White: Gilmore can be the main man

Kevin Brown may have left the club but Widnes hooker Lloyd White believes Tom Gilmore is perfectly capable of taking his place.

Brown left to join local rivals Warrington after three years at the Vikings.

“I think there’s a massive opportunity,” White said.

“He’s got a lot of potential so if he can live up to half of that this season he’ll have a great year.”

Gilmore will be one part of a new halfback partnership alongside Joe Mellor and White believes they can work well together.

“Gilly’s a natural leader and Joe’s a natural runner and can kill teams with his pace and his running ability,” he told Love Rugby League.

“Combine the two of them together and I think we’ve got a good set of halfbacks and a good platform for us.”

White was part of the Wales team which qualified for the World Cup later this year and he admits the whole squad is looking forward to a positive response after a poor performance in 2013.

The Dragons failed to register a single point losing against both the United States and the Cook Islands.

“I think we were average in the last one so this is an opportunity to us to write a few wrongs and put a good performances in for the boys,” White said.

“Everyone who played there is really looking forward to making people proud.”

If Wales plan to make it out of their group they will have to negotiate Fiji, Papa New Guinea and Ireland who will prove difficult opposition, according to White.

“There are two really physical teams in Fiji and Papa New Guinea,” he said.

“Ireland will have a strong team as well.”