Liam Byrne on taking opportunities, dominant Leeds Rhinos victory and the League Leaders’ Shield race

The Ireland international was once again named on the bench for the sixth consecutive week, and had a positive 43-minute stint as red-hot Wigan ran in seven tries against Brad Arthur’s Rhinos in the penultimate round of the regular season.

With strong competition in Matt Peet’s squad with the likes of Sam Walters and Harvie Hill eagerly watching from the sidelines in recent weeks, Byrne admits he wants to take his opportunities with both hands, motivated to keep his spot in the match day 17.

“I expect that (motivation) from myself, just to make sure that I put in a good performance and I’m glad that I did,” 25-year-old Byrne said following Friday’s home win.

“It’s just a separate week; every week is different. You’ve got to expect something different every week, so I was just looking forward to getting out there this week and I was fortunate to get some minutes under my belt.

“There’s a lot of competition, so I’m fortunate to be making the squad and I’m enjoying being out there at the minute.”

The reigning champions enjoyed an electric start to their Round 26 encounter, gaining an early 10-0 advantage through Jake Wardle and Bevan French in the opening 10 minutes, and the current leaders never looked back.

“The starting middles got us on the frontfoot. They gave us a good start in that first 20 minutes and built a foundation for us bench middles to come on and take it from there,” Byrne added. “It was a good 80-minute performance closing in on the play-offs.

“Kaide Ellis, Luke Thompson, Ethan Havard and Kruise Leeming really got us on the frontfoot.

“And at the start of the second half as well, I thought Tom Forber was really good. We had good wrestle, and were really good defensively to keep them down their end and restrict their metres.”

A draw would cement back-to-back League Leaders’ Shields for the first time in Wigan’s Super League history against Salford Red Devils next week, but former Cadishead Rhinos youngster Byrne knows his side face tough opposition in his hometown club.

Paul Rowley’s outfit go into the final round having confirmed their play-off spot following a thumping 58-4 win over Super League strugglers Hull FC at the MKM Stadium on Saturday.

Previewing the fixture, which has been brought forward 24 hours to Thursday, Byrne said: “It’s a chance to get a good win and lift the League Leaders’ Shield, we’ll all look forward to that.

“With us holding all the trophies at the minute, we want to make sure we keep our hands on them and next week is a good chance to do that.

“Salford are a really good team, I enjoy going against them. You always expect the best Salford to turn up against Wigan.”