11:17
Hello, our lovely listeners, our lovely viewers. Delighted to be back for another episode of The Bench. And the entire gang is here this week. Myself, Sam Tomkins, John Wilkin, and a big hello and welcome to assistant at Hull KR, assistant coach Ian Watson. Welcome. Cheers, thank you. Happy to be here. Well, happy to have you. Um it's been a while, I think, since we've really heard from you. Obviously, you disappeared for a while. I think you went to Seattle. Disappeared for a while sounds so sinister. It's like disappear for a while. He went to another country to work. And he switched codes as well. Yeah. Um we're going to get into all of that, but let's just start I suppose with the
present. Hull KR assistant, you've come in this year, you've replaced Danny Ward. What's it been like? And how strange is it going from kind of a head coach in a competition, leaving for a bit, and then coming back as an assistant? Yeah, probably firstly coming to Hull KR it's been great, to be fair. It's um been a new challenge in many ways. Like you say, going to Seattle helped um stepping back a little bit, being an assistant coach where you can see things a little bit different without all the kind of stress of everything else that goes in and around the head coach's role. So, it's been first class in coming here, jumping in with the boys, and just trying to build them relationships up with
obviously Willie and with um the playing stuff, which has been good. Um moving into the area and getting to know the community has been really good as well. You walk into the gym, everyone's rugby up here, the mad you'll know from being up here. Is everyone straight in tier and talking to you about the place, but the real welcome as well, and they have a proper community where they're asking about your family. They don't even know your family, but they're asking about your family and asking if you've moved up and things like that, and then they're telling you the best places to eat. No, no, they've stayed down there. Also, my girls are a
little bit That's why they're asking. Yeah, yeah. How's the family? When you say down there, Manchester? Manchester, yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so the girls are still in university, so they're not far off finishing. So, it's important they have the consistency of what they're doing while they're going through uni, and they're they're done now, so they're doing very well. That's hard though, being away from family. Yeah, it's not as far as Seattle. It's a lot closer, so they was only coming during the holidays until the summer holidays came and then they spent a long time over there, which they loved. They loved Seattle. It was a completely different place and out of
the way. Yeah, what's the biggest thing when you came to Hull KR that surprised you when you walked in? Was there anything that you weren't expecting? Uh no, in many ways me and Willie had plenty of chats over the time. When I left Huddersfield, I came in with Willie, did some talks with him, having a little bits of chats and we built up a good relationship. Talking about potentially coming as an assistant? No, no, not nothing like that. It was just kind of coming in and having a little look at kind of what they was doing as well. Just kind of a little bit CPD, if you like. Just trying to learn and improve for like further on down the
track. And we found we were very similar in the way that we approached the game, the way we set the teams up, the way we train. So, it was kind of a perfect fit when he came up and asked me if I would like to join KR. It was a perfect fit for me cuz I already knew how he run the systems, I knew what the playing group was like and how they trained. So, that was It was probably good having that knowledge coming in here and probably the thing I can kind of refer it to was when we was at Salford in 2019 and we had players like Lee Mossop, Mark Flanagan, Tyrone McCarthy. You see them kind of characters in here as well. And I love being in around people like that. So, that just made it a lot easier
with the likes of D and O and Minichiello and Batchelor, people like them. Was it challenging as well coming when they'd won it all? So, it's almost like the target's on your back. You're coming in not to really make a difference. Like, how do you even Yeah, yeah, all sorts. Yeah, yeah. No, listen, the boys worked really hard to get there last year and the coaching staff that were here as well, Skids and Danny. I spoke to both of them over the phone as I came in and met them kind of
in person to have a little chat about what they'd done as well cuz it was important to keep some kind of continuity, especially going into a World Club Challenge. You don't want to be coming in and trying to create new issues by changing too many things and looking at maybe the defense differently than what Danny did. So, them conversations with Danny Ward were brilliant and then Skids as well. His information and his knowledge was first class just helping me coming here and kind of really find my feet, really. Yeah. A big welcome to Sam Tomkins as well. I couldn't get a word in it was all John.
I was going to say when you went to rugby union, went to Seattle, was the plan always to get back into rugby league or did you at one point think you'd become a union coach from then? I didn't know. I just needed a little bit of a break. I'd gone straight from playing straight into coaching and then 10 years of head coaching. Anyway, you don't really understand until you've been a head coach kind of the stress and the pressures. It's 24/7 and you might be off on a day with your family but you're still thinking rugby and you're worrying about everybody. You're not just worrying about yourself like you do as a player. You're worrying about every single player in that group and the staff group as well and making
sure everyone's on the same page for the training session you're coming into or the following week in whichever game you're going in. So, I just needed to kind of to probably step back as well and Fade up. breathe, yeah. Breathe a little bit and just see something different as well. It was probably one of the best things I've ever done. think that prepared you to be an assistant back in Super League giving you an assistant there for the first time in a long, long time? Definitely. The guy that I went working with over there was Alan Clark. He's from Ireland. He was high performance at Ireland as well. He'd worked at the highest level in rugby union as well. So, I knew I was going in with a guy who
understood everything about rugby union and he could educate me in that way as well. But maybe open my eyes to a different approach to look at how to train and how to how to prepare the players going into games. So, definitely in terms of stepping back there and learning a different role helped me probably the coming back to Hull KR and stepping back into an assistant role. Yeah, how much you talk about pressure of being a head coach? I find it fascinating and I think it's an incredible job, you know, to be a head coach scrutinized by people like ourselves. Fans, players have an opinion. Just how difficult a job is it? Yeah, it's it's very in times change as well.
People change. Um If I give you a guy you'd know Lee Mossop really well. He's the best captain that I've ever had play underneath me the way he kind of leads the boys and delivers things. But you can be very straight with Moose and just say, "This is what I want." And he'll accept it and he'll go out there, "This is what we're doing this week, guys." Then there's others like kind of a the younger generation they need to know what why they're doing things and what they're doing that for and they need things explained to them in a different way rather than the old school was just like, "Right, yeah, I'll go out there and just go and do it." And now it's completely different. You've got to work
around with them. So, and that's kind of the fun parts as well. It's kind of learning how everybody's individuality. I just want to pick something up that you said talking about leader and what makes a good leader. You both have been captains throughout your career. What do you think the key is to being a good captain at a club? I think it's being having relationships with everyone from another senior player down to a 18-year-old. I think the best captains they find a way of being able to communicate and lead and get ideas and sort of stories across to people in different ways. You know, I realized it when I was captain of the England side when you only meet these guys or you know some of them but you only you're only with them for like
4 weeks and you might have like a Chris Hill that's the same age as me and then there'll be a young kid coming in. We had Jack Farrelly coming in training recently last year when I was helping out coaching it and seeing how our captain George Williams was really well can sort of have a chat with an 18-year-old, have a chat with a 37-year-old but still be able to lead them when they get on the field. And I think leading by example is always I think that's what you touched on Lee Mossop. I think that's what Lee's so good at. He's There's every time he crossed the line, he's giving 110% whether it was good or not, it was never from lack of effort. I think that's probably a big one for me leading by example.
Yeah. I think the coaching and the captain having that tight relationship is so important what to win it. You know, being on the same page. He's almost your agent within the team. Yeah, they're basically the coach on the field. They're kind of making sure people stay to plan and stick to Sandy to your process of what you've got. So, yeah, the relationship's massive but I think probably going back to coaches, no one really you learn leadership as you kind of going through. Everything's about experience. When you're a player and you're captain, you kind of you're focusing you want to make sure that the team's in the right way as well but you've got your focus to
get your job right as well. Same as a head coach, you've got to get your job right but you've got to make sure that everybody else is prepared and you've tapped into everybody's mindset going into the games and everybody's different as well. So, having a captain who's on the same page as you helps you kind of deliver that message. Yeah. Players breed off each other and they learn a lot off each other as well and if the players are holding them accountable so like if Sam was captain of where Wil- Wil Coen is coach is playing with him, he'll be accountable to be him on the field and if he pulls him up, it's your captain's pulling you up for a reason for the good of the team not because he just wants to have a go at you. And I think that's
what it's strong when you get a leader like I said about Lee Mossop, you get that accountability being held throughout the team. Yeah, I think empathy is a big word as well because when you're in charge of people and it's not just in sport, it's sort of in life. It's I think the best the best leaders really take time to understand people and not We're in a people industry in sport, aren't we? It's a people you know, in businesses are just people industry. So, taking time to understand the people around you and try and see the world through their eyes. Like everyone sees their own
version of the world. Like you're all in your own little movie, aren't you? I think good leaders get like, you know, into the mindset or look at it from other people's point of view. Sometimes people think, cuz you put a rugby jersey on, you're bulletproof. But there's a lot of things that go on within that playing squad which people won't ever know about. They just see the products out here on the field. They don't see what sometimes players are going through. Like you say, it might be a young lad that might be struggling with something and our senior player might have something personal with family problems. People don't see that cuz all they see is the product on there. So, you're right in what you're saying. It
is a people industry and you've got to make sure that you value everybody and look after them in the right way. And I'd say that's probably one of the big strengths of KR here is they do that really, really well. Okay, nice way back into KR. Your ambitions, at the minute you're an assistant. Um, Willie Peters we know moves to PNG at the end of this season. Are you in the running to be his replacement here? Is it even something that you want? Um, I don't think so. I think that what thing they're really good at Hull KR is having like a bit of a succession plan.
Um, I think there's been somebody in mind who they've got, whether that works out or not. They'll they'll be able to tell you that. I won't be able to tell you that. I have had a chat with them the club and just said, cuz obviously I've only just come in, if it was a case of having some consistency in the way that they train, the way that they prepare, cuz it's very, very similar. It's kind of the setups. They obviously there would be small tweaks on that. But if they want that kind of consistency, then I would be willing to have look at that and um, step forward if that was needed to be and they thought I was at
the right person to do it. But yeah, my ambition is to get back into head coaching at some point. Um, whether it's here, we don't know. No one Nobody ever knows. I think everything's timing. Correct. Then that question to what's your thoughts on Papua New Guinea? Do you like it? That's a little bit even further, isn't it? No, I said he's going to see how he's like The doors have been finished uni. Take him to PNG. that's one just for Willie, that one. What's he It sounds exciting and you know, to get everyone in that compound and get to work with them as well, but I don't know what it'd be like in real life. I've been over there with
Great Britain in 19 and yeah, that was a different experience as well, but we were locked in a compound over there and Really? for the short period of time we was there, it was brilliant. The access with the players and the camaraderie that you build. But how long you can be in that I it's I suppose it can work both ways as well. It can be like a real positive that you're all galvanizing all together. Cuz what if there's a bad mood in camp and you're all living next door to each other in a gated community? Something's not going right, that'd be a tough place. Worst case for Willie is there's a big scrap first day of training.
Everyone's locked in the doors and they go get down on the beach and have a barbecue. Before we get well off track, um just to go back to you and your future. So, if this new head coach comes in, if it's not you, will you stay on as assistant here? At the moment I'm really enjoying what I'm doing. Um going to Seattle was, like I said, one of the best things that I ever did and stepping back in and Why was it one of the best things you ever did? Just because it allowed me to breathe and it allowed me to see things a little bit differently and what was really important and what you can control and what you can't control. So, I was a bit of a well, I am I was a control freak um and I wanted everything
perfect and everything right and coaches always do. They're always chasing perfection. But everything doesn't work like that and going to Seattle kind of helped me realize that and then like obviously your family not being there but then being out at different times shows you what's really important in life and what you need to value more than most things and probably not take your foot off the gas a little bit but understand that everything's not life and death all the time. That um you can bounce back and you can come back with a different approach and a fresh approach and I think that's what massively opened my eyes. you nailed it with how you said it, to breathe. You know, how important life
sometimes You know what? You just get on this treadmill of life, right? And come you just become tunnel vision as a coach, don't you? Because a head coach isn't a job, it's like it's your life and I seen it first hand with my brother recently. Steve McNamara and Shaun Wayne, coach I've worked with. They're obsessed. Yeah, it's They don't have You don't have They don't have days off. No. Yeah. I would hate that. Yeah. So, Tomkins likes days off. He's the best. I couldn't do all that every day. No way. Is there any question why you went back, why you stepped out of retirement that first time?
Yeah, same again as a player. Still got days off. I was on the beer and days off. Yeah. So, George is on the beach crying about the last lot. Any potential employers for Sam Tomkins, Yeah. make sure you're structuring a few days off. Just two. What a week I could do. I'm French, huh? And you get Wednesdays off, don't you, in France? Wednesdays in France. Can't work Wednesdays. Lunchtime, finish your lunchtime. Oh, you have 2 and 1/2 hours at lunch and a few beers, don't you? Got to love France, huh? So, Ian Watson, are you a perfectionist? Yeah. I do like things to be right, to be prepared, and things like that. I like to know little bits of detail. I like to know I'm doing my job, and I'm I'm giving people the right
information. I'd hate for them to lose a game on something that I could have tipped them up on, or to that I saw, and I didn't give them that little bit of knowledge before, and Cuz I used to love watching you when you were at uh Salford and Huddersfield, and you would ride this touchline. I mean, you were up and down, up and down. You were barking orders. I miss that. We don't really have a coach in Super League at the minute that does that. I think Willie likes to get down on the sideline now and again. He's He's doing it lately. If things aren't going well, or they're from the game, he comes down.
He's down, runs down the side. But yeah, I mean, it I suppose, okay, let's go back to Salford. Yeah. Um you had some huge success there, didn't you? Great times. Yeah. Great times with some great people there as well, but it it's built on the people. Again, that club was built on the people. It was built on the players. Sam's here now in front of me, and he'll know firsthand. Logan's a phenomenal guy. Love Logan. Dead honest with you. He tells you how it is. Doesn't sugarcoat it cuz you're the coach. Just tells you what you need to hear. And that's the one thing I loved about that playing group is they were really honest like that. And everyone could come to
you and they could say, "Listen, mate. I think you're going to get that wrong there." Me and Moose used to have loads of conversations in and around it and he's going, "Mate, I don't think you should be picking that this uh that team this week." And it's like, "All right." And then you'd give him the reasons and he's like, "Right. Okay." And then you Sometimes I'd be right, sometimes he'd be right as well. And but you had them discussions, but it was built on the staff people as well. I think that's very important is your staff group. If everyone's on the same page and it on the same line of what you want to achieve things, it makes it a lot easier. And then Salford was a roll your sleeves up and
everyone dive in and if you had to do a different kind of job, if you had to clean the kill, you clean the kill. But you took a group of players that had gone around a bit. call them? Yeah, you know, you sort of players who'd fallen out with maybe bigger clubs and ended up there. And in some ways, I think it's a bit like Hull KR, you know, the squad in you know, that you've got like Minchellas and Hadleys and a few of these people who've experienced Super League players, but have just then gone on to the next level. You seem to take a group at Salford and do a similar sort of job.
Yeah, it was getting the right people to be able to do that. My first signing at Salford was Mark. Yeah. Flash. Um just because of his character. I knew what he was like. I knew what he would drive. And that took time to come through because you can't just do it just with Flash. You need somebody else. And then when Moose came available, go and get Moose because he's the same character. Carl McCarron. were also we thought you respected these players, players who other clubs didn't really want. Yeah, which is strange to me because they were good players. They weren't average players these guys. These were good players. If you said to me, "Name your best players who you've ever worked with in and
around." And I've had people like Todd Carney, who was a great player on the field. You had Kevin Locke, people I'm even really talented guys. Chris Thorman, you know, talented guy. But I'd name Flash and Lee Mossop. And just because of the way they carry themselves and the way that they care about the team and how they want to deliver it. And I just think that's how you build a team around people like that. And then our staff group was very like that as well. Everyone cared for each one, looked after each other as well. So, it made it easier. So, huge success we saw but, obviously, uh Grand Final in 2019 you made to Wembley as well. Um you then leave. Yeah. On a
high. Yeah. You go to Huddersfield. How long was the Huddersfield deal? Three years. Yeah, three years. Just over three years I was there. Yeah. So, as we all know, it didn't go to plan. Yeah. Uh certainly didn't go to your plan, the club's plan. Um looking back, would you have done anything differently? Uh yeah, there's there's always things. You learn things and again, going to see how that helped you breathe and look at things a little bit differently from a step back position as well.
Um I look at it quite fondly. It's weird. I look at it quite fondly because we managed to change the club around to get to a Challenge Cup Final and we finished third that year. And then the year after we thought we'd recruited right to be strong. Teo Fages, another one, great player. Um great bloke as well. Had um things to deal with. We had quite a lot of things to deal with that year, which be it became more than rugby. Like when I say before that people don't understand what was on behind the scenes. It became more than rugby that year. But the year after, probably because of the impact of the year before, we played 10 games at the start of year, won seven, and we'd only lost to Wigan Saints very, very closely.
And um Hull KR we lost to. And then we got in the Challenge Cup semi-finals still. But it didn't feel like we were winning. Even though we were seven out of 10 and we'd got to a Challenge Cup semi-final. I don't know because maybe because of the year before and maybe that was me more so than anything else that year. Like What you do you think you were negative about it? You felt negative about how you were going? I tried not to be but I look back and I ask people now, do you think I was? Do you think I bred that through to some of the players a little bit? So, that's
where you've got to take That's just cuz you're expecting more. Yeah, because I just wanted the group to win, mate. I just wanted us to be better and I wanted to kind of conquer this that Huddersfield were a bottom end team that we could get to the top end as well. And you care for the players. The pleasing thing about it was going training working with the players. I love that there. Uh there was other things that you didn't like about being there, but working with the players were great. The last day I was there, I remember taking some young guys, you won't even know about them. Archie Sye, Jacob Alga, some of them have made their debuts this year. I remember being on the mats with them on
my last day just coaching them through some like footwork drills for defense to try and improve it. I'm just glad I did that on my last day with them. Did you know it was your last day? No, I didn't. I got a phone call the day after. So, we'd prepared team all week for Leigh. And then I got a phone call the day before the captain's run. I would have liked to have gone into that game, but the results had gone down. We'd we started picking up a hell of a lot of injuries. We had a lot of injuries for the semi-final, and some guys played in that busted for us. Um and we didn't manage to get the result. And then after
that, we just went through a phase where we had like really indifferent performances. Um and the club then decided to make a decision on that, which is professional sport. It's what happens, but at the time I was kind of bitter about that because I was just so obsessed with trying to make them a real force. Um I was probably overlooking probably the human side of the game a little bit with people as well, where it was just like drive to try and be better rather than like say take a step back and breathe a little bit. know in that situation, do you did you left feeling that they'd pulled the trigger too soon? Do you know like you
feel like you're on the way What I always find with coaches, you've got a plan, right? You know where you're going. And that road from where you are to where you're going is not a straight line up, is it? It's ups and downs. But, timing is massive, isn't it? We'd lost from the 22 season when we'd done really well, we'd lost like three major players. Ricky Leutele, Danny Levi, Josh and these were big players for us. It was difficult to replace at last minute like how left how they long left. So, the year after didn't go to plan. So, I decided myself and this is probably something I should have spoke to the
club about. I decided I was going to sign younger players because we were losing them to tie them up to longer deals, but good young players. Harry Rushtons, Sam Olssons, I went after Elliot Wallace, Hugo Salebio, people like these guys because I just thought if we can bring them younger guys through and we can get them tied up longer, then it will take Huddersfield in the right direction. George Flanagan, sign George Flanagan there. People so but to do that in the last year, we needed our experienced players to stay fit. The Leroy Cudjoes, the Chris Hills, the Kev Naiqamas. When we got to that semi-final, we started losing them.
Yeah, yeah. And then after that, you see now people talk about the injuries. Now, it is a big thing for a coach because a coach is as good as his players. The players make coaches and everyone will tell you that. If you've got good players, then you've probably got a good coach as well underneath you there as well, but it doesn't mean that you can't coach and that's the one thing that when I went to Seattle, I worked with the rugby union guys and they loved the detail we talk about in league and it opened my eyes to right just because you've been let go from a different club, doesn't mean you're a bad coach. So, it's about like focus on what you can do. So, I was a little bit bitter at the time,
but in hindsight, that's the decision that they made. They felt that they needed to go in a different way and I won't hold that against them. That was what they thought and again for me, it was probably the right decision to step away and just to breathe and have some family time as well. The family time in Seattle was probably the biggest eye opener cuz for years, 20 years I'd played for, we'd never really had holidays. I had 10 years coaching even when I'm on holiday, I'm talking to Shaun Wane about trying to sign Liam Marshall something like that. So, Obsessed. You weren't relieved. I don't know why It's not a job. It's not a job even on holiday, you're working in the club. You ask Wane and it's stuff like with when you're back at club
rugby, it's non-stop. It's 24/7. You see I see it in Willie here and then like I see him at the gym and he's walking on the gym on the phone and he's talking and I'm on the treadmill now and I'm just thinking that was me. So, hang on, but this is what you want. You said you want this again. the kind of the you're always chasing the highs of the game and I've loved playing being involved in rugby since I've been oh 9 years old. I played rugby before and it's been my life and I've loved it. And I've even when I've left Huddersfield, I didn't fall out of love with the game. I didn't lose my love for the game. I love the game. I've been involved in it all the time. I just went through a real
tough period myself personally and kind of collectively as a club and a team. And it's about learning from that. So what are to see the state that Salford's in and the challenges that Huddersfield are going through? I mean you now at Hull KR one of the top clubs in Super League. Yeah, I think you could draw a line. I think what Ian's done is when he leaves a club they go under. So Huddersfield might go. I'm saying Hull KR could be in trouble in 3 years. Don't let him go. Yeah, it's it's disappointing to see what's happened at Salford. I'm devastated. I was in America and I was kind of seeing it and I was tune tuning like to Sky to watch the games and I was seeing all like the chats getting
like Chris Irwin and people like them all in before to kind of get some clarification on what's happening. Really disappointing kind of from where we'd been in terms of you knew your salary cap, you knew what you had to spend to the position that they've got themselves into now and luckily now hopefully fingers crossed Mason's come in and it can really help the club go forward and grow it again. But I've got nothing but fond memories from Salford. And even leave leaving people thought I left there on but I didn't leave there on bad terms. We did the right thing for what was the right thing for the club at that time. And like I said, I loved my time there as well. So kind of got a big place in my heart at Salford cuz I started there as a junior player as
well. Yeah, how much of a challenge is Huddersfield then when you've been there? Because for us it's always it's a weird place. Yeah. It's like when you say it's a weird place for us, do you mean as players? Well, it's such a huge stadium and there's just not enough fans. As a player it's the one stadium you walk into. You run out on the field and you didn't feel like you were playing a game. Yeah, you feel like it's an away game sometimes. That's That was the feedback we got from the we played Salford in a playoff final. And the guys were now on the field going, "Flip next like an away game
here." Salford fans were all in and screaming and singing. So, the big thing and I tried to change this at Huddersfield. We spoke with the went to the supporters association and tried to say, "Let's all get together." Cuz I remember when the at away games, the Huddersfield supporters were phenomenal. Yeah, cuz they're all packed in a little group. Yeah, they were all together and they're all singing Ellen Road when we played KR in the semi-final. Phenomenal. I remember going to a game. Um I can't remember where it was now when it was away. I remember more being bunched up. Oh my god, it was a brilliant atmosphere. It was unbelievable. get lost in that stadium and you feel lonely. that's one of the biggest things. So, if
if I could say anything to him, it's just about getting together and combining the links with the club with the community there as well because you've got people like Leroy Cudjoe, absolute legend of Huddersfield as well. Loves the club, loves the area, goes coaches Mold Green. Use him, use him, get people in. Get him into a community area. And I believe that's obviously what they're doing now, looking at trying to get a new stadium. Hopefully That'd be massive for them in the area. Cuz I feel like that stadium, everyone's got the memories [snorts] of it just being oh, it's you don't want to be there, do you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Only issue I do have with that is that it's been 30 [clears throat] years Super League now. You've had They've had 30 years to grow that fan base. Do you know? They've had successful teams. Um the fan base got up to maybe 7, 8,000 and 9,000 ish at one stage, didn't it? It's now down at 3 and 1/2, 4. It's like been a long project not to get people in Huddersfield genuinely interested in rugby. I think they've they've only had short-term success. I think most coaches that have been there when they have been successful, they've had short-term success. They've never been able to kind of maintain it. For whatever reason that is. It's like I said, myself, I thought we was on the front foot when we did what we
did in 22, I thought, "Yeah, this is about now building this and about being regular top four and doing what Hook out of money to do really, but for whatever reason that wasn't possible to kind of maintain it or build on top of that. And unfortunately fell away the same when um Paul Anderson won the league leader shield there. Straight away more or less after that it kind of fell apart again and died. It's like I say I don't I don't know. I can't put my finger on it. I'll probably still be there. But I can't put my finger on it. Longest serving Huddersfield Giants head coach in the history of Super League. I'm only kidding. Um okay, we're almost out of time. So on and off the bench a segment that we treasure on the bench podcast.
Um on the bench something you want to see less of. Off the bench something you want to inject into the game or just the world. Oh, inject. Do you know what Do you know what I'm probably just going to stay on rugby for it because one of the things I've been talking about this week with some of the youth guys here is the reserves competition about how it was when we was back playing um probably about more me when it was a proper league a proper competition and it helps grow and develop young players. So we've got a young fellow playing on the wing today here. We're going to have a few as well. Yeah, we've
got some Yeah, and they're but they're they're playing as well all the time at the moment in the reserves as well. We've got like the best kids kind of coming through. I kind of can't wait to see them play too. I'm excited to see them talking about like rugby. We've got Noah Booth playing on the wing. I think this will be his third game this year. So that's it. That's unacceptable. It's unacceptable. It's mental. I remember coming through and we had the under 18s and the under 21s. We were playing for the under 21s. We didn't even care about the first team cuz we had our own competition. We like seeing where we on the ladder and you
were that engrossed in like the under 21s comp and going to a grand final. You knew what the first team were doing, but it wasn't it was like a completely other league, wasn't it? You look at these kids and for them to get a game they've either got to go on loan to the other end of the country. They've got to wait for a chance for one bloke to get injured to get one week in. It's just it's not a system of development, is it? No, absolutely. So, when we want players to come through and be better, and that was the one thing we found at Huddersfield when we was bringing some of the younger fellas through like Kieran Rush, Ollie Russell, people like them when they were coming through. If they was in our squad,
they couldn't play at weekend for somebody else. So, it stopped them actually playing a game. So, then we had to try and balance out of what was right for their development. Yeah, whereas if they just had a game at weekend for the res, you can name them in your 21, but then if you can go and play on your for your reserves the following night or the day after that, then they're getting game time and they're developing, and then you're going to get a lot more youngsters kind of coming through. Cuz I know the best school for me was when I started playing reserves, and you had some old players playing who didn't mind to like take your head off and teach you about what the game was about, and you
learn about what the game was all about then from them. So, yeah, that has been the biggest one for me. Okay, so that's off. Sorry. That's your off the bench you want to say. Shutting you down. Um you're on the bench cuz we are just we're on time. So, um what do you want to say less of, Ian Watson? To let off? Yeah. What? I know it's a big topic at the moment, the captain's challenge in and around not get rid of the captain's challenge, just the timings in and around it that we can just need to tidy that up as well because Make it quicker.
Yeah, just be because I'm how long the games are going at the moment. I think Sam Burgess referred to it after our semi-final game about how long it's kind of going. And when this experience from the MLR, they were doing it over there as well. And now they got really snappy at it, but the first few weeks they did it, the games were going over 2 hours. Um so yeah, nearly cost me a flight coming home from Warrington to Manchester. Yeah, to see me fly left. Yeah, yeah. I was panicking like speed this up. Just give it. Just get it. Just keep that clock running. I think that this is yeah, this is certainly something that a lot of people want to see.
We did I mean we're at time. Yep, go. Yeah, people with ticks, right? Eddie Gardner at Warrington's got a tick when you talk to him. Yeah, he goes like this with his head when you're talking to him. And he does what? So for those who aren't watching, Johnny's very quickly He'll just be talking to you in the conversation, he does this. Like that, and it's like, you know when someone's got a tick? Well, there's one of us here has got a tick. I don't have a tick. Do you have a tick? Not that I know of. have a tick. Ian Watson, you've got a tick. You know what your tick is. But you know what your tick is.
YEAH, YEAH, WE WERE WATCHING PAUL TOPHAM, A GREAT SWINTON player kicking goals when he was I was a ball boy. I was watching him warm up at Leigh on the pitch again. I said, "I've not seen that The groundsman hate me cuz I'm always digging the pitch up. Yeah, so I tap my toes. I do it on the treadmill, so I've got GOOD RHYTHM NOW. TAP MY TOES, BUT ALL THE GROUNDSMEN hate me. Going on the pitch He's digging holes. Yeah, I'm digging holes with my feet. So just for again, people who People aren't watching, we need to voice it. So explain what The best one I can tell you is when I played for Halifax,
Damian Gibson made his mates have a drinking game every time they saw me tap my toes on the pitch. Absolutely hilarious. He went home and they were all on the floor and all fast asleep. And they just went, "Oh my god, how many times did he tap his toes?" It's just like when I'm running, I just Is it a nervous OCD thing or is it actually a tick? I got into a bad habit of doing it. So you cannot get out of it now? No, I'm I'm better now than what I was before. Have you seen people about it? Uh no. seen a doctor about it? A doctor spoke to me about it and said, "I'm going to knock on my knees if I carry on doing it." But right one still busting His left foot is three sizes smaller than his right.
Ask your local doctor, he'll tell you. I have holes in my toes on my boots and that. Did that would give you bunions? Have you got bunions? No, no, I'm all good. I've got an infection UM I'M I'M I'M SO sorry that we've kept That was one of your best, Johnny. Well, I'm so glad I let you go over. Thank you to everybody in the trucks for allowing us to go over these uh last few minutes because that was exceptional. Um I hope you tow tuck your way through a victory tonight against a very young Wigan Warriors side Ian Watson thank you so much for joining us on the bench. Sam John it's just been great having us all back together.
