NORTH Ribblesdale fly half Adam Whaites is joining Wharfedale for pre-season training with a view to signing on at the Avenue.

The youngster is hoping to make it with the Greens after impressing for Ribb and Yorkshire under-20s last season.

Having only had two full seasons at senior level - plus one playing in New Zealand - Whaites' progress has been rapid since he decided to quit football in favour of the oval ball game.

He has already played in two finals at Twickenham - with North Ribb in 2004 in the Powergen Vase and just last month when Yorkshire just missed out on a hat-trick of county titles.

Whaites could challenge for the Dale number 10 slot with Chris Meehan now that Kiwi Danny Snee has returned to New Zealand. But coach John Lawn said he thought Whaites could also play at centre or full back.

Whaites, who used to play for Settle United, said: "I was doing quite a lot of rugby training whilst I was playing football. The football didn't work out for me, so I decided to take up rugby and really enjoyed it."

He said he had loved his time at Ribb, where his father Graham still plays for the seconds and thirds, but he was hoping to progress his career.

"I'm relatively inexperienced but now is the time for me to hopefully step up as I am still quite young," he added.

John Lawn said: "At a higher level, players coming into the game later seems to be a common theme. Talented sportsmen can adapt quickly."

The addition of Whaites to the Wharfedale set up would further boost their talented ranks of youngsters. Along with Whaites, Rob Baldwin, Dave Clements, Simon Horsfall and James Hutchinson all featured in the Twickenham final for Yorkshire under-20s.

o Wharfedale centre Chris Malherbe was in the England Counties team which lost 36-10 to an Argentinian XV in Santa Fe. He was also in the starting line-up for the game against provincial side Rosario yesterday.