LAM’S OLD PAL FURNER IS HIS NEW FOE NOW
vADRIAN LAM sat alongside David Furner for his Wigan debut as a player – now he will be in the opposite dug-out as a coach.
Papua New Guinean Lam (above, left) takes charge of his first home game against Leeds tonight after starting his 12-month stint at the club before Shaun Edwards makes his own Wigan comeback.
And there will be a familiar face opposing him in old Warriors teammate Furner, who is looking to make his own mark on the Rhinos.
Lam said: “I made my debut here with Dave Furner way back in 2001.
“We’re both coming back here for the first time as coaches now.
“I remember sitting down in the dressing room and when you looked across at
Dave as part of your team you felt at ease and comfortable.
“The Leeds players will see that in him too and want to play for him a little bit more this week.
“As a player, you knew what you were getting from him and that was a consistent player week-in week-out who could score tries as well.”
The pair (above) lifted the 2002 Challenge Cup together at Murrayfield and featured in the 2001 Grand Final defeat by Bradford – but now have very different focuses.
Both sides lost their opening Super League matches, with Lam’s Wigan falling short at St Helens (below, top) and Furner’s Leeds being outplayed by Warrington.
It is a situation they are keen to rectify tonight. Lam added: “As a coach I know Dave pretty well and he’ll be shattered from their result at the weekend.
“Coming here to a place where he’s got some great memories as well, he’ll want to leave with the two points.
“But we want to make this a fortress for us, somewhere that we dominate home games.
“We want a good performance from our side and to make sure Dave is still without a win at the end of the weekend.
“Against St Helens, when the players were fatigued they reverted to what they knew and we didn’t play as we trained all pre-season.
“I don’t want to disrespect what was done in the past, but we want to add a different style of play.
“And when you’ve done something a particular way for so long it’s easy to revert to that when you’re under the pump.
“Hopefully you’ll see a different performance on Friday.”