JOHN Kear believes the form of Bulls rookies Brad Gallagher and Ebon Scurr has been a “revelation”.

The 19-year-old duo both caught their coach’s eye in the season-opener against promotion favourites London.

That backed up the preseason efforts which thrust them into the first-team picture and Kear is delighted at the progress of the club’s latest academy products.

He said: “You saw the best second-rower in the competition this year in Rhys Curran for London, who was at Toulouse before.

“When you compare Brad Gallagher against him, he didn’t do too bad.

“You also saw one of the best middle-unit players in Eddy Battye. You compare Ebon Scurr against him and again you think, ‘you didn’t do so bad, young man’.

“It gives you heart and confidence and shows that we might have a skinny squad but it’s a good one. The younger ones will come in and do themselves justice.

“There’s lots to build upon and some really pleasing signs as well, especially from the younger men like Gallagher and Scurr.

“They have been a revelation and really taken their chance.”

Kear is expected to call upon some of the club’s younger talent frequently this season because of the lack of numbers compared with before.

He was also encouraged by the way Mark Dunning’s reserves performed in their first game against Hull FC.

Kear added: “We’re in a good spot.

“If anybody went to Hull Ionians last Saturday and saw a very young reserve team go toe-to-toe with a Hull FC side containing Mahe Fonua and Albert Kelly, they’ll have come away from that knowing we’ve got some good young ones coming through.”

Adam Rooks, Liam Kirk and Anthony England were all due back at training last night after being rested earlier in the week to recover from knocks in the Broncos loss.

The Bulls head for old foes York on Sunday with plenty to be positive about from their Championship curtain-raiser. But Kear hopes to see more of a cutting edge about their play at Bootham Crescent.

“We created chances but perhaps we need to be a little more clinical in finishing them,” he said.

“We scored three tries and pretty easily could have had three others.

“But we’ve also got to accept London broke us as well and but for Brandon Pickersgill, they’d have got another couple. It’s swings and roundabouts.

“There were some details about the performance that needed to be better. But it’s how you start your season and I thought we did that to a very high standard.

“Should we maintain and improve as the season goes on, I’m very confident that we’ll have a good year.”