Leeds boss Brian McDermott believes that Paul McShane and Liam Hood can combine to fill the void at hooker left by Danny Buderus.
Leeds boss thinks McShane and Hood can fill void left by Buderus
Leeds coach Brian McDermott believes that Paul McShane and Liam Hood can combine to fill the void at hooker left by Danny Buderus.
The Rhinos' will attempt to defend their Super League title in 2012 without Buderus, who has returned to Australia after three seasons at Headingley.
McShane was Buderus' understudy in 2011 and started the
Boxing Day challenge match against Wakefield but Hood impressed while coming off the bench in a 26-10 victory.
And McDermott says the performance of the teenager, who was recently handed a four-year Super League contract, has presented him with a welcome dilemma at the position.
"I have an idea who it could be but I haven't nailed it down yet," he said.
"I often get asked how we replace Danny Buderus and the easy answer is you don't, so maybe we'll have two men try to do the job that Bedsy did on his own.
Syles
"They have two very different styles. Hood is a darter out of dummy half while McShane has a lot more subtleties. They are both as effective as each other so we're blessed in that department this year."
Fielding a mixture of experienced professionals and promising youngsters in their first outing since their Grand Final triumph over St Helens, the Rhinos showed some encouraging touches in front of a 9,000-strong crowd at Headingley.
McDermott said that his side are predictably not firing on all cylinders yet but was still encouraged by what he saw.
He added: "Two-thirds of the way through pre-season, it was as expected. I didn't think it was the flashiest game ever but it was not as pedestrian as I thought it would be."
Wakefield fielded no fewer than 12 new faces and coach Richard Agar was keen to take the positives from the defeat.
"There were some positives and some things we need to work on, which we knew it would throw up," he said.
"We showed some shoots of what potentially we can do with the football. All our pivots showed we've got some creativeness about us and I thought our centres looked particularly threatening."
