Friday Interview - Tough start benefits Rhinos’ young star Ben Jones-Bishop

Better known for his career as an international boxing referee, including taking charge of the epic Lennox Lewis v Frank Bruno world heavyweight title fight, the colourful and gregarious individual is not often immediately linked to the world of rugby league.

However, for some in Leeds, notably the city’s latest young Super League star Ben Jones-Bishop, the sprightly pensioner has had an indelible effect.

As conditioner at Queens, the oft-criticised amateur club bedded in at Burley Road just a long cut-out pass away from Headingley Carnegie, the man who kept Ricky Hatton and co in check also helped oversee the development of a raft of young rugby talents.

Jones-Bishop, the prodigious Leeds Rhinos tyro who has unquestionably proved the talk of this new season even though it is still only in its infancy, is one.

“Mickey is a character,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“I joined Queens when I was about 16 but we all played a year above for their Under-18s. We did our pre-season with him and he’d take us up Armley to what they call the big Armley steps.

“He used to beast us up there while down at Burley Road there’s a hill which we used to do stuff on too.

“When Mickey was training us they weren’t fun sessions; they were tough, hard work.”

Part of the reason the 22-year-old has emerged into a rapid and skilled full-back/winger of some repute, however, is because of that willingness to work hard and make sacrifices.

Others in that all-conquering Queens team which won the league, National Cup, Yorkshire Cup and Leeds & District Cup in one season have since made their own mark too but plenty did not.

Wigan’s Michael McIlorum won a Grand Final last season, Jodie Broughton plays at Salford while Bradford’s Kyle Briggs made his Super League bow against Leeds and his ex-colleague in Cardiff a fortnight ago.

Vann, who also worked with him at Leeds Academy, remembers not only Jones-Bishop’s “safe hands” and pace but his eagerness to complete whatever was asked of him.

“I think that has held me in good stead,” he adds, having been blooded at a club which has earned a reputation for being almost savage in its approach.

“I’m used to keeping my head down, working hard and doing the best I can. I’m sure Mickey will tell you that fitness wasn’t my best attribute – I was pretty quick but needed a long recovery. But I kept plugging along and had good times down there.

“A lot of the outside perception of Queens is of a tough club, fighting all the time, but we had a lot of good, skilful players too.

“Many trialled at top teams and for whatever reason didn’t make it; the six – Jonathan Milner – is incredible. I don’t know how he’s not playing Super League.

“But it’s a bit of a stigma that goes around. If teams wanted to rough it up we had a lot willing to play that way but we could back it up with skilled football too.”

Such a hardened environment served Jones-Bishop well to the extent that all eyes will be on him tonight when he faces another of his former clubs Harlequins.

Having joined Rhinos from Queens, dazzling in their Academy, he went on a season loan to London last year which proved pivotal in his education.

Jones-Bishop scored 11 tries in 18 games, was called up to an England squad and returned full of confidence.

A hat-trick in Cardiff followed by an 80m effort at Hull FC a week ago means he is Super League’s joint-leading scorer, tonight’s teams and Castleford the only clubs with 100 per cent records after the first two games.

Moving to the capital could have been daunting for a young man barely out of his teens but the engaging Jones-Bishop is mature beyond his years and, having already lived in Sheffield while completing a sport and management degree, was well set for the upheaval.

“Right at the beginning I was gutted when Brian McClennan said I’d got to go because I’d just finished that degree, travelling to and from Sheffield, and was ready to kick on here,” he recalled.

“But it was a good opportunity to actually play and really get some experience. At first it was tough – going down there and not knowing anyone but after two or three weeks I settled in. It was similar to university – Quins own a few houses and so a lot of young lads from up north all live and muck in together while a lot of the more experienced players like Danny Orr, Chad Randall and Rob Purdham looked after me too. It’ll be good seeing them on Friday. They’ve started well.”

Leeds head coach Brian McDermott was his chief in London and he said: “He’s seen me for a year, knows what I’m strong at, what I need to improve on but, although I’d had a good season, I thought I’d have to do it all again and show the staff up here what I could do.

“When Brian McClennan said he was resigning and Brian Mac was coming in as head coach, not assistant, it was even more ideal.

“I still wasn’t expecting what’s happened. My aspirations were to try and get 10 to 15 games. I knew Lee Smith had been given squad No 2 so he started on the wing but I had a good off-season after missing the back end of last year with a shoulder injury, played well in a few friendlies and that put me in for the first game.

“Luckily that form’s carried on. Hopefully, it can keep going.”

Harlequins’ Rob Powell, assistant at Twickenham Stoop last year, is now Super League’s youngest head coach, aged 30.

“He handled a lot of the team’s defence when I was there and really helped me improve my defensive game especially around our own line,” says Jones-Bishop.

However, working out how to stop the flier from Woodhouse will be high in plenty of coaches’ thoughts this season.

Leeds’s Rob Burrow, truly one of the game’s most difficult players to contain, summed up Jones-Bishop’s arrival – “I’m just glad he’s on my side.”

n Ben Jones-Bishop is an ambassador for Multipower, official sports nutrition supplier to Leeds Rhinos.