Wane eager to secure Wembley return

MJ Black

Wigan boss Shaun Wane says winning the Challenge Cup is on the wish-list of every coach in rugby league.

The Warriors embark on the road to what they hope will be their 21st success in the competition with a trip to Swinton in the sixth round on Sunday and Wane is looking forward to the challenge.

“Every single club in the competition will want to go as far as they can and as a town we have a great affinity with the Challenge Cup – we’ve won it more times than anyone else and it’s a competition we really enjoy,” Wane told the club’s official website.

“I went down a few years ago (to Wembley) and we beat Hull and it was one of the best weekends of my life and I’d love to do it again, but so would every other coach.”

Wigan head into the game on the back of a disappointing 31-16 league defeat at home to Salford last weekend and Wane admitted he expects a better showing from his team against the Lions.

“We did some good things at the end of the game, but we left it too late,” he added. “The more I’ve watched it the more disappointed I’ve been.

“In the grand scheme of things with Josh Ganson playing and us losing players and others not playing and us not being strong in the halves we did okay, but I still think we could have done a lot better.

“I know we can improve and we will. We gave the players a few days off and we’ll get some good work into them this week.”