Prince Harry has demonstrated he is a perfect fit for rugby league, according to former England captain Kevin Sinfield.
Sinfield, in his role as rugby director for the Rugby Football League, escorted Harry on his first official engagement since being appointed as patron of the governing body during a two-day visit to Leeds.
The Prince was at Headingley for a festival which is part of a seven-year program designed to get more than 700,000 children from primary and secondary schools across England playing rugby league.
Sinfield says his two-hour visit dispelled any fears that the appointment of Harry, a famous England rugby union fan, would be nothing more than tokenism.
"For someone who has grown up going to a lot of rugby union games, you understand why people in our heartlands would look at him and think 'perhaps you are not the right fit' but he's absolutely the right fit," Sinfield said.
"I grew up in a working-class town and I still live there now. The majority of people involved in rugby league, whether we like it or not, are from working-class environments.
"What he's done today has shown to everybody that he means business. He was great walking round, he was dead chatty and enthusiastic about being here.
"If this is the start of things to come, it will be a very good partnership. It would have been easy to turn up at these events and ghost through and put on an act but he was 100 per cent behind it. He wanted to be here."
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