We don’t need any more motivating, says Wane

James Gordon

Wigan coach Shaun Wane says his side don’t need any more motivating ahead of Friday’s play-off clash against Leeds.

The Warriors are 80 minutes away from a first Super League Grand Final since 2010, and host the reigning champions after Warrington opted to play Huddersfield at the ClubCall announcement at the weekend.

In the last round of the regular season, Leeds travelled to the DW Stadium and went away with a 20-6 victory, while they also defeated the Warriors 13-12 at the same stage of the play-offs last year.

Wane said: “We don’t need any more motivating, the Grand Final is enough, and if we get beaten by the best team then we have to take it on the chin, but if we hit the form we have shown in recent times we have a good chance.

“Having played them recently, we know what we need to improve on. Leeds were worthy winners when we played a few weeks ago, they beat us fair and square, but we weren’t at our best.”

Wane admitted that he wasn’t too concerned about who their opponents might be ahead of the ClubCall announcement, but revealed that the Warriors had played a full game against their Under 19s side last week. As a result of their first round play-off win at Huddersfield, Wigan had a week off last weekend, while Leeds went head to head with St Helens.

Wane added: “At this stage of the competition, there are four good teams left so I didn’t give it much thought to be honest. We are prepared either way and it just happens to be Leeds.

“We had a game with our 19’s on Thursday and it was a really good smash-up. The players spent all weekend getting over it and that is exactly what I wanted because we need to remain battle hardened and also I didn’t want to lose the momentum from the Huddersfield game.”