Thomas Leuluai in no rush to decide on playing future with Wigan Warriors

The Kiwi halfback has yet to decide whether will be his final campaign as a player before he takes a role on Wigan’s coaching staff.

The 2008 World Cup winner, who turns 36 in June, is feeling both fit and motivated as he continues preparations for the Warriors’ Super League in little more than a month’s time – against Leigh on March 26.

Just like the last few seasons, he plans to make a call on his playing future towards the back-end of the campaign.

“I haven’t decided, it’ll be the same process as I’ve done recently,” said Leuluai.

“I’m feeling good, I’m physically I’m fit and mentally still enjoying it, but there’s no point making a call yet.”

Leuluai is a veteran of pre-season training schedules, having made his senior debut for New Zealand Warriors back in 2003.

“The training definitely changes from when I first started, there’s a lot more detail and attention on things like how far you run,” he said.

“They’re all hard in their own ways. It’s kinda funny seeing how it’s evolved too. Teams look to see what others are doing – you’ll find one team does an army camp and has some success, and so the next year others are doing army camps.”

With the season only starting at the end of March – and with all sides benefiting from an extended pre-season – Leuluai thinks fans should expect a better quality spectacle when the competition returns.

“The weather is the big one, because usually the first few games in January and February are hard conditions and they’re not great for the fans,” he said.

“Every club has had longer in training too but, in saying that, when we came back from lockdwn last summer we only had a couple of weeks to get ready and I was surprised how well all the clubs did, the standard was good.

“But it’s been good to have a few weeks to work on different things.”