Familiar name Will Poching relishing 'opportunity of a lifetime' as Wests Warriors take on Leeds Rhinos

Poching is son of former Rhinos player and assistant-coach Willie Poching - who was a Challenge Cup runner-up 20 years ago - and had a spell in Leeds’ scholarship as a teenager. Leeds boss Brad Arthur has paid full respect to the amateurs by naming his strongest-available 21-man squad for the Betfred Challenge Cup third round, but rather than being daunted, Poching insisted: “We’re looking forward to it.”

He said: “We weren’t sure if it would be a mix of young kids and maybe fringe or reserve-grade players. Either way it would have been a tough game, but with most of the first team in their squad it’s going to be even tougher. But it is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to play against some of those big boys.”

Of what would be a good result for Warriors, Poching insisted: “I don’t want to say we’ve got a low target, like just scoring a try or putting on a big hit or something. We’ve just got to go out and give everything we’ve got and give Leeds a good go.

“It’s the biggest game of everyone’s lives and we have to not be too upset or too disheartened at maybe letting in a try or being bumped off and that kind of thing. We’ve just got to dust ourselves off and make sure we keep turning up on every single play and keep working for each other.”

Warriors were unable to stage the tie at their home ground of Wasps FC in Acton, west London and Poching reckons playing at rugby league’s most iconic stadium will make the occasion even more memorable.“Growing up with my dad playing and then coaching at Leeds, Headingley is a very special place to me,” he said. “I have only played there once, when I was 15ish, but to be able to play there now is going to be a special feeling.”

Poching, 28, still lives in Wakefield and commutes to London for games and occasional training sessions. “I have known Kimbo Parkinson, the coach, since I was 10 or 11 years old,” he explained. “He was really good mates with [Wakefield Trinity player] Adam Watene and when Adam unfortunately passed away we met him through a lot of that kind of stuff. When I turned 18 I started going down to London a lot to see some of my family who had just moved from Wakefield and I had a few mates who lived down there.

“Kimbo always used to say ‘if you’re down here, I’ve got these teams if you want to come and play’. So since I was 18 I’ve been going down there to see friends and family and playing for Kimbo’s teams.”

That means Poching hasn’t been able to train with his teammates ahead of Saturday, though he played in the earlier Cup rounds against Eastern Rhinos and Army. “I’ve been doing my own training,” he said. “I trained a bit with the team over new year and I was there last week. The team trained two weeks ago with London Broncos so they were able to get a good hit out then.”

Warriors will travel to Leeds on Friday and are being put up by their hosts at Headingley Lodge, inside the stadium. “I know the club are really grateful to Leeds for helping out with accommodation and travel,” Poching added.