BY JOHN DAVIDSON
“I never expect the season to be straightforward. I’m in my fourth season and none of them have been.”
It’s midday on a marvellous Monday morning and Wigan coach Matt Peet is just finishing off a field session at Robin Park. The sun is shining down, the weather is wonderful and it’s just four days before the Warriors host Hull KR at home in a highly-anticipated top of the table Super League clash.
Last year’s grand finalists will lock horns for only the second time since they met at Old Trafford. This year’s Challenge Cup winners against the 2024 Cup holders. First on the ladder against second. In terms of regular season games, they don’t get much bigger.
The match comes at an interesting time for the defending champions, Wigan, after a tough 24-18 victory over Warrington.
A week earlier they had defeated Catalans, but before that the club had gone through a difficult run in June and July where they needed a last-minute winner to beat Huddersfield at Dewsbury, were beaten by Wakefield away, scrapped a tight victory over Castleford and suffered losses to Leigh and Hull FC, sandwiched between a comfortable win over the Giants.
Wigan have had several injuries to contend with, with their marquee man Bevan French sidelined for a long period, winger Abbas Miski missing and other stars such as Jai Field and Luke Thompson unavailable.
Their performances, combined with their results, has seen some criticism of the Warriors, especially compared with the heights of their championship-winning form of both 2023 and 2024. But you write Peet’s team off at your peril, with the old adage ringing true – form is temporary, class is permanent.
For the head coach, who has led a charmed career in control of the Cherry & Whites so far, rugby league is anything but straightforward.
“It’s only down at the end of the year that people talk to you like it was… because people remember the big games don’t they, and the back end of the years,” he tells rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“Where every coach and every player will tell you you live through a season journey, it’s like a series of challenges and opportunities. It’s not been as different [this year] as what people might think.”
On Wigan’s mid-season form, Peet says this: “I always want us to be better. That’s my job to challenge and support the players to be the best they can.
“But, there’s other teams that would love a slump like ours. It just shows where expectations are.
“I can remember driving to recovery last year after we had been stuffed by Warrington and Brad O’Neill had done his ACL. I can remember driving home from Magic when Catalans had pumped us, I could go on.
“I don’t know where we are in comparison, results-wise [with last year], but there’s been a few games there along the way like round one, away at Leeds and there’s been other ways that have gone for us.
“My job is just to get a better performance each week, that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s just noise, isn’t it?”
Peet is philosophical as he sits on the wooden bench next to the running track where Paris Olympic 800 metre gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson trains each day.
“I’m as happy as I’ve ever been. You’ve seen me. When people think you’re brilliant, you’re probably not, and when people think you’re average you’re probably somewhere in between and the margins are very close.”
With six games left in the regular season, Friday night’s Robins fixture is crucial if Wigan are to hold on to their League Leader’s Shield. Currently, Hull KR are top with 36 points, four points above the Warriors.
Over the next six weeks Wigan will face Wakefield, Catalans, St Helens, Castleford and Leeds – a far from simple run. In the same period, the Robins will take on Leeds, St Helens, Hull FC, Wakefield and Warrington – arguably an even more difficult stretch.
Finishing positions come semi-final time are anything but certain, and that is how many would like it.
Hull KR head to The Brick Community having lost to Wigan in April, lost to them in October, lost to them in September and lost to them last May in the Challenge Cup.
However, to Peet that losing run will count for little come 8pm on August 15th.
“I’m sure they won’t dwell on that past too much,” he says.
“They’ll be very determined. They’ll want to find their best game and we might find our best game, and I think whichever team gets closest to that will be on top.
“They’re an excellent team, very consistent, they’ve got a good blend. They’re obviously very aggressive in the transfer market, they don’t back their system, which is different to us, but that’s just a different model.
“They’ve got a good, experienced squad and every team that they put out has consistent Super League players. I just think they’re a great organisation.”
