Powell not fussed over what position he plays for Wigan

Sam Powell has been handed the number seven shirt at Wigan Warriors for 2018 but he says he isn’t bothered about what position he plays.

The England Knights international originally came through the ranks at the club as a half-back but found form as a hard-working hooker in recent years, mainly coming off the bench for the now departed Micky McIlorum.

Wigan head coach Shaun Wane has handed Powell the number seven jersey for 2018 though, indicating that he could play in the halves alongside George Williams, but Powell says he isn’t fussed about what position he plays.

Speaking at Wigan’s media day on Monday, Powell told loverugbyleague.com: “I’m comfortable to play 80 minutes but it’s not dead set that I’ll playing hooker.

“I just want to be starting games for Wigan whether that it’s at half-back or hooker, I’m not too bothered as long as I’m playing.”

There is expected to be a number of positional changes at the Warriors this year, with Tommy Leuluai set to wear the number nine shirt and England Academy hooker Josh Ganson being upgraded to number 23.

And Powell, 25, revealed that he and Ganson, 19, could learn a lot from one another this season.

He added: “It doesn’t seem two minutes since I was 18 or 19 trying to establish myself in the first team!

“Gans (Josh Ganson) is a really good player anyway so he is just trying to find his feet in the first team. You are always learning so I’ll learn off Gans and he’ll learn from me.

“Learning doesn’t stop just because he is younger than me, everyone has different strengths of their game. I think you never stop learning and when you do stop learning then it’s time to move on.

“We have a young squad this year but we are hungry. We are coming off the back of a disappointing end to last year so we’re a really hungry squad and we owe one to the fans.

Obviously, there are three trophies are up for grabs and we definitely want to be winning them.”