YORK City Knights hope to have found themselves a gem after signing Leeds Rhinos’ under-20s player of the year.

Winger-cum-full-back Tom Bush, 20, put pen to paper on a one-year deal at Huntington Stadium last night, having been released by the Rhinos at the end of the season.

The part-time plumber was a star player for Leeds’ academy and made four first-team appearances this year, scoring a try on his debut against Harlequins. He also went up against St Helens, Wigan and Bradford.

Knights general manager Ian Wilson reckons the youngster has attributes that could get him back into Super League in the future and believes, in the meantime, he can shine in the Championship.

“An important thing is the fact he’s not just an under-20s player at Leeds. To play four times in Super League at that age shows he must have something about him,” said Wilson. “Leeds might have had an injury or two (at the time) but they have plenty of players to call on and for him to get the nod shows he must be doing something right.

“He still has aspirations to play in Super League and hopefully we will give him the opportunity to push himself forward and progress his career.”

In addition to being Leeds’ U20s’ player of the season this year, Bush, a former Milford junior, was their junior academy player of the year and players’ player of the year in his first term at Headingley.

“He comes highly recommended by (head of youth development) Barrie McDermott and (academy coach) Chris Plume,” said Wilson.

“They both recommended him from an ability point of view and an attitude and work-rate point of view, which is important for us with the kind of culture we want at the club, with players who want to learn and improve.”

Bush turns 21 in January and so will be too old to register for the U20s again, and Leeds saw him more as a full-back, possibly believing he did not possess the lightning pace needed of a Super League winger.

But with superstar Brent Webb, Lee Smith and Ben Jones-Bishop, whose loan at Harlequins has ended, also in their ranks, his first-team opportunities would have been limited, so they allowed him to leave.

The Knights, though, envisage playing Bush on the flank, seeing him as a rival for a winger’s berth of Dennis Tuffour, Danny Wilson, Dave Sutton and, when he returns to fitness next summer following major knee surgery, Tom Lineham.

They also have competition at full-back, with James Haynes and Sam Lynch signed on.

“In Super League terms they thought he possibly lacked a little bit of pace to play on the wing but that is maybe not as important in the Championship and we reckon he can fulfil that role well,” said Wilson.

“We’ll be signing him as a winger with options to play full-back if required.

“It’s a positive that he can play in a couple of positions and if he shows he’s more valuable at full-back, we can play him there.

“But he fills the gap which we knew existed as regards the number of wingers we had and we think he’ll be a very good signing.”