From comeback to champions: Why Wigan Warriors was the perfect fit for Kelsey Gentles
Kesley Gentles is a high-profile signing Wigan Warriors Women ahead of their quadruple-defending 2026 campaign, and her arrival feels like the meeting point of ambition and perfect timing.
Fresh from a season of total dominance, Wigan have set the benchmark in the Women’s Super League, with Denis Betts’ side having scooped all four trophies on offer in 2025 in the shape of the Challenge Cup, Nines title, League Leaders’ Shield and Super League Grand Final.
Gentles is clear that she hasn’t just joined to admire what has already been achieved. She has joined to push it further and is hungry to taste silverware with her new club.
For a player who has rebuilt confidence in her performance after injury and pregnancy, reinvented herself on the pitch, and balanced elite sport with a demanding professional and personal life, Gentles’ move to Wigan represents a challenge and an opportunity she feels ready for.
"When the opportunity came to come to Wigan, they’d just won everything, and it seemed like they had massive ambitions,” Gentles told Wigan Today.
"Wigan are an ambitious club anyway, so I never thought it was going to be an option to come over here, but once the opportunity presented itself, it was kind of like a no-brainer to come over here.
"I’d had a massive injury and my confidence had been knocked quite a lot, so I went to Huddersfield and I wanted to see what I was as a player, how good I was, what my goals were, I needed to have that clarification and once I went to Huddersfield I kind of got that confidence back that I can still throw it about, so my ambitions were back as high as they’ve always been, and that’s why I wanted to be at a club that could take me to the next level.”
Once an out-and-out winger, Gentles’ game has evolved significantly over the years. Injuries and motherhood forced her to reassess what her body could handle, and instead of resisting change, she embraced it, with the result being a successful transition into the middle of the park, where she now sees her future at Wigan.
“I was an out-and-out winger, and I’d played in the centres and at fullback a couple of times, but I was definitely a specialist winger,” Gentles smiled.
"And then when I had my daughter, Maia, I came back, and I’d already injured my knee before I got pregnant, so my body just wasn’t ready to play on the wing, so I had to adapt to what my body was like.
"The easiest thing to adapt to was throwing myself about in the middle, and I found that I love it. I think I’m still going to be playing in the middle here, I think Denis sees me in the middle and in the pack, throwing my weight around a bit there.”
Before officially joining the Warriors, Gentles had a unique vantage point on their historic 2025 campaign. Through her work as a commentator and pundit, she was able to watch them closely, gaining insight that goes beyond highlight packages and scorelines.
What she saw convinced her that Wigan was more than just a winning rugby team. It was a group she wanted to belong to, having already formed some special bonds in pre-season with Betts’ side.
“I thought they were brilliant last season,” Gentles added.
"I got the opportunity to commentate on a couple of games and do a bit of punditry, so I kind of got to see them up close, and not just watching on TV.
"I managed to watch them at Wembley when they absolutely smashed it in the Challenge Cup final. I think people were expecting them to be good, but nobody was expecting them to be that good, so having had the opportunity to see them up close and how they operate as a team, the things that you probably don’t see on TV... I thought everything was fantastic.
"I thought they were brilliant, I thought they looked like a good set of girls, and they looked like the kind of team I want to be part of.”
Wigan’s success, however, brings new challenges. As champions, Wigan will come up against opponents who are desperate to dethrone them.
Gentles is aware of the pressure that comes with being the team everyone wants to beat, and she sees a leadership role for herself in helping the squad handle that reality, with years of experience in the Women’s Super League under her belt.
"It was fantastic that they won everything last year and had a really good year, but sometimes that can be harder to back up,” the Yorkshirewoman continued.
"It’s probably going to be this year when they are going to need to stand up. The girls that are really talented but don’t quite have that experience, they probably do need a little bit more guidance, and with (former captain) Vicky Molyneux retiring, that’s an experienced head who is no longer going to be there, so I think myself and Bethan (Dainton), we’re a bit older and we’ve been around a few more years, and we’ve kind of got that experience of coming up against adversity.
"Wigan have got a target on their back now, essentially. They won everything last year – all the other teams, especially in the top four, are going to be out to get them – so how are we going to react to that kind of adversity? They’ve got nothing left to lose – they are going to throw everything at us – so how are we going to react on the pitch? And that’s where we older players with a bit more experience who are used to being in those uncomfortable positions will need to rally the troops to make sure we’re okay and steady the ship a little bit.”
Being in a leadership role at Wigan also means supporting one of the most exciting young spines in the game. Grace Banks, Jenna Foubister and Izzy Rowe may still be early in their senior but promising careers, but Gentles has been struck by their maturity and understanding of the game, and is relishing playing alongside the homegrown trio.
“I feel like in the Women’s Super League, it’s not unheard of for young players to come into the first-team because the talent pool isn’t that big, but a lot of the time a young player might come in and it might take them a couple of seasons to find their feet and to really stamp their name on a shirt and make it into the starting team consistently," she explained.
"But to have three young players in the spine role – it is a lot of pressure on their shoulders – but to be able to guide the team around the park like they did last year is a testament to their character.
"When I came here, I wanted to see what it was like playing with them, seeing what they are like at training, and you would never know they were 18/19/20 – you would think they were 25 with their knowledge of the game and the way they’ll tell you exactly what they want from you.”
For Gentles, her move across the Pennines is not just about the next season, but potentially the final chapter of her playing career.
Despite still only being 26 years of age, she is realistic about time and clear about her intentions, having wanted her next club to be somewhere she could fully commit to, with the hope of retiring there.
“I’m 26 now, I don’t know how long I’ve got left in me to be fair,” Gentles laughed.
"When me and (my partner) Jacob were talking about my next club, I wanted my next club to be my last club sort of thing, and I wanted to retire at my next club, so as far as I’m concerned, I’m in this for the long haul... Hopefully, Denis will have me! But we’ll see, I’ve got ambitions to stay here for a long time.
"When it comes to the team and performance-wise, of course, we want to go back-to-back in everything next year, and there has been a lot of movement in the squad, so I want to come in, and I don’t want performances to dip.
"We want to make sure we take it to the next level now, everyone is really hungry. The girls who were here last year want to take it to the next level, so it’s up to us coming into the squad to match them and take it up again.”
Away from rugby, Gentles lives a busy lifestyle that demands just as much – if not more – resilience and emotional strength.
Alongside her playing career, Gentles works as a Childline practitioner under the NSPCC, managing volunteers who support children in crisis. It’s a role that couldn’t be further removed from the rugby pitch, yet one that has clearly shaped her outlook on life and her warm personality.
“I’m a Childline practitioner, I am one of the managers at Childline working under the NSPCC charity,” she continued.
"My day-to-day role in my job is that I manage the volunteers that speak to children that contact Childline and make sure that if there are any safeguarding risks that we can provide the right support in place, doing a lot of work with the social care system, the emergency services, making a lot of referrals and speaking to a lot of people that protect children in the UK, so that’s my day-to-day job.
“It's quite stressful at times, but then it’s quite rewarding other times. You have to be a certain kind of position to put yourself in that role because sometimes it is awful and you get some really upsetting phone calls and you have some really upsetting contacts with some young children, but then when you get them the help they need and the support, or sometimes the children will come back to us and say ‘you have really helped me’ – those are the good days and that makes it feel worthwhile, for sure.”
Family is central to Gentles’ life, and her partner, Jacob Ogden, has been a constant source of support for her, both professionally and personally.
A former professional rugby league player himself who represented Jamaica internationally, Ogden retired after the couple learned they were expecting their daughter, Maia, having achieved everything he wanted in the game.
“He's retired now,” said Gentles. “When I found out we were pregnant with Maia, we were both playing at the time... Jacob had just played in the World Cup and we had a conversation and decided what our goals were as individual rugby players and what else we needed to box off before we retired.
"Jacob had said he’d done everything he wanted to do – he has played at every level, he’s played Super League, for his country, played in a World Cup and said that he was pretty content with his career and where he was at, and he wanted to move into being a WAG, basically! I didn’t feel like I was ready to give it up yet, and he felt like he was, so he is so supportive, he’s great.
"He lived in London, playing for London Broncos. He is from Northampton, and he was in London’s academy, progressed up to the first-team there and then when our relationship got more serious, he decided he wanted to move to Yorkshire, signed for York and then played in the World Cup and retired.
"It’s nice because we’ve had a really good dual career at the same time. He has done everything he wants to do, we both actually played for York, and then when he played his last year at York, we had the same shirt, both had our names and numbers on, so we got them framed so that our children will always know their mum and dad both played at the same club – I think that’s quite special.”
On the international stage, Gentles’ future remains open. Having represented England and being of proud Jamaican and Irish heritage, she has options to explore. But for now, she is simply focused on staying healthy and performing consistently at club level with her new club Wigan.
“I have had a few conversations with them (Jamaica),” she added. “But last year it just wasn’t the time because I was rehabbing my knee, and I just wanted to make sure I got it right and didn’t want to rush into anything, which is why I didn’t actually end up playing (for Huddersfield) until the last game of the regular season last season because I really didn’t want to rush it.
“I’ve got three options – I could play for England, Jamaica or Ireland. I’ve got three different heritages, so we’ll just see. I’ve got a lot on my plate without thinking about taking it to the next level with international duty!”
For now, though, everything points towards Gentles’ exciting next chapter in cherry and white, having arrived at Wigan with confidence and the determination to make this next, and possibly final, chapter in her rugby league journey count.