Warrington Wolves stick with Cai Taylor-Wray at full-back

Leeds-based teenager Cai Taylor-Wray, an England Academy international, stepped up to the plate against Castleford Tigers last Friday.

The 18-year-old scored an opportunistic wonder try, his first in the top flight on what was only his third Super League appearance.

Burgess said after the game there was never any doubt about selecting him for the trip to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle, rather than switching winger Josh Thewlis into the role.

And The Wire boss plans to stick with him.

“While Matt Dufty’s out, Cai will be the full-back, I won’t change that position,” said Burgess.

“That’s the way we work – one out, one in, sort of thing.

“From my point of view Cai can’t fail because I appreciate he’s not going to be perfect but I think we all see what he can bring.

“So I’ll stick with him. While Matt Dufty’s not there, Cai will be there – the guy that comes in at full-back I think is a beautiful player.”

The Wire coaching team see that Taylor-Wray’s progress can only improve by being exposed to the higher level for a run of games.

Burgess said: “He’s learning how to control other first-graders.

“He’s got big responsibility to move players in the right position and also for Cai it’s about not making it overcomplicated for him.

“We want to keep it simple and get the good parts of his game working for him and the areas where he can improve are natural progressions for a young player into a senior player.

“He’s picking plenty up every day and was brilliant today at training and I will expect an improved performance on Friday night.”

Burgess reported that Dufty’s knee ‘clean-out’ surgery last week went well and confirmed it will be ‘something like’ four to six weeks out of contention for match action.

“He’s recovered pretty well to be fair, come out of surgery pretty well, and is on his feet already so it looks quite good,” said Burgess.

“We’ll see, we won’t rush him, but it’s gone as well as it can do for the first week.”