Martin Gleeson links up with Featherstone after leaving rugby union

Ambitious Featherstone have turned to former England Rugby Union attack coach Martin Gleeson to fine-tune their Super League promotion bid.

Former Great Britain centre Gleeson has linked up with his former St Helens team-mate Sean Long, the head coach at Post Office Road, after leaving his role with the RFU.

He had worked as attack coach under Eddie Jones who was sacked and replaced by Steve Borthwick ahead of the Six Nations. Borthwick has since assembled his own backroom team, including Kevin Sinfield, with former league stars Gleeson, Jon Clarke and and Brett Hodgson all losing their coaching roles.

So as Gleeson ponders his next coaching move, he has been spending time on the training pitch with Long at the Championship leaders.

“He is my best mate Glees, we keep in touch and share ideas whether it is league or union,” Long revealed.

“He’s been sat on his couch so I just said ‘do you want to come down and look at some plays that we are running?’

“We are running some new shapes and he is a very intelligent bloke and has come in and given the boys fresh voice, good ideas and hopefully we will try and implement them on Monday night.”

Martin Gleeson makes good impression at Featherstone

Rovers will look to strengthen their position at the top of the table on Monday when the host the in-form Bulls, and could now have a few tricks up their sleeve.

“We have been speaking about this kind of shape for about four weeks now and the boys are loving it,” Long added on FRTV.

“We are not going to crack it straight away, it is going to take a while but throughout the season it should be bang on and give us a two-sided attack no matter where we are.

“The boys have loved it, the lads love Glees and he likes coaching on the field which is what he does best. That’s why I’ve brought him down and seems happy enough.”

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