Leeds Carnegie searches for replacement hooker
Leeds Carnegie's director of rugby, Andy Key admitted that the club are desperately searching for a hooker to fill in for England international Steve Thompson who is away on international duty.
Replacement hooker Andy Titterell is out with a long term injury and conditioning coach James Parkes was forced to come out of retirement and play in their LV= Cup match against Sale.
Parkes had not played for Leeds in over two years and the coach made his 40th appearance for the club in the team’s 17-23 defeat to Sale.
Key has tried to bring in a hooker, and he told BBC Radio Leeds, "We are talking to two or three agents and we have a few hookers in mind. However these processes don't happen overnight, so we'll see what happens."
The rugby director admitted that the decision to ask Parkes to return to rugby was a difficult one for the club and for the conditioning coach.
"We didn't take the decision to play James lightly, and neither did he. We spoke about it in great depth throughout the week. He's gone out there and demonstrated that heart on the sleeve mentality you needed. I thought he did very, very well and he didn't
let himself down,” said Key.
The director of rugby did not rule out playing Parkes again if they cannot sign a new hooker in time for their Aviva Premiership match with Exeter on Saturday 13 November.
"If he is the right way to go forward next week [at Exeter] we'll have to talk about it at the start of this week and see what happens," said Key.
Parkes stated that he would be happy to play again if asked to and said, "It's been well over two years since I played at this level, but when I was asked about it, I was more than happy to help out.
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