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Wigan Warriors coach explains different role in pre-season win

Wigan Warriors

Wigan Warriors came out on top in their first game of the pre-season as they beat Championship side Oldham 28-16 at Boundary Park.

It marked the first game of the pre-season for both sides and was played in front of a strong crowd of over 3,000 highlighting the pulling power of the Super League champions.

Wigan played a number of starters, particularly in their forward pack, however, they made the decision for assistant coach Thomas Leuluai to lead the team as opposed to head coach Matt Peet.

Club legend Leuluai is one of two assistant coaches who works alongside Matt Peet with former Wigan captain Sean O’Loughlin being the other. All three saw their contracts extended long-term at the start of the 2024 campaign with the trio contracted until the end of the 2030 season.

The clash with Oldham offered Leuluai a different perspective, something he told the club’s media channels that he ‘enjoyed’.

He explained: “I took a slightly different job than what I usually take during the week and I enjoyed it. It was nice to be back preparing for a game.”

Wigan Warriors coach hails “very positive” pre-season performance

With Wigan Warriors naming such a strong forward pack the physical element of the game was always going to be tough for Oldham to compete with and that showed early on as the Super League side raced into the lead.

Both Tyler Dupree and Liam Byrne were on the scoresheet as Wigan ran in three tries in the opening 10 minutes whilst hooker Tom Forber also scored off the bench as he made an immediate impact.

Assessing the performance, Leuluai described it as “very positive” as he cited the huge number of young talents that were blooded in and given invaluable minutes.

He explained: “Overall it was very positive. We got minutes into a lot of players, the young lads showed a good account of themselves, and we looked sharp. We are happy with it.

“We had players out there who haven’t played together too much but they looked connected. The lads worked hard during the week off the back of a good pre-season, and we’re all glad that we saw them go out and enjoy themselves.”

Whilst Oldham will head into Round Two of the Challenge Cup, Wigan will take on Leeds Rhinos in Ash Handley’s testimonial game – something that Leuluai referenced as he hailed the performance.

“Our S&C team have done a great job as the lads looked fit and ready to go out there,” the former Kiwi international said.

“We looked connected in terms of what we want to do, but there’s always areas you can improve on and that’s what we will look at before Leeds. However, we are happy to get the lads out there.”

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