JON Wilkin’s silky handling skills and kicking game will be utilised a lot more this term, with coach Royce Simmons alternating him and Chris Flannery between the second row and loose forward roles.

Although the gifted back-rower missed a fair chunk of last term after undergoing a shoulder operation, 2010 saw Wilkin go back in the pecking order and was omitted from England’s Four Nations tour party.

His form was not helped by his flitting between positions – with injuries meaning that he was forced to play scrum half in his first game back after a lengthy lay off and half back in the Challenge Cup semi final.

But already there have been glimpses that Wilkin is about to reassert himself on the competition by combining his capacity for hard work with his play making ability.

Simmons said: “I am going to mix him around a bit to play a bit of tight and a bit of left side, because he has got a good kick down the left foot side.

“Playing tight is pretty fatiguing if you are stuck in the middle all the time. But I hope to get long periods out of him by mixing him at loose forward to left side.

“I have given him the licence to play pretty attacking type football. He has got a decent mixture, good hands and is also very fit this year.”