Wigan relish Bath experience

Wigan star Sean O’Loughlin was pleased that the Warriors spent a few days last week training with Bath rugby union club.

The Wigan players provided some new tests for the rugby union boys, and the training was also a good way of using what would normally have been a week off due to Challenge Cup weekend.

“It went really well, it was good to go away and spend a bit of time away from the day-to-day routines for a little bit,” O’Loughlin told Love Rugby League.

“It was nice to get some different opposition in front of us at Bath, and just hone a few skills and step up training while we didn’t have a game while Wembley was on.

“It was a good opportunity for us to use the four days as a way of getting a little more out of us than on a normal game-day week.”

O’Loughlin was somewhat relieved that the sessions revolved around structure and skills, rather than tackling, largely due to the sheer size of the Bath players.

“It wasn’t so much the physical side with Bath, luckily, because they’re all enormous!” he said.

“It was more the skill side of things. Some plays that we do they wanted to take a look at, and some defensive stuff.

“They wanted us to defend against their players, and pick our brains on things that we do, that they could take away and introduce into their game.”

Wigan coach Shaun Wane, meanwhile, found much to envy in Bath’s facilities. He would rather his team worked hard in their own environment, although better recovery facilities would undoubtedly be welcome.

“It was good for me as a coach, if a little bit frustrating,” he said.

“Because the the facilities Bath have and the things they can do is unbelievable.

“At the end of the day, they’ve won nothing, Bath, but their facilities are second-to-none.

“Our facilities are nowhere near as good, but we’ve won things. I know which one I’d rather have.

“There’s a few things that we can improve on here, and I’m always want to look at getting better at something, and we’ve identified those things which are in our grasp, and that’s what we’ll do.

“It is an unbelievable facility. Everything they have there is like Premier League football.

“I wouldn’t want that for our players. I want our players to work hard.

“But what I do want is better facilities for them to recover and get over the way we train, and then we can get them back in the gym and on the field quicker.

“Those are the sort of areas I want us to improve.”