By Phil Gordos

Yeaman has already matched the number of tries he scored in 2005

Uncapped Kirk Yeaman hopes Great Britain coach Brian Noble will rest a few of his established stars when the Lions face New Zealand next month.

The Hull player has caught the eye with 17 tries in 2006 but says competition will be hot for the two centre spots.

"Keith Senior is guaranteed to go to Australia at the end of the year, so that could work in my favour," he said.

"But you don't know what the coach wants to do. All I can do is play well for Hull and hope I get picked."

Great Britain are due to play New Zealand at Knowsley Road on 27 June.

The one-off Test will give Noble and his coaching team the opportunity to experiment ahead of this year's Tri-Nations Series.

Yeaman is already being talked about as a certainty not only for that game but the tour down under at the end of the year.

He is Super League's top tryscorer this season and has already matched his haul from 2005.

"I set myself a target of 20 tries at the start of the season, so I'm just three away at the moment," the Hull-born star told BBC Sport.

Yeaman gets Lions call-up

"Once I get there I will set myself another target, but I'm not there yet."

Not even the upheaval caused by the departure of coach John Kear at the start of April seemed to knock Yeaman out of his stride.

He has scored nine tries in the five games since, including hat-tricks in successive matches against Wakefield and Catalans Dragons.

Four of those games resulted in victories, leaving Hull in sixth place in the table, level on points with Salford and Warrington but 10 behind runaway leaders St Helens.

Unfortunately for Hull, their defence of the Challenge Cup ended in round four, when they went down to Bradford.

"It was disappointing to go out of the Challenge Cup but that's rugby," said Yeaman. "There is no point dwelling on the past. It's important to keep looking forward."