Wigan Warriors look to bounce back against Hull KR

After a bad day at the office in West Yorkshire last time out, Wigan Warriors will need to bounce back on Thursday night as they host Hull KR at the D.W. Stadium.

Wigan had been in formidable form, losing just once in their last six Super League games with a heartbreaking late defeat to rivals St Helens at Magic Weekend.

They bounced back from that defeat in emphatic style, beating Hull FC 60-0 at the D.W. as the Cherry and Whites looked to build another run of results. But a trip to Yorkshire didn’t quite go to plan as Leeds Rhinos smashed Matt Peet’s side at Headingley 42-12.

With the Warriors being consistent at having positive reactions to previous poor performances, you’d expect their star men to be on the top of their game on Thursday evening as they attempt to close the gap on St Helens which has now stretched to six points after Wigan have suffered two defeats in their last three.

As for the visitors, they have had an up and down type of season. With inconsistent results, a few wins here and there have managed to keep them within touching distance of the play-offs as they sit joint on points with Salford Red Devils.

Occupying 7^th spot, it’s certainly been a season of unrest with long-term Head Coach Tony Smith seemingly untimely announcing his future plans to leave his post in charge of Rovers before he was sacked after a poor run of results.

It was announced Danny McGuire would take over for the remainder of the season before Willie Peters is set to take over in the off-season.

The away side for Thursday’s televised clash will be looking to build on their back-to-back wins, a rarity for the Rovers this season. After beating struggling Wakefield, they backed up the expected victory with a win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium as Ethan Ryan scored his 100^th career try to keep Hull in the play-off picture and beat Warrington 30-22.

The reds had to show an abundance of character and resilience to take anything from the game as they battled back from a 14-0 deficit at half-time to come back and take the points from Wire who are another side to never truly get going this campaign despite showing glimpses

As for the team news, Wigan surprised a few by going completely unchanged with their 21-man squad that lost to Leeds Rhinos last time out.

The Warriors are still without Iain Thornley, Tommy Leuluai and John Bateman all due to injury whilst Brad Singleton serves the final match of his three-game suspension.

Matt Peet did mention however in his pre-match press conference how it’s time to give some of the other players a chance so we may well see the likes of Sam Halsall and Abbas Miski being given a run out against Hull KR.

As for the visitors, they are in the wars in terms of numbers on the side-line due to injury with Danny McGuire having to call up more under 19’s.

Rovers are only able to name a 20-man squad with them missing 14 (fourteen) regular first-teamers for the clash with the Warriors whilst missing Ryan Hall, Mikey Lewis, Jimmy Keinhorst, and Korbin Sims who were all in the squad to face Warrington.

The squad sees the incoming of young trio Zach Fishwick, Harvey Moore and Connor Barley. It has been suggested McGuire hasn’t taken any chances with players who could’ve possiblybattled through the 80 minutes at the D.W. with two huge clashes coming up against Leeds and Toulouse.

But with the teams announced on Tuesday, you’d find it hard to expect anything other than a win for the Warriors who despite their shocking performance last time out , are against a very inexperienced Hull KR side who may well be looking to focus on games elsewhere rather than a trip that’s tough with a full-strength side, never mind the injury list KR currently obtain.

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