Wigan Warriors’ Matt Peet expects to see Jai Field get even better as the season progresses after his stand out performance at Hull FC on Friday night.
Field scored three tries on the night as the Warriors recorded a 46-4 win in East Yorkshire to pick up their first points of the new campaign.
The full-back got Wigan moving inside the opening 10 minutes by getting on the end of Liam Marshall’s kick inside and he burst through the line to get on the end of Bevan French’s dab through the line to touch down just before the break.
He completed his hat-trick in the second half, taking advantage of some tired Hull defence to touch down, with Abbas Miski, Patrick Mago, Tom Forber, Jake Wardle and Bevan French also getting in on the act to secure what was a comfortable victory on the night.
“He’s a great player, he works so hard on his game and you expect to see him get better as the season goes on,” Peet said after the game at the MKM Stadium. “His game is built on his combination with Harry and Bevan and timing is a big part of that.
“I think you’ll always see him improve and he works so hard at his game. He saved a try with a great tackle as well. I thought it was a good night for Jai.”
The points represent the Wigan Warriors’ first of the season after losing 1-0 to Leigh Leopards on the opening day of the new season. However, it also represented Wigan’s first win at Hull FC in four games, with the club having lost on their last three trips to west Hull.
“I don’t really see it as a response,” Peet added. “We’re moving through a season, every week is a different game and you work hard in training and you pick things that you want to keep about your game and build on and pick things you want to improve and we’ll continue to do that.
“If we’d have won 1-0 last week it wouldn’t have made much difference to what we do. I thought it was a strong performance and it looked straightforward in retrospect but coming over here on the back of, not just Hull FC’s result last week, but the event, the enthusiasm around Hull FC doing a lot of good things on and off the field, we knew we were stepping into the challenge of a really proud club who were looking to put on a show for their supporters.
“We managed to get things right at the start of the game and that stood us in good stead. It was a big challenge coming here tonight and we handled it really well.
“It’s well documented that we haven’t got the best record in Hull during my time at the club and looking at some of those it was the start that we haven’t got right so that was a priority for us. It’s not just about the scoring, it’s the way you build a game and I thought we did that well.
“The points didn’t come that easily initially but obviously the game opened up a bit which is normally the case when you’re clinical at the start.”
