There have been millions of words written about the art of captaincy, perhaps a lot of effort could have been saved by spending some time at Cardiff's Whitchurch High School.
When the class of September 1999 walked through the doors, little did staff know that three future Wales captains would be in the ranks.
Sam Warburton skippered Wales at the 2011 and 2015 Rugby Union World Cups, Gareth Bale will do the same at next month's Fifa World Cup and Elliot Kear leads the Dragons at the Rugby League World Cup. Just 284 days separate their respective birthdays.
"We’re still in WhatsApp groups with a lot of the lads and it’s a great thing isn’t it? I'm not sure there is a school in a world that can claim three students in the same year have captained their country in three different sports," said Kear, as Wales prepare to start their campaign against the Cook Islands in Leigh.
"Even at that age you could tell those guys were special and destined for big things. I played rugby with Sam and his brother Ben and they were so driven from a young age, so professional with how they approached their sport.
"Gareth played a bit of rugby too, he was actually pretty decent actually and very fast."
Kear, now playing with Championship side Bradford Bulls, is the veteran of the Dragons team having made his international and Super League debut 13 years ago.
He leads a side that has blended youth and experience, indeed one of only two uncapped players is former NRL fullback Caleb Aekins, who recently helped Leigh Centurions win promotion to Super League.
However, the biggest challenge for the skipper is arguably not a showpiece showdown with tournament contenders Tonga at St Helens but keeping in check a team that includes three pairs of bickering siblings, including two sets of twins.
"Rhys and Ben Evans, they are constantly arguing with each other all the time, you’ve really got to manage those two," he jokes.
"We've also got Connor and Curtis Davies and then James Olds and Ollie Olds, who play their club rugby league in Australia. It's great but it's a challenge too."
It is often claimed rugby is the unofficial national religion of Wales but Kear's tournament hopes are as much about raising the profile of rugby league.
It's 22 years since their best performance, reaching the semi-finals in 2000 and giving eventual champions Australia a serious scare in the process.
This time around expectations are different, with Papua New Guinea their other opponents in Group D.
"We're about growing the sport in our country, there's a fair way to go but the progress is really exciting," he added.
"Obviously Wales is a big union country and I played that until I was 17, I was born and bred in Cardiff and it was all I knew.
"League is a great sport to play, there’s a lot of lads that maybe don’t suit union – I’m only 5’10” and 80 kilos soaking wet so league suits me a lot more than union. It’s being played in schools, so the awareness is there.
"If we can get more kids watching and playing with our performances here, that will be a big win for us."
The Rugby League World Cup promises to be the biggest, best and most inclusive event in the sport’s 127-year history with men’s, women’s and wheelchair teams competing in 61 games across 21 venues throughout England. Tickets are available via rlwc2021.com/tickets
