‘You just want to take someone’s head off’ – Wigan’s Bateman launches fierce pep talk ahead of derby

John Bateman will finally be back playing in a Wigan-Saints derby in front of a full crowd.

A two-year hiatus in the NRL and the impact of COVID restricting supporters has made the former Bradford junior even more eager to get out there.

“You just want to take someone’s head off, don’t you?” Bateman told Sky Sports.

“Anything Wigan-Saints, you just want to get stuck into each other and it will be a good game.

“You want to rip in and get the win, and it’s about the bragging rights, I suppose – especially as Saints have come out on top in the last couple of years with a couple more trophies and things like that.”

Whilst Bateman enjoyed his time with the Raiders back in the NRL, the 27-year-old is happy to have that old feeling back.

“Week in, week out it was the sort of games you need to turn up for, but you didn’t have that real derby game which was built up as one of the biggest games of the year or probably the biggest game of the year,” Bateman said of his time in Canberra.

“The lads over there used to ask what it was like because they’d watched it on TV and things like that.

“I think everyone in Wigan has been talking about it for the past couple of weeks. I went to Tesco the other day and someone mentioned it to me, so it should be good and I’m looking forward to getting into it.”