Thomas Leuluai says Wigan’s next generation inspired him to play another year
THOMAS Leuluai will push his aching body through one more season after being inspired by Wigan’s bone-crunching next generation.
The Kiwi half-back insists signing for one more year did not take much thinking about, even though it takes him longer to get over games.
Gone are the days of putting himself through a Super League match then feeling like he could do it all again the next day.
However, the way youngsters like Ollie Partington, Liam Byrne and Morgan Smithies have stood up to and flattened many opponents has given Leuluai – who can put in big hits himself – extra motivation.
The 34-year-old, who insists Wigan is his second home, even though his wife was born in the town and his second child will be, said: “It’s not like I’m not hobbling around or in a wheelchair on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
“But to be honest, the whole club needed the likes of Ollie, Morgan and Liam to step up and shoulder a lot.
“You can use them as much as you want but they’ve learned things pretty quickly and they just keep improving. You’d expect them to maybe tail off a bit but they just haven’t.”
With 20-year-old Partington and teenagers Smithies and Byrne on board, Wigan are looking ominously like Grand Final contenders after an awful start to the season.
And Leuluai, who has been there, seen it and done it with the Warriors several times over, revealed to SunSport he always knew adapting to coach Adrian Lam’s methods would not be easy.
One of the turning points came in the 19-18 win at tonight’s opponents Hull KR.
He added: “I always believed we were good enough but I always knew this year would be tough and it would take us a bit of time but eight weeks ago we were third bottom, now we’re fourth from top.
“We won a few tight games, which we knew we had the belief that we could win last year, like Hull KR and Salford away. They weren’t going our way at the start of the year.”
TOP RUGBY LEAGUE STORIES
