Wane urges Wigan fans to back Williams

Wigan coach Shaun Wane has hailed the display of stand-off George Williams in Thursday evening’s victory over Warrington.

Williams has attracted criticism this season from some spectators, but Wane felt that Williams and his half-back partner Matty Smith really put in a fine display.

“I thought that some of the skill we showed was superb, I thought Matty and George were great,” Wane said.

“People have said some negative things about George this year, but I hope they’re going to send letters to me saying that’s he’s doing alright, because I thought he was outstanding.

“Both halves – I’m really pleased with how they pushed the team around the park and got us into a good position.”

Wane does think that there is plenty of room for improvement in his team’s performance, however, particularly in defence.

“But I think we’re playing to about 50 per cent of our potential. I think we can improve a lot,” he added.

“As the season goes on, we’re going to get more players back – Sean O’Loughlin and Sam Powell this week.

“Then we’ll see where we go from there.

“We were very impressive with the ball, but defensively a bit off.

“I thought the tries we scored today were outstanding. I thought a couple of tries they got in the first half were gifted to them – just one-on-one misses. It’s unacceptable.

“It was a bit disappointing at half-time that they were so close to us. I thought that we could have been a lot smarter with our ‘D’.

The Wigan coach was also pleased with the way that Ben Flower handled his return to action after a six-month suspension.

“I thought he was outstanding,” Wane added.

“I thought he ran the ball hard and defended well. I was so glad we could get a win for him.”

“The players listened, and got the performance on in the second half, and I think we were well worth our win.”