WITH VIDEO – Leeds Rhinos ace Brett Delaney has already faced one of his toughest opponents before Super League starts – a cow!
Aussie ace came second in the battle after being asked to perform an internal examination during pre-season camp
LEEDS have already met their match while mucking in together as they try to bounce back from a nightmare 2016 - a cow!
Coach Brian McDermott and his players spent two days at a youth hostel in North Yorkshire for the final part of their pre-season preparations.
Trekking up hill and down dale – literally – was part of the schedule, as was helping out at a nearby farm.
But big, burly back-rower Brett Delaney came out second best after being asked to shove his hand up a cow’s behind!
The Aussie ace got suited up, including wearing the long lycra gloves that vets wear when they have to make the check.
But whenever Delaney approached the animal, it had none of it – much to the amusement of his watching team-mates.
Joking and laughter aside, there has been a serious reason for heading to the middle of nowhere, where there was not even a wifi or mobile phone signal, after the 2015 treble winners ended up battling relegation.
And coach Brian McDermott said the trip could play a big part in the Rhinos’ plan to get back towards the top.
He said: “When you go on a camp, there’s normally some obvious objectives, like getting in a load of field sessions and a bit of bonding.
“Sometimes when you go on extreme camps, you try and break the players and see what they’re like in adversity, this hasn’t been any of those.
“We’ve done this before and it’s the same farmer we’ve used, so he’s had a better run at it this year!
“He’s had them feeding his sheep on the top then dealing with his cattle on the bottom, giving them injections and putting tags on their ears, as well as doing some dry stone wall building.
“He even invited a few players to do internal investigations of his cows! A few tried but they didn’t go for it.
“I wasn’t interested in injuring the players or challenging them with lack of sleep or anything but the fact we were at a youth hostel for three nights in inclement weather tested them and took them out of their comfort zone.
“I wasn’t bothered about taking notes but I was bothered about them seeing each other in an uncomfortable environment.
“One of the best players in the world, Kallum Watkins, is there with a pair of wellies on, full of cow muck and mucking in with the boys.
“They are some extreme examples of what we’ll go through over the year.”
