Playing centre won’t put me in awkward position, says Bradford Bulls ace Whitehead (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Playing centre won’t put me in awkward position, says Bradford Bulls ace Elliott Whitehead

7:10am Friday 17th February 2012 in Bulls By Ross Heppenstall

Elliott Whitehead proved his versatility against Castleford

Elliott Whitehead is not bothered where he plays as the Bulls prepare to cross swords with Wigan at Odsal.

Whitehead, 22, returned from a five-game ban to start in the back row at Castleford last weekend, but was switched to centre after Adrian Purtell went off injured.

Purtell will miss the next six weeks after he tore a pectoral muscle, raising the prospect of Whitehead staying in the centres alongside Chev Walker or Keith Lulia.

“I’ll do a job wherever I’m asked to play,” said Whitehead.

“Unfortunately Purts got injured and I got moved to centre at Cas but I played there last year and didn’t do too badly.

“My handling skills are all right… I can play stand-off if needed!

“But I think I’ll be playing in the back row this weekend. If Mick wants me to play centre then of course I’ll play centre. I’m not really bothered – I just want to play.

“I think I had to prove myself and play well to keep my spot in the team. Hopefully I did that.

“I felt like I was blowing a bit at times but I found my second wind and was fine in the second half.”

Having enjoyed an outstanding return to action, Whitehead is relishing the challenge of cutting Wigan down to size.

The Warriors underlined their quality with a highly impressive victory over Leeds last weekend.

Yet Whitehead said: “We showed what we were capable of at Cas and were glad to get that first win under our belts.

“We said throughout the week that we would train hard and get the result, and we did that.

“The lads showed we’ve got it in us to compete in Super League and it’s set us up nicely for the weekend now.

“We got confidence from the Cas win but it’s a different week and we have to focus on different individuals, such as Sam Tomkins.

“Wigan have got great depth and Tomkins is their best player by a mile.

“He’s different class but hopefully we can get a job done on him and nullify his threat.”

The Bulls’ defence was outstanding last week and Whitehead added: “We did a lot of goal-line defence and we proved to the supporters that we’re capable of defending our line.

“I think they had some doubts but we proved that we can do it and hopefully we can push on this week.”