Whitehaven coach Carl Forster has made a double swoop as his squad for 2017 starts to come together.

Experienced Rochdale stand-off Paul Crook and young North Wales forward Tommy Holland have joined the Recreation Ground club, taking the squad up to 15 players.

Forster has made it clear he wants 23-24 players in the squad, ready to make a strong challenge for promotion back to the Championship.

Crook comes with that pedigree, as he was a key member of the Hornets squad that surprised Toulouse in the League One play-off this season to earn their place in the 2017 Championship.

Forster said: “I am really pleased to get Paul on board as he is another experienced half-back for the team.

"He plays the exact type of rugby I am looking for.”

The 30-year-old Merseysider originally joined the St Helens Academy and captained Great Britain Under-18s before switching to Widnes, where he made his Super League debut in 2005.

He played 14 times for the Widnes first team but left in 2007, linking-up with Doncaster and then briefly Swinton, before signing for Rochdale in 2010.

Since then, Crook has been part of the furniture at Spotland, where he has accumulated 166 games in Rochdale colours.

In those appearances, he has notched 64 tries, 616 goals and 11 drop goals for a total of 1,499 points.

In his younger days, Crook attended Edge Hill University, earning a sports and exercise science degree and has since become a qualified teacher of physical education. He now teaches at Hope Academy.

Meanwhile, Holland is a young prop who has had experience of League One rugby with Coventry Bears and North Wales Crusaders.

He joined North Wales after being released by Leigh Centurions, where he was a member of the Reserve side, which did the league and cup double in 2014.

Forster believes he has the potential to develop in an experienced squad at Whitehaven and is looking forward to working with him.

Elsewhere, Whitehaven’s Player of the Year last season, Dave Allen, has been included in Ireland’s 22-man squad for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup qualifiers.

The Irish are aiming to build on a 58-10 win over Malta by beating Jamaica in Bray next weekend.

Ugo Perez, the young Catalans forward who spent the last three months of the season on loan at Whitehaven, has been included in the French squad for their World Cup qualifiers.

Workington Town brothers Brett and Callum Phillips have been selected for the Scotland side, ahead of the Ladbrokes Four Nations tournament.

The Bravehearts travel down to Cumbria on Friday, October 21 to play a warm-up game against a Cumbrian Select XIII in Liam Harrison’s Testimonial, at Barrow.