Hull KR are back - where many Rugby League fans believe they belong - in the Super League after just one year playing the Championship. In 2017, the Robins gave a number of youth and young players an opportunity to impress with the likes of Joe Cator, Matty Marsh and Will Jubb all playing their part in KR's promotion-winning season. In 2018, young players such as these will be even more integral in helping to keep the Robins in Super League.

Hull KR have had a number of talented players emerge through their ranks in recent years; Kris Welham, Liam Watts and Scott Taylor all began their Super League careers at the Robins and have gone on to have fruitful careers in the top flight.

This man will hope to follow in their footsteps and, if his budding talent is anything to go by, he will likely succeed.

Will Oakes

Will Oakes - born in Halifax in February 1998 - first signed with Hull KR as a 16-year-old after being at Wakefield's Scholarship Academy since the age of 14. At just 16, Oakes chose KR despite the fact that eight other Super League clubs had been chasing his signature after he had caught the eye with a series of powerful and pacy performances on the wing and at full-back.

Oakes played for the City of Hull Academy in their inaugural year in 2016 and demonstrated just how much of a lethal finisher he is, ending the season as top points scorer even though he missed half of the season due to international commitments.

Just a month after Oakes' seventeenth birthday, he was then called up to the first-team in an away clash against Wigan Warriors in March 2016. And, although he was in and around the first team several times during that season, this was to be his only first-team appearance in 2016. The scale of his achievements at such a young age is even more impressive considering that Oakes was selected as the youngest member of the England Academy squad that toured Australia in 2016.

Following Hull KR's relegation at the end of the 2016 season, the Robins were in a rebuilding stage. And, young players like Oakes would be at the heart of KR's attempt to gain promotion at the first time of asking. Appearing eight times and scoring four tries in 2017, Oakes established himself as one of the most exciting young talents in the second tier, impressing with his fast feet and excellent footwork.

In fact, his performances earned him so much credit that Oakes was actually called up to the Scotland squad for the 2017 World Cup and won one cap, albeit in Scotland's 50-4 thrashing by Tonga.

After signing a two-year extension in March 2017 to a contract that would run out at the end of that year, Oakes will be a Robin until the end of 2019. As such, Oakes has time to establish himself in the first-team squad and, with a fantastic attitude and desire to learn, 2018 could well be the year for the youngster to do just that.

Read part one, two, three and four of this series by clicking these links.