Jake Bibby hoping to take centre stage for Wigan Warriors

The 23-year-old met up with his new team-mates when he reported for pre-season training on Friday.

Bibby had an incredible finish to last season, scoring Salford’s only try in the Grand Final after the Red Devils’ incredible surge to Old Trafford.

He graduated from the Red Devils’ academy ranks, but it was Wigan who provided his childhood memories.

“I signed for Salford at 15 but I was always a Wigan fan,” said Bibby, a former St Peter’s High pupil who played his junior rugby at St Cuthberts, St Judes and Orrell St James.

“I used to like watching Martin Gleeson, Darrell Goulding, George Carmont – mainly the centres – but Harrison Hansen, too.

“Gleese was probably my favourite. So coming to my hometown club is great, for me and my family.

“Friday was my first day and I was a bit nervous going into the unknown, but I’ve been made really welcome, I felt like I’ve slotted straight in.

“I only really knew Chris Hankinson – who was at Salford academy, too – and Jake Shorrocks beforehand, but everyone has been great. It feels good to be here.”

Bibby split his time between wing and centre at Salford, and even had a taste of the back-row.

But centre is his preferred position and he may get an early chance in that role, after Oliver Gildart underwent shoulder surgery on an injury suffered playing for Great Britain which will rule him out for up to the first 10 games.

“I’ll try and take my chance when I get it, Oliver is a quality player and he’ll come back strong and fit,” said Bibby.

“So I’ll hopefully have a chance to get a few games under my belt early on and see where it goes from there.

“I can play wing or back-row, but as I get older I’d like to take the centre role, that’s where I played mainly as a junior.”

Dan Sarginson has moved to Salford, meaning Wigan could have two fresh centres when the 2020 campaign starts.

Adrian Lam will have the option of moving No.1 Zak Hardaker to the three-quarters – a switch which would allow Bevan French to take the full-back role – while Hankinson is still in the mix.

“Jake will give us a bit of a cutting edge, on one of the edges,” said assistant coach John Winder yesterday.

“He finished the year well with Salford and in the skills session we did this morning, he looked very skilful. I think he’ll do well for us.”

Working on core skills will be the focus of the early stages of Wigan’s pre-season schedule.

And Winder, at the helm until Lam’s return next week, says the option of training indoors at their new Robin Park base will help.

“In this first six weeks we’ll concentrate on skill and get some extra reps into them, both static skills and on the field,” he said. “We want to get as much volume of skill into them as possible.

“Last year was a bit different, it as Adrian’s first year so a lot of the focus was on the structure of how he wanted to play.

“But because they’ve had a year under Lammy, they have a better understanding of the systems and what he wanted, and we can fix up a few things we weren’t happy with last season.

“We’ve got a great facility here, the gym is first-class, we have the pitch but also having the inside track gives us the option of doing static skills inside and getting some real, quality work into them.”