Liam Farrell reveals rugby union opportunity as Wigan Warriors 2025 goals detailed

Alex Spink 12 Feb 2025 4:58 PM

Liam Farrell heads into a new Super League season revealing the emotional pull Wigan has on him is such that following cousins Andy and Owen to union was never an option.

The Warriors captain starts his 15th year at a club he joined dreaming to wear the jersey just once. From there to demanding they improve on their 2024 trophy clean sweep is some journey.

“If you’d told me back in 2010 ‘you’ll play one game for Wigan’ I’d have been over the moon,” he says. “As a Wigan lad coming through the system that’s all I wanted. To pull on the jersey one time. It was everything to me.

“To be stood as captain now, after winning four trophies and BBC Sports Personality team of the year, is more a dream than you could ever imagine.”

Unprecedented as it is, this is just the latest in a long line of feats achieved by the Farrell clan, one of the great bloodlines to grace either code of rugby.

First cousin Andy spent a record-breaking career with the Cherry and Whites before switching codes, playing for England and reaching the top of union as coach to Ireland and the British & Irish Lions.

Owen, Liam’s second cousin, began life in league with Wigan St Patricks before moving to union with his dad – going on to captain his country and supplant Jonny Wilkinson as England’s record points scorer.

“Is there such a thing as Farrell rugby DNA common to the three of them?” Wigan head coach Matt Peet considers. “Well, I do see commonalities. They have their own different slant on things but in each there’s that relentless, hard-nosed, no-bullshit pursuit of excellence.

“That absolute determination to get every last drop out of their ability, every time they take the field; that consistency that is a coach’s dream.

“When you say someone is consistent it often flies under the radar, but in a team mate, an ally or a partner it is probably the biggest thing you would want. With consistency comes trust.”

In professional sport that means delivering an 8 out of 10 performance every time. Not picking and choosing when to turn up. Remaining emotionally level headed. Never too high, never too low.

Andy and Owen have walked that line for years. Winning trophies by the barrow load, talking only of a desire to be better the next time.

So too, Liam, who will run out against Leigh on Thursday as hungry as ever despite six Grand Finals, five League Leaders’ Shields, four Challenge Cups and two World Club Challenges already to his name.

He has pulled on the jersey 381 times and scored 143 tries. All these years on, in February 2025, what does Peet see? “The most humble man in the building,” he tells Love Rugby League. “A man who sets the standards. Not just on the field but in how the players live their lives.

“I think Faz’s career flies under the radar a little bit when you consider what he’s won. But everyone here is aware of his level of professionalism.

“Give him time off and you know he is punishing his body behind the scenes. You know he’ll come back and still be the fittest and strongest in the team.”

Since union became a professional sport the trend has been for league’s biggest stars to migrate across, lured by enhanced paydays and an international game that still dwarfs its league counterpart.

Farrell, 34, had the opportunity but says he could not countenance leaving his hometown club. Not then, not now.

“I really admire union, I love watching the sport,” he says. “And when I was younger, deciding what to take up in terms of a league or union professional contract, there was a small interest there.

“It was never something I really fancied. Don’t get me wrong, I admire people who do cross. You have to be brave and committed. But I’ve never had that urge.

“I had the blinkers on. It was all about Wigan Warriors. Even when other league clubs would offer me better contracts and things, I couldn’t see past Wigan Warriors.”

One-club loyalty is nothing like as common as it once was. The era of sporting greats building their legend in one shirt across an entire career has drifted out of fashion.

Farrell is a notable exception, one worthy of mention alongside the likes of Jack Charlton, Ryan Giggs, Tony Adams and Trevor Brooking in football; Paul Wellens, Kieron Cunningham and Sean O’Loughlin, Kris Radlinski, Kev Sinfield and the late Rob Burrow in league.

His passion for Wigan echoes that of the great Italian footballer Francesco Totti, who played all 786 of his club games for Roma and later admitted: ‘I would rather have died than leave’.

Clearly it helps Warriors hold such a pre-eminent position in the sport. They feed each other’s ambition, the goals of player and captain perfectly intertwine.

“People ask how we follow last year and I say this,” Peet explains. “The end of the season was only the end in so much as the fixtures ran out.

“It’s not the end of a journey, it’s not the end of our improvement, it’s not the end of our learnings. On and off the field, we are looking to go deeper into what we believe in.”

Farrell agrees: “We’re not resting on what we achieved last year, that is not the way we are. Being from Wigan and living in the town, you get reminded a lot of the success what’s been around the town.

“Anytime there’s a big game coming up you’re aware of how much the town wants you to win. But the fire mainly comes from within. This year we are the hunted team. We know there’s a target on our back after winning four trophies. We’re going to be under the pump.

“But when your big players do all the small things you need to win games, all them small efforts what no-one sees, you know you’re starting from a good place.”

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