Cai Taylor-Wray's path to being Warrington Wolves' next star

How can it be ensured that Sam Burgess leaves the club in the best possible shape in a couple of years? Which players will be prominent in doing that, and how can they be tied down?

Cai Taylor-Wray’s signing to a long-term professional deal is the rubber-stamping of one of a series of succession plans – and this one has emerged quicker than perhaps many had imagined.

During his run in the first team of late, the livewire Yorkshire lad has taken what many within the club have seen over the past couple of years and brought it into the wider public arena.

Cai Taylor-Wray has started the past two games at full-back as Matt Dufty recovers from knee surgery (Image: John Clifton/SWpix.com)

There have been hushed but excited whispers about his talent pretty much since he first walked through the door at 14 years of age, and now people are getting glimpses of the prodigious talent he possesses.

And the way in which he has burst through the ranks at such a rapid rate – like fellow breakthrough starlet Arron Lindop, he is still eligible to play academy rugby league – is the latest factor that has caused the long-term thinking behind the full-back position at The Halliwell Jones Stadium to be changed.

Even as recently as the start of this season, it looked as though Josh Thewlis was earmarked as Warrington’s long-term number one – and with good reason.

An elegant and natural-looking full-back, the trailblazer for the club’s current youth resurgence had impressed in the number one shirt on plenty of occasions to the point that Dufty’s signing in 2022 was seen as an unnecessary roadblock to his progression by many supporters.

However, both men have gone on to show their impeccable value in their own positions. Dufty is a man reborn at full-back while Thewlis is among the first names on the team sheet – literally and figuratively – on the right wing.

Even when Dufty penned his new two-year deal earlier this year, however, the plan appeared to remain the same until Taylor-Wray caught the eye.

For here was a homegrown player whose attributes mirrored that of their Australian star – lightning-quick across the ground with the ability to do special things with the ball in his hand.

The next step was, of course, seeing if he could handle it at Super League level and while there will be bumps in the road as there is with any player of his age, he has taken to the top flight like a duck to water.

There will be a time when Dufty moves on - although this may change as he is happy and settled in England, it is currently hard to envisage him staying beyond the end of his deal in 2026 - and when he does, it is now clear that Taylor-Wray is the heir apparent when it comes to his number one shirt