Sir Kevin Sinfield hopes that his son, Jack Sinfield, can move away from the comparison to himself after the youngster celebrated his own Old Trafford success.

Jack played a starring role in Wakefield Trinity’s shock Grand Final victory earlier this month, as Trinity defied all the odds to become only the sixth team in history to lift the Super League trophy.

It was a special day for the Sinfield family, with Sir Kevin finishing his seventh running challenge at the Manchester ground. Running from Hull and arriving at all 12 English top-flight sides along the way, the Leeds legend continued to raise funds for Motor Neurone Disease.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast this week, Sinfield revealed he never expected that the proceedings would pan out the way that did, but was incredibly privileged to not only complete his challenge, but see his son lift the Grand Final trophy at the same time.

“If Carlsberg did Saturdays, we got one!” Sinfield joked.

Having planned the 2026 challenge in late November 2025, Sinfield wanted to celebrate the legacy of his great friend Rob Burrow by running “through all these great rugby league towns and cities, all the places where Rob tore opposition to shreds and had such a wonderful career.”

They would then finish at the Theatre of Dreams, but not once did he believe that his son, Jack, would be playing on the same evening.

“You couldn’t have written that it’d be those two teams that ended up in the final,” he explained:  You’d have gone with Wigan, Leeds. Warrington might have been in your top four or five choices. You wouldn’t have picked Wakefield… Not just yet.”

Sinfield Jr.’s story of moving away from Leeds Rhinos has created many a headline over the past season, but now that the 22-year-old has his own Grand Final winners’ ring, Sinfield Snr. hopes that the comparison to himself will come to an end.

He said: “[We got] to sit in the stands and watch [the Grand Final] play out, which is pretty special. He’s lived with having a famous dad, if you like, all this time, and he doesn’t know any different. However, he’s always been judged by that, unfairly.

“Now, he’s on his own path because he’s won his own Grand Final and the monkey’s off his back, and hopefully the reference to me is now gone, and he can just go and do what he needs to do, which is lovely.”

Sir Kevin Sinfield – a father, not a coach, to Jack Sinfield

Sinfield went on to explain the pair’s dynamic, and stressed how he is only there for Jack in a rugby sense if required. He is a father, first and foremost.

“I coached him for a very short space of time,” he revealed. “He had two wonderful coaches throughout his community rugby. Unfortunately, one of them was poorly, and I jumped in to help for a little bit.

“I suppose from growing up at home in my early 20s and understanding what my dad was like with me, home was always a sanctuary and somewhere where I got away from rugby, and I wanted it to be the same for Jack.

“Our relationship when I coached him was: when we get out the car at rugby, I’m your coach. When we get back in the car, I’m your dad, and I won’t talk rugby unless you ask me. It’s been the same ever since.

“It’s been great, and we do talk rugby every now and again.

“I spoke to him on the day [of the Grand Final] , I got to see him. We were waiting in the tunnel right at the top just before we brought the trophy on, and he just finished warm-up and came up, and I spoke to him, which was lovely.”

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