Liam Marshall says Wigan Warriors need to nail the basics against Castleford Tigers

Matty Peet’s side lost for the first time this season against Catalans Dragons at the weekend, and are looking to bounce back on Thursday night at the DW Stadium.

Marshall states they want to build on the good form they enjoyed at the start of the campaign.

He said: “Castleford have had an up and down start at the beginning of the season, but are a big physical side and like to play rugby. They are pretty unpredictable, so we expect the unexpected from them.

“We know we need to be at our best defensively first and foremost to give ourselves a chance in the game. They will be hungry, obviously seeing us get beat at the weekend will probably give them some confidence.

“We can’t be getting back to back losses or letting our form dip. Yeah, we’ve had a decent start to our year but if you look back at last year we had a similar start, so we need to make sure we are on top of our game.

“It is the basic stuff we have spoken about this week, we’ve stripped it back and hopefully we can nail those things.”

Marshall states they have to use the defeat against Catalans as a chance to learn and better themselves.

“It was sort of a reality check of where we want to be this year,” he added.

“We went there excited by the opportunity, hoping to get a result, and things didn’t go to plan. We got dragged into a game that we didn’t want to play.

“It was a disappointing result, we were hoping to come away with four points from the games against Toulouse and Catalans. We were way off where we needed to be in terms of completion, with too many sloppy errors and penalties.

“Sometimes if you flip it, you can see where you need to improve and that will stand us in good stead going forward for the rest of the year.

“That is the benchmark and where we need to be, so hopefully we can have a positive reaction to that and put some things right.”

Marshall is enjoying playing under Peet so far this season, having previously been coached by him in academy.

“It’s good to see Matty (Peet) get the role of head coach, I think he’s been brilliant so far this year,” he explained.

“He’s come with his own philosophy and you can tell how much it means to him being a Wigan lad.

“It’s easy for us Wigan lads to buy into a coach who understands the culture, and he’s rugby through and through. I’ve really enjoyed working under him and know what he expects.”

To celebrate the start of the Super League season we are offering readers 20% off digital sport subscriptions until February 23. Use promo code SL20 when signing up to enjoy the discount. https://www.wigantoday.net/subscriptions/sports.