the mix will be the likes of Jordan Andrade and Brad Jinks, both of whom missed the Rochdale derby, and Dave Hewitt, who suffered a recurrence of hip trouble at the Crown Oil Arena, but is good to go again.
Said Littler:
“We had more numbers at training last night (Thurs) than we have had for some time. It was good to see. They will be fighting for places and that’s what we want. We will certainly have some tough selection decisions to make — again what we want.
“We are always on the look-out for players but, as I also said, they’ve got to be cost effective and we’ve got to keep an eye on the budget.
“Dane Windrow is a big, aggressive boy who will give us strike power on the edges, while Connor Carr can cover both centre and wing where Calvin Wellington has been struggling with illness and Tommy Brierley is out for the season, injured.
“Connor has been out on loan at Batley Bulldogs, but we’ve done our homework and it’s all been good. He played at Huddersfield in the same team as Sean Slater, for instance, and Sean speaks well of him. So, too, does Luke Robinson, whom I know well, over at Huddersfield.
“We’ll keep tweaking things when we think there is a need to and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people at Wakefield, Huddersfield and Batley for helping us to complete the loans.
“A big thank-you also to Chris (Hamilton), who has worked extremely hard with me on this to get all these loans and loan extensions over the line.”
Littler will name his initial 21-strong squad for the Cornwall game later today.
