Is Jai Field rapidly becoming the best player in Betfred Super League?

Wigan Warriors’ number 23 Jai Field has taken the Super League by storm so far in 2022 after claiming the February ‘Player of the Month’ award.

After signing for the Cherry and Whites last year, his start in the Northwest got off to the worst possible start after suffering a serious hamstring injury in round one of the 2021 season which ruined the year for the former Parramatta Eels man.

But this season has been a revelation for Field who has been playing full-back so far for the Warriors this campaign.

With the absence of Beavon French over the past 12 months, Zak Hardaker has regularly featured in Wigan’s ‘number one’ position. But since Field has returned from injury, he has taken over the position with Hardaker moving to more of a winger role in recent weeks.

Not many people knew too much about Field coming into this campaign, and his pace has been a huge surprise to many who haven’t watched him before having played just four Super League games prior to the beginning of this season.

In the large majority of games, Field has cut open the opposition on a number of occasions as he puts the afterburners on and races through whilst rarely being caught so far.

His agility is a joy to watch, his try against Castleford last time out being a prime example as he caught a high kick, assessed which side of the Cas defence he would ghost through, and the rest is history.

So far in the new season, his stats are second to none. He’s ahead by some way in terms of metres gained and is also number one in terms of clean breaks across the entire Super League.

Field is also in the chasing pack for the top try scorer as he sits joint second in the rankings behind Tommy Makinson, Ken Sio and Josh Charnley who all have eight tries to their name with Field sitting on seven.

The final and most important on an individual level is the rankings for the ‘Man of Steel’ award.

Field is hot on the tail on St Helens’ Sione Mata’utia who currently leads the way with ten points, one ahead of Field, after Mata’utia joined from Newcastle Knights last season.

With Wigan having a much-improved start to the season compared to the last couple of years which have ended with disappointment, many of the Warriors faithful have been buzzing about Field’s performance which are part of a clear correlation with Wigan’s impressive and improved form.

With a Challenge Cup game coming up against Salford Red Devils, it will be interesting to see if Matt Peet will make some changes to his side who have played at a high intensity in recent weeks and had to dig deep last time out as Castleford Tigers threatened a late comeback at the D.W. Stadium.