RUGBY superstar Sonny Bill Williams has found himself on the menu for bosses at Hopwood Hall College after a light-hearted line about their food.
Players from Toronto Wolfpack rugby league team, who Williams now plays for, are often seen eating lunch among the pupils in the refectory.
And the Correspondent understands there is an idea to serve up a meal to Williams and his extending family when they return from their homeland.
Williams flew back down under after Toronto’s second ever Super League match at Salford Red Devils on Saturday, February 8 to be at the birth of his fourth child.
He will return to his base in the Worsley area of Salford and resume training at Hopwood Hall, where Toronto train despite their home stadium being in the Canadian city.
And a senior source at the club mentioned that his family may get a meal done by catering staff in the coming weeks.
Williams, 34, has already experienced the chill that Hopwood Hall can experience but he believes the facilities are good enough for what he wants to do.
He said: “I think the kids there are used to the players being around doing their thing – but I wouldn’t be promoting their cafeteria!
“I don’t want to let my kids eat that but at the same it’s exciting. You don’t need state of the art gym equipment to be able to perform on the field.
“It’s about mindset. Yes, it’s pretty basic but when you care, you have confident players and everyone wants to do their best, that’s all you need.
“I did a run and it was the first time I can say I’ve run on frozen grass but it’s exciting.
“You can have a mindset when you whinge about everything or you can have a growth mindset about trying to get better.
“I’ve been involved with a lot of teams but the camaraderie at Toronto is up there with the best and a couple of days after coming in, I knew there’s no secret about why they have been so successful.”
Hopwood Hall are obviously not enraged as principal Julia Heap was in the crowd at Leeds Rhinos’ Emerald Headingley stadium to watch Toronto’s first ever Super League match against Castleford Tigers on Sunday, February 2.
And the Canadian side, which will play in England until mid-April because of freezing conditions on the other side of the Atlantic, remains committed to them despite linking up with Manchester City.
Martin Vickers, of the Wolfpack, said: “It’s a relationship we’re taking month by month. We have talked about playing games at their academy facility. It could be one that gathers a lot of momentum.
“But we’re happy with the Hopwood Hall facility and we’ve recently invested heavily into to it, but it’s there to use in the big build-ups to key matches.”