Wane expects warm French welcome

Wigan coach Shaun Wane is expecting his players to be able to handle the heat when they travel to Perpignan this week to face Catalan Dragons.

Although the Dragons have struggled on the road this season, their form in the Stade Gilbert Brutus is awesome.

The weather is also likely to pose a challenge to the men from Lancashire, but Wane expects his players to cope with the heat in the South of France.

“They’re a different team at home. I watched the Bradford game, and they were just okay, the Catalans,” said Wane.

“But when they play at home they play a lot better than when they travel, as St Helens found out.

“We know the challenge ahead, it’s going to be warm conditions. But it’s more of an individual challenge for our players.

“We’ll have a good chat about it, and make sure that the preparations are good and we travel over there really confident.”

The Wigan squad will leave Wigan at 5am on Thursday morning to travel to the game, which kicks off at 8pm local time on Saturday evening.

The players will also cross the border into Spanish Catalonia for a sight-seeing trip to Barcelona.

“We’ll spend a bit of time over there, and all the lads will bond together and do a bit of travelling while we’re there,” Wane explained.

“We’re going to Barcelona, and we’ll treat it like a fact-finding trip for all the players as well, so they’ll enjoy each other’s company.”

“Kick off is at 9pm, so that suit us. Hopefully it’s cooled down a bit, but even if it’s red hot, it doesn’t matter.

“All the players in 80 minutes are going to have to go through it, and show me what it means for them to get two points and get us a win.

“That’s what I’ll be expecting.”

All the Wigan players who featured against London Broncos at the weekend are fit, with additional checks on Sean O’Loughlin and Ben Flower to be carried out this week.