TONY Smith insists he will only use Warrington Wolves’ youngsters sparingly this season.

Forwards George King and Joe Philbin were named in the 19-man squad to face Hull FC on Friday having both made their Super League debuts in recent weeks.

But while Smith says Wolves’ injury problems have given the academy graduates a chance to step up, the club’s head of coaching and rugby believes too much exposure would not help their development.

“They’re terrific young characters and they’ve earned their right to be there and handled the occasions of their first ever Super League games very. very well,” he said.

“The opportunity there through some injuries is a real positive about it, those young guys are stepping up and handling the occasion really well.

“But these guys are still very young, I wouldn’t like to have to play them week in, week out for a number of games.

“To expose them to Super League for a few games this season is really good development for them.

“But, and this is no disrespect to either one of those boys, I think to have to play them every week would probably do them a disservice if anything else.”