Walmsley: Wigan will be a different animal

St Helens prop Alex Walmsley says his side need a big start so they can match Wigan’s intensity on Friday.
 
St Helens are on a great roll at the moment and accounted for Catalans last week. They travel to the DW Stadium on Friday to take on their local rivals.

Wigan head into the game with four losses from their past five fixtures.

“We’ve got a big big challenge coming up against them,” Walmsley admitted.

“They’re going to be a different animal to what we faced in the past couple of weeks ago and they’re going to want to get one over us.

“So we need a big start and a big game and we need to make sure we can match that intensity.”

St Helens did it the hard way against Catalans with just 12 men on the field at one stage.

But Walmsley knows that Saints have to start their next game better.

“I think that’s a sign of a good team to withstand all that pressure and go down to 12 men and still find a way to go down the other end and score a try,” he said.

“But it shouldn’t take us a backs against the wall job for us to really rip in and do the right things, we were so off the mark in the first half and we can’t afford to be doing that again.

“Not in the Super 8s against some of the opposition. We were fortunate enough that we were still in the game going into the second half.

“So as long as we start our games a lot better we’ll take our second half into next week, and that 10 minute period where we had 12 men, we’ll take that enthusiasm as well and I’m sure we’ll do OK.”