In an extraordinary playing career, Jamie Peacock followed six successful seasons with Bradford Bulls with a decade at Leeds Rhinos. He is the most successful player of his generation, winning an unprecedented nine Super League titles and four Challenge Cups. He also made 21 appearances for England and 26 for Great Britain. He is now Hull KR’s Head of Rugby and England’s team manager.

England had their first training session this week. Is it a case of making lots of small changes in the hope that they add up and make a big change on the field?

Yeah, you are right. Every little helps. Everything we can do to help us win the World Cup we’re going to do. The training sessions are good for the players because they get everyone together and they get that shared sense of “we’re in this together to win the World Cup”. It’s a big year for the game and the English team.

England’s rugby union and cricket teams both have some overseas-born players, and all the international rugby league teams England face pick the best eligible players they can. Is it something England’s rugby league team need to look at?

We’ve done that before under previous coaches and it’s something that they’ll still look to do. They’re the rules, like them or lump them. You’ve just get to get on with it. You can use them your advantage. Other sports do and other countries do, so why not.

Do you think people would care if England won the World Cup in December with, say, four Aussie-born players in the team?

You’re always going to get people who it doesn’t feel right with, but I’d rather win the World Cup with a couple of players who are eligible through the rules, if they are going to strengthen the side, than not win it.

There is talk of the Ashes and the Great Britain team finally returning. How do you feel about that?

The Great Britain brand is one of the few, iconic, blue-chip brands within rugby league. So the sooner that’s back in the sport the better. Once every four years would be fantastic. I think it’s got to come back as a touring shirt. Every eight years is a tour and every eight years is an Ashes series. Play the Aussies in the Ashes at home then go on a tour taking in, say, Papua New Guinea for one game, a Test in Australia, a select side in New Zealand, then play the Kiwis, and then, say, Fiji on the way home.

You played for England and Great Britain. Given the teams were virtually the same, did they feel any different?

When you wear the Great Britain shirt, you’re just aware you’re standing on the shoulders of giants. You’re aware of all the previous people who’ve worn that shirt. I wanted to give the sort of performance that those players would want from it. So, for me, it did mean more.

Jamie Peacock playing for Great Britain in 2005. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Is your role with England any different in a World Cup year?

It does change. I’m the team manager when we are out in Australia for the mid-season test against Samoa [on 8 May] and at the World Cup, which is an endless list of five-minute jobs, none of which is essential or critical to the campaign but f-up five or six and it begins to become an issue. So it’s a non-stop, busy job. But away from that I am organising the logistical side of those trips and the in-season training. I am enjoying it and I’m working with a good group of people: Paul Wellens, Paul Anderson, Paul Sculthorpe, Kevin Sinfield. There’s some good people at the RFL. Whenever you work with good people who get things done, it’s enjoyable.

Does it feel like you’ve got the old Great Britain gang back together?

It is like that. There is a bit of camaraderie there although we’re all older and some of us are a little bit fatter! It’s trust: you earn that trust with each other. We just get the jobs done. Some rugby league players don’t understand they have that ability: they say they’ll do something and they pull through and get it done. If you don’t you get found out. That work ethic is not universally found in the workplace. Some players need to realise when they leave the game that they’ve got a huge asset to a potential employer, skills they can use in other vocations.

Hull KR have made a great start to life back in the Championship. What was preparation like as a club for this season compared to last year in Super League?

For me it was totally different because when I came in last year the whole rugby department needed a complete overhaul in terms of coaching staff, protocols, framework, and all that is in place now. We’ve got a team full of players who want to play for the club, a fantastic head coach with very, very good rugby staff around him, ably backed up by the commercial, community and marketing staff, and a great owner. Every successful organisation needs people who are good at what they do and we’ve got that now. We’ve got a culture where people go and get things done and do things the right way. Although relegation was horrendous – and I wouldn’t wish the Million Pound Game on anyone – the club’s going to come back stronger from it.

Jamie Peacock of Hull Kingston Rovers looks dejected after Hull KR’s defeat in the Million Pound Game. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Reuters

Last year, expectations might have been a top-eight finish for Hull KR. Now everyone expects you to get promoted. Do you feel much more pressure?

Nah, it’s just about being the best we can be and not what other people expect from us. That’s right across the board from players to backroom staff. If you try every week to be the best you can be, nobody can ask any more from you, so there’s no pressure. If you nail your potential and come up short, there’s nothing more can be done.

I wrote about the problem of Super League lacking so many big-city clubs this year. The response from your fans has shown that Super League needs Hull KR.

Hull KR is unique in that respect. If other clubs had gone down, a large proportion of their fans would have walked away from it. It’s a club that’s been starved of success but has a loyal support and is a real community club, embedded in East Hull. So people have rallied around it. People like a cause in that area of the country. Their pride in their community is about their sporting club and wanting success for it. When it gets hurt, they get hurt – and they want to do something about it. We’ve seen that with the groundswell of support the club has received, with the number of memberships sold – more than last season – and the level of sponsorship received. Our membership sales would be in the top half of Super League.

Looking at the decline of Leeds and Huddersfield last year and Leicester City this season, how difficult is it to back up success, as you did year after year with Leeds Rhinos?

I was fortunate to play in a group of players who were never satisfied. When I look at Leicester and what’s happened to them, they were a bunch of average players who exceeded expectation and were happy to win the Premier League just the one time. Whereas at Leeds we had a group of eight or nine of us who wanted to relentlessly and ruthlessly win time and again. At the heart of any great sporting dynasty is a core of players and coaches who have that same ruthlessness towards winning: once is never enough. As soon as you’ve celebrated one you’re on to the next one and wanting to win that. Why would you want to do something amazing only once in your life?

When did you realise you were surrounded by those type of players at Leeds or was it down to the characters they recruited each year?

It rubbed off on the new arrivals. The group of us who’d been there a long time were the dominant group over that 10-year period and if you signed for the club you either got on board with it and bought into it, or you were there for a year or two and were out. Those who got it were there for five or six years. It was about getting to finals and winning – and then getting to the next one.

Do you believe in “win fatigue”: players just not having the mental strength to put themselves through the physical demands required to keep them on top?

Yeah. Players sometimes lose sight of what made them successful, the sacrifices they made. If you win two or three times in a row you can become soft around the edges and not make the tough, self-disciplined decisions you make when you weren’t winning. As Rocky says in Rocky III, it’s about the eye of the tiger! That’s Hollywood showing us what that’s all about: having it all and then not being prepared to do the hard yards to keep winning. But we had a group of players who were prepared to do whatever it took to win.

On Friday you will be guest of honour at the PCUBED Varsity match in the City of London. What advice do you have for Cambridge, who have lost the last seven – and the last one by a record margin?

You’ve got to be confident and confidence comes from focussing on what you do well and really nailing that. Focus as well on the small things that you can change that you are not so good at. I very rarely had a bad game because of my review process. I always looked at the three things I did well and one thing I didn’t do well and looked to improve them all. I think that ratio allows you to gain confidence. Losing teams often focus on what they can’t do and what’s going wrong. That focus needs to be on what you are getting right and a much smaller part on what you are doing wrong. I mentor people in business and talk about that kind of review process.

What were you doing at their age?

I left school at 16 and went to work until I was nearly 19 and then went full-time at Bradford Bulls. It was the dawn of Super League and full-time contracts for younger players became the norm. We’d go to college one day a week, train during the day and on the night-time, and be in and around the community delivering their sessions as well. Going to university was never on the cards back then. Lads like me just didn’t go, it wasn’t the done thing for working class kids. But it’s great that rugby league is being played in so many universities. If I was an 18 or 19-year-old at university and given the opportunity to play the game, I’d love that. It’s the chance to bond with people with a mutual love of the same game. Some of the best times of my life were when I was 18 years old, playing at Stanningley, with that shared sense of achievement with your mates.

You did play rugby league for a university though. Can you tell us about that?

Matthew Elliott, who was the coach at Bradford then, told me I had the opportunity to go to Dewsbury on loan or Wollongong University. Tough choice! I’ve still never been to Dewsbury! I didn’t actually go to the University of Wollongong but had use of all their facilities. Quite a few of the team went to the university then a number, like me, were brought in just to play for them. It was an open club. Our coach was Greg Mackey – the scrum-half who played for Hull and Warrington over here and for Illawarra Steelers – who died last year. We didn’t always see eye to eye because we were both strong-willed people, but I think those are some of the healthiest relationship. I learned a hell of a lot, especially on the mental side of the game. I will be forever grateful to Greg for him being a part of my journey to being a professional player.

The PCUBED varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge takes place in London this Friday. How important is it that rugby league is played in places such as Oxford and Cambridge universities?

Firstly, it shows that the game is universal. Rugby league is for everyone, no matter what your class or background. I want people to love it for the values it brings: commitment, self-sacrifice, teamwork, discipline. They’re values you need if you’re going to be successful in rugby league whatever your background, whether you’re working class or upper class. Secondly, rugby league suffers from a perception that it’s a working class sport, which affects its ability to attract commercial partners. It’s difficult because people who work in these large organisations as often as not played union at university and have an affinity with union. For us to get an affinity with people destined to be successful in the commercial world, who will become decision-makers, can only be good for rugby league. You play at university, you like the game, you get what the game represents: the comradeship, the humbleness. These days they are important and they’re values not seen in every sport and every walk of life.

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