Manfredi reveals close scrape

He was ill in the build-up to the match and fell asleep on Friday afternoon, missing the team coach’s departure from Wigan. “I ended up meeting the coach on the motorway services,” he sheepishly admitted.

“I wasn’t so good on the Thursday, I still wasn’t well on the Friday – I ended up falling asleep and missing the (set-off). But I wasn’t missing that game.”

The defeat ended an eight-game winning run, but Manfredi said: “We’ll go into our next two games full of confidence.

“Wigan-Saints is massive and all the fans get involved, and we need to finish as high up as we canbefore the season splits (for the Super8s).”