Wigan Warriors star John Bateman’s interesting response when asked about potential Wests Tigers move

John Bateman has been the headline man over the last 24 hours.

It all started when the Daily Telegraph reported that the Wigan Warriors backrow was set to return to the NRL having had a spell with the Canberra Raiders in 2019.

The brilliant forward was reported to be set to agree a three-year deal with Tim Sheens Wests Tigers with the Tigers paying Wigan a fee of $250,000.

The Warriors have reportedly denied any approach from the Tigers with Wigan Today confirming as such.

The second-row, whilst on press duty for England during the World Cup ahead of a quarter-final clash against Papua New Guinea, had his chance to respond to rumours.

When asked, he simply said: “I’m pretty sure I’m here to talk about England and the World Cup mate. I’ll talk to you about that after the World Cup. I want to focus on the World Cup to be fair mate.”

An interesting response from Bateman but he certainly didn’t deny the rumours. However, he quite rightly wanted to focus on England and righting the wrong of Great Britain’s shock defeat to PNG back in 2019.

On this, Bateman reflected on whether it provides extra motivation going into the game: “I suppose it does, but the whole series was pretty bad back then especially that defeat after not losing to them in so many years, it was tough.”