Hull KR prop Tom Garratt says he holds no fear of any other forward in Super League as he continues to make a solid start to life in the competition.
The 27-year-old joined Rovers ahead of this season from Championship side Dewsbury Rams, completing a remarkable rise from playing for Siddal in the amateur game just three years previously.
After a debut as an interchange against Huddersfield Giants in round two and a first win when coming off the bench against Castleford Tigers the following week, Garratt made his first Robins start in their victory over Salford Red Devils the weekend before last.
Then on Friday night he was one of the standout performers for Rovers, alongside another new boy from the Championship in Frankie Halton, as they went down to a narrow defeat at Catalans Dragons.
Opening up on the mindset which has helped him rise to the top of the game and then adapt quickly to Super League level, he said: “If you want to get swept up in reputations, then you’ve already lost the mental battle.”
Garratt added that every opposition player is “just a bloke, with two arms and two legs. He’ll be tackled just the same as anybody else.
“They’re all men. You’re not going out and facing Superman. You’re going out and facing another bloke. At the end of the day, I’m another bloke. It’ll be fine.
“For someone’s who’s stepping up in standard or it’s their first season from the Academy, I think there’s a trap there.
“If you start believing reputations, and all the hot air and noise, you’re going to start doubting yourselves. You’re going to start second-guessing your own capabilities.
“As soon as you’ve tackled one of them or run into one of them, you quickly realise they’re just like you. You’ve just got to get stuck in.”
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