Leon Pryce has points still to prove

Aug 29 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

LEON PRYCE goes into tomorrow’s Carnegie Challenge Cup final in the form of his life but with points still to prove.

The former Bradford utility player has enjoyed his best season yet with St Helens and is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the Lance Todd Trophy in the meeting with Hull tomorrow – an honour he shared with full-back Paul Wellens a year ago in their win over Catalans Dragons.

The England stand-off, who was man of the match for his country in the mid-season win over France, has been delighted with his form this season but warns there is more to come.

“I think it’s a progression,” he said. “In my first year it was a matter of finding my bearings and I think last year I had a good year but I probably wasn’t fit enough to make an impact for the full 80.

“This year I’ve basically done what I knew I could do and I know I can do a lot more. You never stop learning and you should keep improving each year.

“It’s a gradual build-up hopefully for the next four or five years of playing my best rugby.”

The 26-year-old Pryce was used mainly as a winger or centre by his former coach Brian Noble with both Bradford and Great Britain and made no secret of his frustration at being denied the chance to play in his favourite position.

He got the number six jersey following his shock move to Knowsley Road three years ago and has not looked back since.

“It’s been an accumulation of things that have come together, maturing as a person and realising what I’ve got to do to achieve my goals,” he said.

“It was a change of club, a change of coach and a change of position which is what I always wanted to do.

“I’ve not achieved all my goals yet. In all the big games I played in for Bradford I wasn’t the dominant part of the team I wanted to be.

“This Saturday I will go there as a key figure in the team, somebody the guys rely on to play.

“That’s always what I wanted to do, to be that player your team-mates rely on to pull you out of sticky situations by scoring a match-winning try.

“I want to be playing the full game in a pivotal role and not coming off the bench for 15 or 20 minutes. That’s not me. I don’t want to look back on my career and be remembered as a guy who came on for 10 and 15 minutes.

“That’s why I want to stay in rugby league and finish what I’ve started.

“I’ll be at Saints for the next two to three years which I’m contracted for and, in that time, I want to dominate my position and dominate Super League.

“I still feel I have got things to prove in rugby league and I see my future at Saints.”

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