St Helens star Kyle Amor is backing Marwan Koukash’s calls for a county Super League side - but insists it should be based in West Cumbria.

The Cumbrian prop is passionate about revitalising the game in the county but believes it will only succeed through a merger of Whitehaven and Workington Town.

Former Salford Red Devils owner Koukash has come out and said he wants to create a new rugby league team in Cumbria and could call it Cumbrian Lakers.

And Whitehaven-born Amor is confident that fans would back a new side and that it could be the catalyst for putting the area back on the rugby league map.

“This is something I am very passionate about,” said Amor. “I think it is great that Marwan has come in and talked about doing something and maybe it needs someone like him to be the catalyst.

“If you speak to anyone in rugby league they will tell you that I have been going on about this for a long time. So it is so nice to see these type of talks happening.

“But the only way I think it would really work, and for people to buy into it fully, is for it to be a West Cumbrian team and not so much Cumbria.

“The actual distance and time for people from Barrow to play for West Cumbria is almost the same as for them to go to Wigan or St Helens.”

His calls for a merger of the two main clubs in West Cumbria are not new and have been looked at in the past.

But, with a high profile figure like Koukash coming on board, could this be the time to move forward?

“I just think at the minute, from a logical point of view, you have to look at the crowds at Whitehaven and Workington,” said Amor.

“Their first games of the season, where you look to bring the fans in, the numbers were around 600 or 700.

“In contrast when Kells played Toronto, with some big names, they got around 1,000.

“People will come to see lads who have played on the Super League stage. It would be great to bring big names into the towns.

“The likes of Ben Barba, Kallum Watkins and Sam Tomkins would pull in the crowds, you will see big numbers.

“When I go back home I see Wigan shirts, Leeds shirts and St Helens tops, people in West Cumbria love Super League. so how good would it be to put it on their doorstep every other week.

“It is just something I would love to see happen.”

He admitted a stadium is an issue to begin with but he advocates playing at both grounds until a new venue, perhaps at Lillyhall, could be built.

“It needs to be Whitehaven and Workington together,” he reiterated. “You could play half the games at both grounds to start.

“And then I think the ideal place to go is Lillyhall, there is land and also the college so scholarship kids can get an education as well.

“If we get a Super League club, you also get academies and scholarships. Right from an early age kids will see superstars of rugby league coming to West Cumbria.

“They will naturally want to do that. I wanted to be part of that when I was a kid watching Whitehaven challenging for trophies and I made it my goal to get a taste of it.

"It would give West Cumbria an identity rather than just Sellafield or part of the lake district."

Amor admitted a career in rugby league is always a gamble, especially when you are so far away from the M62 corridor, where many of the top clubs are based.

But he says more kids will get involved if a top flight outfit was on their footstep.

"For the parents of 13/14/15-year-olds, the age clubs take kids, it can be a huge commitment to put two years of travelling into a child maybe not making it.

"But if a club was on your doorstep then it isn't as big a gamble.

"For me to make it a success, I had to take a pay cut and my wife had to leave a job at Sellafield, so financially it was a real risk but luckily for me it paid off."