Leeds forward Jamie Peacock has moved to clear up the confusion as to whether this Friday’s game against Wakefield is his 500th career appearance, amid claims there is an unofficial clash in his tally.
One of his previous 499 games came for Great Britain against Newcastle Division back in 2006 – a game when GB used an irregular amount of substitutes (five). However, Peacock has adamantly claimed the Wakefield game on Friday is indeed the milestone – insisting you cannot discount any Great Britain game.
“Whenever you play for Great Britain it counts as a game in my eyes. You’re getting bashed about and getting tackled – so as far as I’m concerned it is definitely a game that counted,” Peacock said.
“It’s my 500th, it’s all been cleared up. As far as I’m concerned this is the big one, that GB game is defining.”
Peacock also admits it is humbling to see the grand scale Leeds have gone to in order to celebrate the milestone – with a huge celebration planned at Headingley Carnegie on Friday night. He also shared an interesting coincidence, in that his 500th game is on the same day as his very first appearance for Bradford – ironically against Wakefield.
“It’s a bit freaky it’s against Wakefield because I made my Super League debut against them for Bradford, and it’s on the exact same day of the year that we’re playing them. It’s pretty coincidental so there’s a lot of sentiment attached to it.
“It’s going to be a bit weird, but very humbling to see. When you first set out playing 500 games is never in your remit; you just want to make your debut.”
