Wigan Warriors are the visitors to the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday night

The Warrington Wolves vs Wigan Warriors rivalry has always been a truly spectacular fixture that never disappoints.

It is the first of just two fixtures between the two clubs this season. Rather than the three or four games in previous years with the sides meeting in the Challenge Cup and at Magic Weekend.

Matt Peet’s Wigan side currently sit in second, level on points with three-peat champions St.Helens who fell short last week against Castleford Tigers. Wigan, however, won two out of the three Easter fixtures falling to a 22-4 defeat against the Saints on Good Friday. The Warriors breezed past Wakefield with a scoreline of 54-10 on Easter Monday and finally, it took a late Jai Field against Salford on Sunday afternoon to secure a 30-24 victory.

Wigan will be looking for revenge having lost all three games against Warrington last season.

Warrington however currently sit in 8th level on points with Castleford Tigers and only two points behind the two Hull clubs who occupy fourth and fifth. Considering the poor run of form which led saw this Wolves side suffer five consecutive losses in all competitions, to only be two points behind the top four is a positive for Daryl Powell’s side.

A win on Friday night could possibly put the Wolves into the top four if results go their way this weekend. Last time out against the Huddersfield Giants saw the youth in Warrington’s side shine through with Riley Dean getting four assists and a try, Josh Thewlis scoring a hat-trick and Connor Wrench also going oiver.

The last time Wigan beat Warrington was in October 2020 behind closed doors at Headingley. Warrington led at half-time by 12-0, but Wigan came back to win 18-14 with a Liam Farrell 75th minute winning try.

Daryl Powell has called this game “A must-win. The last three weeks have been class effort-wise”. Powell has also stated this game will truly testify how much the team have improved over the last three weeks and that it will put them in a good position if they come out victorious on Friday night. He has been impressed with the young lads coming into the side and has challenged them to keep giving the Head Coach headaches on match selection going forward.

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Matt Peet has insisted that his side has moved on pretty quickly from the Salford game and looked immediately to his challenge on Friday against Warrington. He also said that the club has a lot of respect for Warrington with the number of times both clubs have faced each other over the years and that they appreciate “how they go about their business.”

How to watch:

The game will be broadcasted on Sky Sports at 7:30 for a 20:00 kick-off.

Team News:

Warrington are missing Gareth Widdop, Stefan Ratchford, Jack Hughes, Greg Minkin and James Harrison through injury, good news for Warrington fans is both Minikin and Harrison are looking at returns in June which are positives after both suffered ACL injuries, George Williams and Oliver Holmes are both in contention, Williams missed all the Easter period through injury.

Warrington Team; Matty Ashton, Joe Bullock, Josh Charnley, Daryl Clark, Jason Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Currie, Matt Davis, Riley Dean, Oliver Holmes, Toby King, Ellis Longstaff, Billy Magoulias, Peter Mata’utia, Robbie Mulhern, Joe Philbin, Ellis Robson, Josh Thewlis, Danny Walker, George Williams, Connor Wrench.

Wigan are missing Tommy Leuluai and Kai Pearce-Paul through injury and Sam Powell will also be missing for the Cherry and Whites due to serving a six-week ban due to a crusher tackle against St.Helens.

Wigan Team; Bevan French, Jake Bibby, Iain Thornley, Liam Marshall, Cade Cust, Brad Singleton, Patrick Mago, Willie Isa, Liam Farrell, John Bateman, Morgan Smithies, Kaide Ellis, Harry Smith, Oliver Partington, Ethan Havard, Liam Byrne, Joe Shorrocks, Jai Field, Abbas Miski, Sam Halsall, Brad O’Neil

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