Salford ace Craig Kopczak can see the light through the Red Devils’ Super 8s gloom ahead of 2018
Ian Watson's men have had a poor run in the series but prop feels lessons can be learned
CRAIG Kopczak believes Salford’s poor Super 8s run could pay off in the future.
Ian Watson’s men have gone from fourth at the start of the seven game series to seventh and all but out of the top four reckoning.
But prop Kopczak insists the lessons learned about what it takes to compete at the real sharp end will stand Ian Watson’s men in good stead.
And anything picked up in 2017 can be showed in 2018, even if things do not appear to be going well at Leeds tonight.
Kopczak said: “It’s been a learning curve for the club and Ian, who’s a young coach, is still learning. Some of the players haven’t been in this environment before or in play-off games.
“It’s great for the club to be in that position and it’s really only going to make the club stronger and develop.
“We’ve gone outstandingly well all year but we dropped our standards. However, we showed last weekend that we can get them back and hopefully we can keep them in a big test at Leeds.
“It’s definitely a test of where we are in terms of the top four.”
As well as current domestic concerns with Salford, Kopczak has taking on the world to weigh up after being named Wales’ captain for the World Cup.
And he has been doing his research ahead of taking on Papua New Guinea in their own back yard.
Although some of it has not been pretty.
“I’ve seen a few videos of what it’s like on Youtube,” added the 30-year-old, although some of the footage available includes players fighting and fans rioting.
“My friends also showed me some and it looks quite interesting!”
