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Australian flyer Bevan French will continue to wow English rugby league as a possible Man of Steel at Wigan - thanks to advice from inspirational mum Tiffany.
When the big decision came after a trying year and a year of tries, Bevan French knew where to turn. Mum's word always helps.
Wigan wanted him to stay where he's been tearing it up as the most exciting player in England's Super League but French was being wooed by former club Parramatta among others to jet back home to Australia and enjoy another crack at the NRL.
"My mum Tiffany's my inspiration, a massive influence. I definitely wouldn't be here in the game without her and whenever I do have these decisions, she's the one I look to for advice," French tells AAP.
"Although she wanted me back closer to her in Australia, she said if I was enjoying my time here in Wigan - which I was - growing as a person and a player, I should try to stick it out, give it a bit more time and enjoy the real experience of living across the other side of the world, which I haven't this year because of coronavirus."
So it was that the 24-year-old has signed for at least one more year at Wigan where he's scored 22 tries in 27 games and where he could end the year as a grand final winner and the Man of Steel, the annual accolade for the best player in the English game.
"It's been worth the sacrifice already but that would just be the cherry on top, I guess, if the grand final and the Man of Steel comes along," says French, who's aiming to steer favourites Wigan into the final on Thursday in a playoff semi with Hull FC.
It's a remarkable, upbeat end to this alien year that tested French almost to breaking point.
"It's definitely been tough being away from my family, the restrictions and everything, although everyone's in the same boat," he reflected.
"When I first came back after COVID-19, often I didn't know if I'd make it into the end of the year.
"But to make it through the other side has just shown me, 'I can do that', it's given me new confidence."
Confidence. That's the difference now, he says, from the player who left Parramatta in July 2019, frustrated that he couldn't nail a regular starting place.
"I don't think I lacked the skill I have now when I was in Australia. I just think my confidence wasn't where it needed be," he said.
"Wigan are trying to get me on the ball every set of six, letting me get my hands on the ball as much as possible, whereas in Australia, I was in and out of games."
Aussie flair has flourished at Wigan with last year's Man of Steel Jackson Hastings and French combining sweetly, and both having helped persuade Parramatta's Jai Field to join their attacking party next season.
"We can get a combination going that will be quite lethal," reckons French, who grew up in an Indigenous community in the rugby league hotbed of Inverell in northern NSW.
"You could call it a bit of resilience, which I've picked up from my mum, seeing her throughout her life fighting as a single parent to give her boys a better life."
Tiffany was a teaching assistant who, French says, always went "above and beyond", working countless extra hours to provide a better life for her four sports-loving boys.
She has always been protective as well as encouraging, with French still laughing how she once put an end to him playing first-grade for Tingha as a wispy 15-year-old kid by dragging him away from a pre-match warm-up and a potential pounding from grown men.
French believes it's important for him to be seen as a role model back home and so he's already thrown himself into helping kids in Indigenous communities in the same way his original league hero from Inverell, Preston Campbell, has.
But for the moment, it's England's pleasure to watch him. When he scored against Wigan's great foes St Helens recently, the club's official site tweeted breathlessly: "It's Bevan French's world. We're all just living in it."
