SEAN Long hopes to help England’s World Cup quest by bringing a bit of chaos to Luke Gale.
And Super League’s two-week season delay may actually see him back for the start.
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Sean Long believes he can bring more out of Luke GaleCredit: SWPIX.COM
The Leeds scrum-half is a contender for the Autumn tournament as Shaun Wane’s men look to go one better than 2017’s near miss.
But league legend Long wants to bring more out of him now he is working with him full-time as the Rhinos’ assistant.
Much of that involves working outside of structures while he may be back after tearing a pectoral muscle for the opening game, which will now be on March 25.
Long, who wants Gale to see things through his eyes, said: “His game management is bang on but I’m going to teach him about playing in a bit of chaos, ad-lib rugby.
“He’s really good at the structured stuff but you need to do both. You need to think outside the box at times.
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Long is now full-time as Leeds’ assistant coachCredit: SWPIX.COM
“With the six again rule, you can coach it. Sometimes you’ve just got to play what you see.
“Delaying the season is the right decision. With finishing later last year, lads from all clubs needed operations, so it gives the time to get back.
“Sometimes when you start early, you don’t have the best players on the field. It’s done us a favour a little bit.”
Long, who moved from Harlequins RU, has changed things as he admits his time in the 15-a-side code opened his eyes.
But the Covid-19 protocols, which make big group sessions impossible, may actually prove a good thing.
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Leeds are looking to do better in Super League after winning last season’s Challenge CupCredit: SWPIX.COM
The former St Helens star added: “Now I look at league with a wider perspective and I’m seeing things I wouldn’t before. There’s quite a lot union can learn from league too!
“We addressed some areas from last season we needed to improve on. So we sat down as staff, presented it to the players and they’ve really bought into it.
“We know what we need to work on to compete at a high level ever week with the likes of St Helens and Wigan but with the way we’re going about things, fingers crossed we can push the top two.
“Wigan and St Helens are the benchmark. We showed in patches last season what we can do but we need to be more consistent and ruthless.
“We want to go to the next level this season and it’s actually better being in smaller groups as I can get more skill into the players.
“They’re getting their hands on the ball a lot more as there’s only six of them.”
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