Denis Betts outlines Wigan Warriors challenge ahead of York Valkyrie semi-final in Women's Challenge Cup
Wigan Warriors Women head coach Denis Betts believes Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final against York Valkyrie will provide the clearest test yet of his side’s progress this season.
The Warriors face York at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington this weekend, with a place at Wembley up for grabs.
The winners will meet either Leeds Rhinos Women or St Helens Women in the final on May 30.
Wigan have reached the last four after comfortable victories over Featherstone Rovers, Cardiff Demons and London Broncos, although Betts admits the semi-final will be a major step up in quality.
“It’s very reminiscent of last year in a lot of ways,” Betts told Wigan Today.
“We’ve just tightened up a couple of things we worked on in pre-season, the girls are healthy as such, and these first few weeks are tough to get up and running, really.
“Because of the nature of the competition, it just gets smacked with a big game in a semi-final.
“It’s not just for us, it’s for all those semi-final teams in Leeds, Saints, York and ourselves, who have never really been tested, scored plenty of points, and then all of a sudden you are facing a side that is going to put you under a fair bit of pressure.”
Betts believes the contest against York will show how much his side’s pre-season work has prepared them for the bigger occasions.
“These kinds of games map out how well you’ve trained throughout the pre-season,” he said.
“We’ve not really been put under pressure on our own goal-line, so they are the kind of things that you have to replicate in training.
“We have had the physicality of Cardiff and London, which were really good for us, and Featherstone were a big side as well, so there has been some physicality there that is hard to replicate on the training field.
“Ultimately, it’s been like back-to-back sets, building pressure, creating pressure and staying calm in key moments – those are the things that we’ve had to try to replicate in training.”
Betts also praised the impact of the Warriors’ new additions ahead of the semi-final clash.
“We’re pretty happy with the squad,” he added.
“We’ve not changed it lots. Bethan Dainton has fit in really well, Kelsey Gentles has fit in really well, and Beri Salihi has come on leaps and bounds.
“We’ve also got a good core group of players that had such a good year last year.”
York, coached by former Great Britain international Leon Pryce, handed Wigan their last defeat in August last year, and Betts expects another tough encounter.
“They are a strong team, they are a big and physical side, and they’ve got one over us in being the last team to beat us,” he said. “You know they are going to be physical.
“(Sinead) Peach will be playing, she is smart and has a good rugby brain, and they are going to be a difficult side.”
The Women’s Challenge Cup semi-final takes place at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Saturday, 11:30am kick-off (BBC Red Button TV). The Men’s semi-final between Wigan and St Helens will follow at 2:30pm (BBC One).