Wood is a high-profile addition to the Knights after making the switch from Super League side Castleford Tigers, who he had captained for the 2025 season.
The centre boasts an England cap too after debuting for the Three Lions in 2024, and also brings an abundance of top flight experience following stints with Huddersfield Giants, Hull KR and most recently Castleford.
The 28-year-old Yorkshireman now wants to bring the lessons of his career to his new teammates, after sitting down with the Press in the lead up to his tenth career in the Super League, and the Knights’ first.
“There will be a wave of excitement from everyone in York, and we’re really excited to be the first team in York history to represent a side in the Super League,” Wood reaffirmed to the Press.
“It’s something we’re really looking forward to, it’s not been understated by the club and it’s a massive moment for everyone involved.
“I’m looking forward to it.
“It’s not something I’m just going to come in and be bullish with, they’ve got a fantastic leader here in Liam Harris and a really good senior leadership group.
“I want to add to that where I can, but I certainly won’t be booting doors down to be captain or anything like that.
“They’ve got a really good set-up here, it’s just wanting to add to that really.
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“I hope so, I think that’s why I’ve been brought in, for my Super League experience and knowledge of the division.
“Everyone is really excited about the new year, and there’s a good buzz around the place.
“It’s a history-making year for the club, and we’ve got to ride that wave of excitement all year long.
“We’ve got to give our fans something to cheer about and it should be a great spectacle, that first round match with Hull KR in a sold-out stadium.
“I’m really looking forward to it, we all are.”
Wood’s new Head Coach Mark Applegarth had discussed the prospect of pressure on his York team in yesterday’s interview, believing that the Knights would be able to block out the outside noise for a successful campaign.
York’s new centre reiterated what his Head Coach had said, as Wood looks to drive the Knights into meeting their standards, with his new teammates already offering a welcoming hand.
Wood credited: “The lads are fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of fellas to help me transition.
“Everyone is just chomping at the bit to play now, and we’re ready for that cup game at the weekend at Barrow.
“There’s no external pressure, there will be people writing us off like there always is.
“Within our group, there’s pressure to perform and we’ve got standards that we want to uphold.
“We want to give a good account of ourselves, so there’s pressure on ourselves to perform, but we’re not too bothered about the external noise.”
Wood got his first taste of being a Knights player in a pre-season friendly at Huddersfield Giants, which saw York drop to a 22-4 defeat.
Sam Wood is not feeling the pressure of York Knights’ first season at Super League level. (Image: Craig Hawkhead)
It was a good learning curve for Wood and his new teammates, allowing the Knights to identify what they need to improve on before their Super League campaign starts next Thursday.
The 28-year-old also believes that a defeat may prove to have a more positive effect than a victory could have in that Huddersfield friendly, saying: “I think it probably went the best way that it could for us to be honest.
“If we had of won that game, we probably will have fallen in love with ourselves and will have thought that we were the bees knees going into the season.
“We had lots to work on from that game and we’ve been really focused throughout the last three weeks, it was a great start for us in terms of what we needed to learn.
“The experiences we’ve gained from that game, we’re just ready to go.”
York supporters who travelled to the Accu Stadium for that first pre-season friendly will have caught a glimpse of a strategy that Applegarth and Wood have been working hard on.
A slick move down the right-wing saw Jordan Thompson shift the ball to Wood, who then played in Ben Jones-Bishop to score the Knights’ only try on the day.
Wood added: “We work on it every day, we create those connections in training.
“I’ve been probably training with Bish for six, seven weeks now, maybe longer, six weeks before Christmas and four weeks after, so it’s ten weeks in the making.
“These sort of things don’t happen overnight, they’ve got to be worked on and practiced, so we’re quite grateful for those things coming off in the game.”
