“My mother told me to stop being so soft”

That’s the line that St Helens flier Regan Grace was given by his mother when he complained about being homesick after moving to Lancashire to play for the club.

Grace was still only a college student when he made the move from Wales to Merseyside, but it was his mother that had the most influence on him, the winger said in an interview for BBC Sport.

“I was still in sixth form, but I left to go to St Helens, it felt like a little move where I didn’t think I’d be too fazed by it,” Grace said.

“After a week I was homesick and I’d come home at the weekend, and my mum told me to have a dig and to stop being so soft.

“Later I got the hang of it and I learnt to do all my own cooking and washing – it was really tough and it was exactly what I needed.

“There were too many distractions back home.”