Matt Peet explains squad rotation as Wigan Warriors boss hails ‘job done’ against Castleford Tigers

Ryan Hampshire was called up at stand-off, scoring twice in the 36-14 victory, with reigning Man of Steel Bevan French moved to full-back to replace fellow Australian Field.

Kruise Leeming meanwhile featured for the full 80 minutes, his first start in cherry and white, with Peet opting to give O’Neill a rest with Super League’s new match limit rules playing a part.

Peet explained: “Brad O’Neill, he’s been playing outstandingly well for us.

“But we do have another very good hooker and we wanted to give Kruise more game time now he’s fully recovered from injury, and to somewhat protect Brad and keep him fresh with a long season ahead.

“There is a limit on minutes with his age, he’s lower than others. So it’s a way to keep him safe and look after him because we’re going to need him.”

On Field, Peet continued: “Jai has been sort of nursing a bit of muscle tightness, he could play.

“But so far we’ve taken a couple of opportunities to just let him rest a little bit, and he’s coming towards the back of that now.

"He’ll put it to bed in this little rest that he gets.

“We thought it was the right thing to do, take this opportunity to give people games who deserve them as well.

“More for Kruise, game time for Ryan Hampshire because we’re going to need him, and then a chance to look at Zach Eckersley as well.”

Peet was pleased with his side’s performance, having totally dominated last week’s Challenge Cup quarter-final tie at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

Asked what pleased him the most in the Super League Round 8 triumph, the head coach said: “The fact we were made to work harder (than last week) and still got the job done.

"I thought Castleford right from the off brought a level of intent, effort and energy and we had to overcome that.

“They scored a try there, against the run of play, but it makes it more of a challenge and I thought we stuck to building the game and we got the job done.”