Wigan Warriors’ move to re-sign Oliver Partington seems to have split opinion with plenty questioning why Matt Peet’s side have made the move, especially with it seeing hooker Kruise Leeming head to Catalans Dragons on loan for the year.
On the face of it, losing your experienced second-choice hooker who plays regular minutes every week for a loose forward, when you already have an obvious starter, does seem slightly odd.
However, the move is actually brilliant for both clubs and both players, something that you rarely see when it comes to transfers.
Oliver Partington first left Wigan Warriors at the end of the 2023 season, joining Salford Red Devils before making the switch to the south of France last year. He’d play 28 games for Catalans and be one of their standout performers and those performances have earned him a return to his boyhood club.
As for Leeming, he heads out on loan for one season safe in the knowledge that he has a deal to return to with the hooker contracted until the end of the 2027 season. For both players, it seems to work, but why does it make so much sense for Wigan Warriors?
Why Wigan Warriors and Catalans Dragons’ swap works perfectly
Signing a top talent
The first and most obvious answer is that they are signing one of Super League’s best loose forwards and they’ve managed to sign him to a five-year deal as well, tying him down for his prime years.
Partington is 27 and approaching his peak years whilst looking to build on what was an impressive 2025 season in an underperforming side.
The loose forward made a whopping 945 tackles, third-most across Super League, at an average of just over 39 tackles per game. Wigan’s top tackler, Kaide Ellis, made just under 34 per game, highlighting how impressive Partington’s numbers are.
Shuffling the pack
Short of what Wigan get as a player, it’s also what they can do with their pack which has seen major change heading into 2026 with both Harvie Hill and Liam Byrne leaving.
To make up for that, Wigan went all out and signed Oliver Wilson whose pre-season injury means he will miss the year, something that forced the Warriors into action.
Signing Partington, who could play prop himself, likely allows Kaide Ellis, who is three inches taller and 10 kilos heavier, to play more as a middle meaning Wigan still retain their size up front whilst having an elite loose forward.
Moreover, if Ellis makes a permanent switch to prop then Wigan are better informed when heading into contract deals this year when all of Sam Eseh, Tiaki Chan, Tyler Dupree and Patrick Mago (club option for 2027) see their contracts expire.
Develop your future hooker
The expense of doing that is losing Kruise Leeming for a year, however, that could also prove to be to Wigan’s benefit as it now means Tom Forber will get the game time he has needed to develop.
Forber is contracted until the end of the 2030 season, like Partington, but the 22-year-old has only played 19 Super League games. There is clearly a huge talent there but Leeming blocked Forber’s path for game time.
It’s worth noting that Forber did miss time due to a wrist injury, from which he’s now fit, but Wigan now have to roll the dice with Forber and see if the talent they signed to a five-year deal is the real deal or not.
If he is then Wigan can grow him throughout 2026 and they’ve got yet another star on their hands. If he isn’t, then they get Kruise Leeming back in 2027 anyway and can then make a more informed decision on his contract.
What Catalans get
For Catalans, it’s fairly obvious what they get and that is a hooker of starting Super League quality, something they’ve perhaps not had for a while. Granted, they had Micky McIlorum in 2024 but he played just 10 games.
Leeming will start with Alrix Da Costa in support and with the Wigan man’s addition, it puts an end to the Benjamin Garcia at hooker experiment, which simply didn’t work. Instead, Garcia can either play at loose forward in place of Partington or in the second-row with Salford signing Harvey Wilson as the 13.
That offers a far more balanced pack that has also added plenty of talent from down under, meaning Catalans could return to play-off contention in 2026.
Why it will work
Those answers might not be enough to convince some fans that Wigan have actually pulled off a smart deal but something that wraps it all up in a nice bow is that Matt Peet has lots of experience with Partington, having coached him in the Wigan academy.
The connection between the pair lends itself to the loose forward taking another step forward in his already impressive game and with both contracted until the end of 2030, Wigan fans could be in for five years of top-level play.
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