Whitehaven have announced that former Salford and St Helens forward Carl Forster will be their new player-coach: at the age of just 24.
Forster will succeed James Coyle having impressed during the back end of the Championship season as a player, with Haven’s board saying they were impressed by his desire to haul the club back out of League 1 next year.
In a statement, they said: “The Whitehaven Club is delighted to announce that Carl Forster will be the new Player/Head Coach for the 2017 season.
“Carl played a leading role in the Super 8s and whilst he played, the club managed three out of five wins.
“He has showed extreme dedication to the club, signing before we were relegated. Carl stated publicly that “no matter what happens, I will still be at Whitehaven next year,” and that is the spirit we will need to carry the club forward in what will be another hard season.
“His performances on the field have been simply tremendous and he threw everything into the games – leading by example from the front. When you have forwards like Carl winning the battle in the middle of the field that’s when you win games. Carl comes from a great rugby league background, starting out at Pilkington Recs then straight on to St Helens, with loan spells at Whitehaven in between. Carl then headed to Salford before joining us again for the remainder of 2016.
“Now we have a coach in place we can start putting our squad together and planning for the coming season. Carl’s spirit is really infectious and his enthusiasm is enormous, I think this appointment will lift everybody at the club and be a breath of fresh air.”
