As a lifelong season ticket holder of Wigan Warriors, imagine my dilemma in being asked to support my nephew, who has recently signed for the arch enemy, St Helens!
Even though they are the competition I am well aware of the investment that the St Helens club have made in youth development over recent years with a string of academy players making it all the way to the first team and playing regularly in Super League. So, whilst I would have preferred my nephew, Jordan Gibbons, to have had the opportunity to sign for Wigan Warriors, I was extremely pleased when he was selected to sign for St Helens.
The support that I was asked to provide was in relation to the St Helens Academy who were to tour Australia which departed on the 12th October and will take in games against West Tigers, Central Coast, Parramatta Eels and the Penrith Panthers.
As a proud English rugby league supporter I cannot think of anything better than one of our teams beating one of theirs and with the relatively modest support that Mason Owen will provide to Jordan for his trip, I hope it goes some way to helping the team to a successful string of results down under.
Best of luck to the Academy as a whole and if you would like to follow the progress of the tour you can do so by clicking here:
