You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

The above words were famously uttered by legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, who presided over their famous run of five championships in nine years between 1959 and 1967.

And they are firmly etched into the mindset of Lombardi disciple Neil Back at the start of his Leeds Carnegie odyssey.

his mission brief is to instil the winning mentality engrained during the most illustrious of playing careers with Leicester Tigers and England into a set of browbeaten players licking their wounds following relegation.

Given the fact that Carnegie were on the canvas and couldn't buy a win for the bulk of their top-flight experience in 2007/08 – when they won a mere two league matches out of 22 – it's a sizeable task.

Famine has followed feast for Carnegie in the past two seasons, with promotion to the top-flight in 2007 promptly followed by relegation.

That hasn't stopped many expecting Leeds to devour a host of National One rivals en route to an instant Guinness Premiership return in 2008/09 – but Back for one isn't taking anything as read.

Attitude and professionalism will be key to everything, according to the World Cup winner – capped 66 times by his country – who has been busy building up wells of mental and physical toughness in equal measure in his charges since arriving in Yorkshire just over eight weeks ago.

And listening to one of this country's modern-day union greats at close quarters, you get the impression that restoring Carnegie's place at the Premiership table represents merely reaching the base camp before scaling further heights at his new club.

The early signs are encouraging, given two stand-out victories in pre-season over Premiership outfit Newcastle Falcons and Magners League side Connacht and a performance which pushed Sale Sharks all the way at their Edgeley Park fortress in a 38-29 reverse last Friday.

But new head coach Back doesn't need telling twice that it's all about delivering when it matters – starting against visitors Nottingham on Sunday.

Back said: "Winning becomes a habit. But so can losing.

"It's important that we break that. From the outside looking in, I saw Leeds compete wonderfully well and with passion (last season) and really take sides on and question their defence.

"So the talent is there, but I just think that on the performance side they faded towards the end of first halves and at the back end of the second half.

"What struck me with the conditioning programme that we've done in the past eight weeks is that the players are in a position mentally where they feel strong, capable and able to fight throughout the game.

"We've finished strongly in our pre-season games.

From a body language point of view, I don't know how the guys were feeling inside, but from the outside we looked the fitter side.

"That's all about displaying a positive body language. You might be hurting inside, but if you don't look like you are to others, that often gives you the edge.

"What we recognised from day one was that the guys work hard. Where we were collectively letting ourselves down was our recovery from sessions both physically and nutritionally. It's also about making sure we are hydrated and that is a major part in performance.

"Rest and recovery, nutrition and hydration all play a part in making an elite athlete. It's about being professional, which may have let us down in the past."

Back added: "My development and career at Leicester was based around a winning mentality and culture.

"The guys are starting to develop that. Winning is important, but in pre-season it's also about performance and seeing how combinations work and we've stepped things up in our games.

"But the first league game is all about winning.

"We gave ourselves a tough start in picking three difficult warm-up games. We could have gone down a much easier route, but it probably wouldn't have done us much good.

"We've picked difficult teams and stepped it up and performed well.

"It was a bit of a gamble, but it's paid off because the guys are more confident and we've demonstrated that physically we are up to the challenge although we still need to improve."

Yorkshire – more than any other union-playing area in the country – has untapped potential with Back and director of rugby Andy Key aiming to be ones who finally implant its flagship club firmly into the hearts and minds of many more folk across the Broad Acres and not just union devotees.

Despite only being at the club for a short time, Back has already detected a strong passion for success at Carnegie, where ambition and positivity reigns – allied to an insatiable appetite for hard work, something he could never be accused of being shy of.

Won over by the vast reservoir of goodwill so far, Back said: "I love it up here. When I've travelled in the past I've always respected the way you are received – which is better the more north you go.

"as a player, I always had a good reception at Leeds.

"There's a passion for union here and people understand the game. Players and staff are open to new ideas and criticism and it's a very emotional and honest environment where hard work and competition is part of the make-up."

Relishing the task in hand, Back added: "My time has flown by so far. But straight away, I realised that it was a fantastic opportunity for Andy Key and myself in terms of developing our coaching career.

"But the main pull for me was the infrastructure up here and obviously the club's association with the university.

"That was coupled with a good playing squad and very good coaching staff.

So first of all, we had to ask the question why we find ourselves in the position we are.

"But for me, the most important thing was that the club had ambition. Quite frankly, I wouldn't have come here if not.

"The board backed our initial presentation to them and the things we have talked about putting in place have been financially backed as well.

"This is the start of a three-year programme. This year, the first goal is the very tough challenge of getting back into the Premiership.

"But everything so far makes me really positive that it's achievable."