© Melbourne Storm

Sinfield and Smith with the World Club Challenge trophy

After this morning’s weights session, Craig Bellamy and Cam Smith made their way to Elland Road for the major press conference leading up to Sunday’s big game. It was the two coaches and captains coming head to head for the first time, and these occasions are always interesting to see. There’s always the question of how they will react in each other’s presence, will they be friendly, will it be frosty, will they talk, will they stay as far away from each other as possible? On this occasion, it was very friendly…to a point. When we arrived their coach Brian McLennan made a bee line for Cam and they chatted for ages. I didn’t notice any of the others chatting, but watching this was interesting.

The press conference then began and they do a things a little differently here. First they have an all in press conference where the two captains and coaches sit together and answer questions from the media. Afterwards the media then get an opportunity to interview the respective captains and coaches one on one. Because of this format the all in press conference at the beginning becomes obsolete. The media hardly ask any questions because they don’t want to share their questions with the other media. I have a suggestion for the RFL, either make the all in pres conference the only opportunity to ask questions, or only have the one on one interviews, not both. With the current format the all in at the start is a waste of time.

Cam and their captain Kevin Sinfield then went outside for a quick photo shoot with the trophy. However, because it was so cold, this lasted about three minutes, and this is something the RFL do really well. They get the players in and out of the photographer’s grasp very quickly.

After the media commitments, the rest of the day was free for the staff and players. Everyone had to sort themselves out for lunch and dinner and it was a good chance for everyone to relax and take their minds off the football.

To read the full Tour Diary, click HERE.