Warriors captain Liam Farrell lauds new forward recruit ahead of debut campaign: ‘Physically he looks the part’

The 20-year-old prop forward arrived at Wigan last October on a two-year deal from Wakefield Trinity, and has been backed for a bright future in the game.

Eseh was named Championship young player of the year in 2022 during loan spells with Barrow Raiders and Featherstone Rovers, later earning his Super League debut the following season.

He was crowned Wakefield’s young player of the season at the club’s end of year awards in 2023, and was soon snapped up by Warriors boss Matt Peet to join his stacked forward pack ahead of the side’s title-defending campaign.

And Farrell, who enters his second season as Wigan’s skipper, believes that the squad competition will bring the best out of the 6’4” forward.

“Physically, he looks the part,” 33-year-old Farrell said of Eseh.

“In training and how he’s gone so far, he’s trained really well.

“That’s all we can ask from him at the moment and when it comes to games, we want him to play well.

“As it stands, there’s a lot of competition for places in the front-row, but I think that’ll bring the best out of Sam and we’ll see him have some game time this year and I’m sure the Wigan fans look forward to seeing him.”

While admitting there’s still hard work to be done, back-rower Farrell says there’s excitement ahead for the reigning champions, with the side to continue their preparations this Sunday with a friendly against Tony Smith’s Hull FC.

He continued: “I think if you look across the squad, you’ll hear coaches say competitions for places brings the best out of their team and rightly so.

“We’ve got competition across all places and it’s an exciting year and we want everyone to work hard and get a spot in the 17.

“I can’t imagine Matty Peet has a 17 at the moment because there's that many places up for grabs.

“We’re looking good at the moment and there’s still a lot of hard work in front of us.”