PLAYER-BOSS Paul March is not relishing picking a team for York City Knights’ season opener next Sunday – because it will give him a headache.

The Knights made it four wins out of four in pre-season yesterday as a late converted try by captain Paul Hughes gave them a 14-12 win over Hull KR.

The club were dealt a big blow as second-row recruit Jordan Ross went to hospital with a suspected broken jaw which, if confirmed, could rule him out for three months.

But March is still delighted with the competition for places throughout the squad, which makes choosing a line-up for the first Northern Rail Cup game, at home to Whitehaven, a difficult job.

“It’s going to be a headache for me and James (director of rugby James Ratcliffe) to pick a best 17,” he said.

“There are four or five players to come back in as well in the next few weeks. It’s a good place to be in at the moment.”

March – who begins the season on the sidelines as his three-match ban from last season is carried over into this term – has seen his own place at scrum-half come under threat from Danny Grimshaw who has been the only ever-present in pre-season. But that only made him happier.

“Everybody is buzzing,” said March. “It’s up to myself and James Ratcliffe (director of rugby) to keep people’s feet on the floor.

“This is just pre-season and the main goals are down the line. But we’re going to build on what we’ve done and take that into the Whitehaven game.

“We need to take these four wins into the Northern Rail Cup. This time last year we didn’t have a win, so that’s a big positive. We can’t get carried away, but we’re heading in the right direction and it’s going to be hard for us to pick a 17 after the way everybody has played.”

March was particularly pleased to see his team bounce back to win having fallen 12-8 behind with eight minutes to go. He was also delighted with his side’s defensive effort.

“After Hull KR scored that last try we could have folded, but, credit to the lads, they played for the full 80 minutes and got the rewards with that Paul Hughes try.

“We spoke at half-time about back-rowers and centres pulling off the ball to give us more space and we sorted that. Adam Mitchell has come up with a great ball and John Oakes has gone through. That’s what we’re doing at the minute – people are working for each other. Paul Hughes has stayed alive and got on the end of it. It was a great team effort.

“The lads showed great character. It could have been easy to cave in, but we carried on playing football and were rewarded. They were all playing for each other. Hull KR had a strong team out there and we kept with them quite well.

“Defensively I thought we were very good. We restricted them to one try from a ball steal and one from a dive-over from acting-half. We will sort those things out and hopefully take that defence into the Whitehaven game.”