Hull FC<\/a> hooker labelled ‘one of the best’ in playing the impact role off the bench.<\/p>\nBalmforth is on a season-long loan at the Knights, with his parent club seeking game time for a player contracted to the Black and Whites until the end of the 2028 season. And so far, it seems the move is bearing fruit, with current coach Mark Applegarth praising the 22-year-old for his impact to date.<\/p>\n
Featuring in all seven of York’s games, Balmforth has come off the bench to effect, scoring two tries after shaking off an early-season ankle issue.<\/p>\n
“Denive is one of the best at playing that impact ;14; role \u2013 coming off the bench and bringing some energy,” Applegarth said. “I can;t speak highly enough of him.<\/p>\n
“He played through the pain barrier for those first three weeks, so we probably didn;t see the best of him. He was playing with an ankle injury. Now he\u2019s getting over that and he\u2019s starting to find his feet again.”<\/p>\n
Spelling the York hooking role with veteran Paul McShane, who has avoided any serious injury after copping a knock to his hand at Wigan last week, the duo are now set to play their part in Friday’s game against Wakefield Trinity.<\/p>\n
“Thankfully, it was just some pretty nasty bruising,” Applegarth confirmed. “It has settled right down. It swelled up pretty bad in the game. He was struggling to grip a ball. He’s trained fully today, so there are no issues there.”<\/p>\n
Outlining McShane’s influence on Balmforth and the rest of the York team, the head coach added: “He\u2019s a former Man of Steel. He\u2019s been right at the pinnacle of the game, hasn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n
“He’s a massive player for us, it goes without saying. It\u2019s not only what he does ability-wise \u2013 I think that\u2019s there for everyone to see \u2013 but he\u2019s a bit of glue for us in that middle. He\u2019s very good at directing us with structure through that middle first and bringing people together. That’s integral to what we do. I’m really glad that he gets to go again on Friday.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The young hooker is finding his feet alongside an influential figure at York Knights. 15:55, 25 Mar 2026Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[48812,20805,5903,20370,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-495066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-denive-balmforth","tag-hull-fc","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hull](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0__AM16583.jpg\")
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