Jon Wilkin gives verdict on Wigan Warriors’ rotation as Challenge Cup mind games start early

Pundit Jon Wilkin has described Wigan Warriors’ decision to rotate almost their entire starting squad for tonight’s Super League clash against Hull KR as a ‘shot fired by Matt Peet’.

Wigan have handed out ten debuts with Warriors’ head coach Matt Peet opting to make wholesale changes with just Patrick Mago and Sam Eseh retaining their spots from last week’s win over Leeds Rhinos.

Mago will play off the bench, whilst Eseh will start at prop with the 22-year-old set for his 50th Super League appearance, making him by far the most experienced starter with Tom Forber next on 23.

Addressing just how surprising Wigan’s squad was, Sam Tomkins said: “We’ve seen many a time that a team coming into a big game might rest a few and I expected Matty Peet to maybe rest three, four, or five players, given that Wigan have this abundance of young talented rugby lads. But I was as shocked as anyone to see that many names that I wasn’t aware of.”

Jon Wilkin agreed, noting the fact that Salford Red Devils were docked points for bringing the integrity of Super League into question when they made wholesale changes in round one of 2025.

Wilkin said: “Yeah, it’s the number of changes. So many changes and I think that raises the question, we looked at Salford last year in round one and there was an integrity issue with the integrity of the competition in question, They were fined two points and also received a financial fine.

“I suppose it was a risk from Matty Peet in some regards.”

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Pundits question schedule makers after Wigan Warriors’ rotation

Brian Carney made it clear that the RFL had confirmed that no breaches had been made by Wigan with their squad permitted on account of players being rotated due to either disciplinary points stacking up, having niggles, or having played plenty of minutes.

Either way, it certainly harms the hype for what should and could have been one of the games of the season if both teams had played against each other full strength, and Sam Tomkins claims that the schedule-makers should have foreseen it.

The ex-Man of of Steel said: “I don’t think anyone could look at tonight’s fixture between two of the best teams in the competition and (think it) ideal for them to be playing the weak before Wembley. I think that should have been looked at and maybe play sides we weren’t expecting to be in the final against teams we were expecting.

“We’ve got the two red hot favourites to be playing at Wembley playing the week before. It’s not ideal.”

For Jon Wilkin, it’s the start of the mind games by the Wigan Warriors boss ahead of next week’s Challenge Cup Final, with the former Hull KR man stating: “I think it’s a shot fired from Matt Peet. I think it’s a smart move. Wigan will have rendered Willie Peters and Hull KR in a position where they can’t win. They’re expected to batter this young Wigan side and they may well do that, but if they don’t then what does that do to the psychology of a full-strength Hull KR side who will then go on to play Wigan at full-strength?

“I think it’s a really interesting psychological play from a coach who knows what he is doing.”