Wigan Warriors forward Junior Nsemba has admitted that his 2025 Ashes snub has helped put the fire in his belly and fuel him for what is becoming an impressive personal season.
Nsemba has had plenty of responsibility put on him at times in 2026 due to the fact that captain Liam Farrell has not been pairing him in the second-row for much of the season, on account of covering in the centres.
After breaking onto the scene in 2023, Nsemba kicked on and had a wonderful 2024 but his form dipped last year, leading to him missing out on Ashes selection.
That was a contentious call by Shaun Wane as many felt that despite Nsemba’s form not being the best, his sheer size and athleticism was enough to challenge the Australians.
One thing that Ashes snub did allow was for the 21-year-old to have a full pre-season with Wigan Warriors and he’s now explained that to be one of the reasons why he is in such fine form.
After Wigan defeated Leeds Rhinos on Friday night, Sky Sports’ Jon Wilkin put it to Nsemba that his Ashes snub was the driver for such fine form, a prompt that the Warriors man accepted.
“I feel like it was good to get a pre-season under my belt,” Nsemba responded.
“Obviously, you want to play for your country and play for England but at the same time, if you’re not getting picked, then it just (creates) fire in your belly and you want to get there next time.
“Pre-season has done me well, I’m happy with that.”
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Wigan Warriors back in full flow
In such strong form through 11 rounds of Super League, Nsemba will have one eye on this year’s World Cup down under in Australia.
Put to him by Sam Tomkins that ‘Junior Nsemba will be in the World Cup squad’, the Wigan man said: “I’ve got to back myself, so I’ll accept it.
“I feel like if I’m doing my little things, keeping my feet moving, getting my carries and my defence right, then that’s probably what the England coach will want. I accept that one.”
He also spoke on the poor form the club had displayed but explained that the Warriors are now over their dip.
“As you said before, we had that patch where we lost four consecutive but now we’re finding our flow.
“We’ve now come off the back of two good wins and we know what’s there in two weeks so we’ll focus on the league and then we’ve got Wembley.”
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