Wigan skipper Liam Farrell has backed his side to get over their ban bother - and quickly return to winning ways.
They had Ireland prop Liam Byrne suspended for four matches and fined £750 at an independent tribunal last night. He was punished for a Grade E head contact on Mark Percival which saw him sent off in Good Friday’ 12-4 loss at St Helens. But champions Wigan have also seen Byrne’s fellow front-row Tyler Dupree suspended for one-game after an incident in the same fixture.
He failed in his appeal last night. Both, then, miss tomorrow's visit to Leigh when Matt Peet’s side are desperate to quickly respond after seeing their 15-game winning run in Super League crash to a halt against derby rivals Saints. With England props Mike Cooper and Ethan Havard injured, it could leave Wigan short of firepower in the middle as they quickly prepare for another derby against the Challenge Cup holders.
But England second-row Farrell insisted: “There’s a lot been said about how we’ve got so many middles [props] this year and the strength in depth there. So, hopefully somebody will come in and do a job. This week it's been a case of resting up, picking some things out of that last game and getting ready for this. We need to look at where we can get better and look at what Leigh have got to offer.”
Peet had teenage forward Junior Nsemba, 19, as an unused substitute against Saints so he is likely to step up. Young prop Harvie Hill, 20, was 18th man and ex-Catalans forward Tiaki Chan might also get a shot with all three named in Wigan’s 21-man squad for tomorrow’s game. But Warriors will still be smarting from the defeat at Totally Wicked Stadium, their first league reverse since July.
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They knew another win would have equalled Saints’ record of 16 straight Super League victories set in 2008. However, Farrell maintained: “We’ve never even spoken about it. Not once. Obviously we know it’s a great achievement winning so many games on the bounce. But we’ve got another really tough and intense game against Leigh now.”
Wigan captain Liam Farrell is collared by the St Helens defence in their Good Friday defeat (Craig Thomas/News Images)The 33 year-old had seen his 12-man side lead 4-2 before two late tries gave Saints success. He said: “I wouldn’t say I think we’d done enough. It got to about 20 minutes left and Saints started throwing a lot at us. It got fatiguing. But I couldn’t be more proud than what I am. We came in at half-time and were confident just because Saints had thrown a lot at us. In terms of resilience, I was very happy.
“But there’s definitely things we can learn out of it in terms of keeping hold of the ball and discipline. There’s a lot of things we’ll take from it compared to if we’d have won the game.”
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