Quote: rubber duckie "
The rumour was about Powell asking players to come in on a period of time that was part of their regular time off.'"
A way for Powell to test which players were the most committed to the cause. 'Team/Club first' mentality.
I'm 100% certain that had Wane/Peet or Woolf asked the Wigan or Saints players at the time to do this to buy into the 'one team' ethos, they'd have duly obliged. It's in their DNA. For our players it seems it's just another job/club to bide their time at, on a better than average RL wage.
I'll be very interested to see which approach Burgess uses to revolutionise the 'comfort zone club' issue. I've seen his interviews where he talks about his time in Rugby Union. He was furious about losing a final because in the week building up to it, some team members were focused on what was happening further down the line with internationals, and didn't have the passion to commit every last breath to the task that week.
Good luck Sam. You'll need it.