George Williams tells how RU can help end Warrington’s 70-year title drought
GEORGE Williams has revealed a dose of rugby union can help him crack the code and end Warrington’s title drought.
The Wolves have amazingly gone 70 years without being crowned kings of the 13-a-side game.
But England skipper Williams, a key cog of Sam Burgess’ side, has lifted the lid on how things from 15-a-side may help break defences.
And it is all thanks to a ‘genius’ – first team coach and former England RU attack supremo Martin Gleeson.
He said: “We’ve got a genius with the ball in Martin.
“And he’s sending me rugby union clips, that’s how much he loves it and he’s saying, ‘How can we transfer this over?’ He’s non-stop but that’s how you get better.
“He’d show me a scrum play in union and ask, ‘How can we get this to work? ’He’s always on it, which is good for me.
“There may be different rules and a couple more players but you can still put on similar plays. We’re always thinking of how to improve and there’s a fair bit already been brought in, you may see even more coming up.
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“It’s down to the tiniest of details. He looks at things in so much depth through so much footage. I’m analysing everything in my game now.
“He’s been so good for my development at 29/30-years-old. You’ve seen a fair bit in your career but I feel like he’s improved me.
“It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I love it again. I’m obsessed with winning and looking at training. He’s brought another spark to me, which is good at my age.”
Stand-off Williams, 30, knows what it takes to win after coming through at Wigan.
Now to finally end the most unbelievable of title droughts and that much heard chant, ‘It’s always your year.’
And after taking time to get used to what Burgess wants in 2024, it can be all systems go from the off in 2025.
He added, despite yesterday’s 20-12 trial match loss to Leigh: “We learned some valuable lessons about ourselves as a team. I think we found our identity to be honest.
“We built good foundations but still weren’t good enough. We’ve made some great inroads, though, in building an environment to win.
“That foundation’s laid, we know what’s demanded and what we need to do.
“We had a couple of issues in adjusting to what Sam wanted and what he wanted Warrington to look like.
“There are certain values we stand by now. We’ve everything we need to win – now’s the year to kick on.”