John Bateman hits back at untrue rumours

John Bateman finally made his Wests Tigers on Sunday.

The former Wigan Warriors forward move out to Australia was delayed by visa problems and police checks.

His debut didn’t go quite the way he’d have wanted as the Tigers lost and he bombed a certain try.

However, he was still pleased with the outing:

“It’s good to be back, it took a little bit out of my lungs in the first half but it’s good to be back and to make my debut.”

There were rumours that Bateman was dealing with an injury and that is why he missed the opening games.

But Bateman hit back at those claims telling Fox League: “Quite a lot of people have been saying ‘he’s injured blah, blah, blah.’

“I think all the people that were saying that have never done a pre-season before, it was just about getting some K’s in my legs.

“I’ve literally done a three-week pre-season so I didn’t want to go out and get an injury, we just wanted to be smart with it. It’s a long season.

“I was struggling a little bit in the first half but we got there in the end, the result wasn’t what we wanted but we’ve got something nice and we’re going to build on it.”

It was one of the hottest days Bateman could have picked for his debut and on the heat he said: “It’s a bit different to back home, I think it’s about two degrees back home at the moment so yeah it’s different but it’s good to be back.

“I’d like to say hello to everyone back home including my little girl and my family, I’ll see them in two weeks but it’s good to be back.”