Wigan Warriors - 18th man: 'Harry Smith the difference in the win over Tonga'

Darren Wrudd

Well that was a full blown international match, the Tongans gave us a real test and I can’t wait to see what happens next as they will only get better each game they play as a squad.

As for our performance, I thought Harry Smith was the difference between the teams.

His kicking game was superb in both tactical and spot kicks, whilst his constant arranging and moving the players around show just how this young kid has become a real leader. That said I was surprised that the captaincy was given to Jack Welsby.

I don’t think it did much for his game to be honest as he spent most of the game running around like a headless chicken, out of position and quite ineffective.

He is no doubt a very good player, but perhaps trying too hard and forgetting some of his basics.

I would be surprised if in the next game, there isn’t a change in the back-line too. Whilst Liam Farrell will no doubt have benefitted from a week off playing, Bateman was poor by his own standards. Whatever happens we will need to perform better as a squad as the Tongan challenge will get tougher for sure.

Quite a bit of club news this week to go at. I will miss Cade Cust and think it’s a shame we did not get a chance to say farewell as a home crowd, but I hope he realises how highly he is thought of by the Wigan fans and wish Custy the best of luck in his next chapter. Incoming also we have Sam Esah, a young front-row forward who could develop into another first rate signing alongside Junior Nsemba, who this week himself signed a four-year deal to stay at Wigan.

Great too to welcome back a Wigan old boy in Denis Betts. A very experienced coach who is tasked with running our Women’s team which can only be a good thing. We are showing great intent in the way we are shaping up this club and I am full of excitement over what the next few years will look like.

I was very interested to see the IMG ratings which were released this week. Two of the categories for the points system for each club are Community and Fandom. Now whilst I think that for a club to work it must engage with the community and it is really important to become a part of it, a task which we do at Wigan particularly well, what on earth is Fandom? Other than a vehicle for the governing body or IMG to massage figures so that the fringe clubs that they want to structure into Super League can get a foothold with a non-quantifiable opinion based mark which will boost one fortunate club at the expense of another. London having won a hard-fought campaign to be promoted to Super League have been scored into 24th spot so would miss out in 2025, whilst Toulouse – the French club that the RFL have been praying to get into the league but have not been good enough, are placed 10th. Fandom points, more like Random points. Still as the French experiment has been such a fabulous success, remember Catalans made it to the final and had at least five French players in the team, it will be interesting to see where this grows the sport or perhaps dilutes it even further. I hope I am proved wrong as I love Rugby League and want it to go from strength to strength.

Stephen Ford

It’s nice to have a three match test series to look forward to and the first game against Tonga did not disappoint. Although England had a few players missing, notably George Williams, Herbie Farnworth, Jake Wardle and Dom Young, I thought it was quite a decent performance particularly as some players hadn’t played an actual game for a couple of weeks or more.

I thought that Victor Radley, Mike McMeeken, Harry Smith and Morgan Knowles played well and Mikey Lewis looked a threat every time that he had the ball particularly in the first half.

John Bateman was disappointing and I think that he will struggle to keep his place in the squad.

I am not particularly well versed on a lot of the Tongan players but thought that they acquitted themselves well as the vast majority of them hadn’t toured to the UK before and hadn’t played a game for several weeks.

As expected, the Tongans played with lots of power but I thought that they lacked a little bit of extra pace to really trouble us. I think that England are capable of winning the series 3-0.

Smith’s very good season continues and I expect him to get many more caps in the coming years. Although Bevan French and Jai Field get all the accolades, for me Smith is the key player for Wigan and without him we would be rudderless.

I’ve always thought that his goal kicking technique was good and his drop in success rate in conversions was due more to his mental approach rather than technical deficiencies. My only concern about Smith is our ability to keep him at Wigan and avoid another top player leaving the club for the NRL.

The best news so far for me in our recruitment for 2024 was the signing of Eseh. I’ve not seen lots of him but when he played against us at the DW Stadium earlier in the season I was particularly impressed with his aggression and appetite for work in his defensive duties.

I remember quite vividly his hit on Willie Isa which was very aggressive and made Isa give out a rueful smile. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Isa take him under his wing going forward.

He’s big and raw but I’m pretty confident that Matt Peet and the coaching team will develop him into a regular first teamer sooner rather than later. I was impressed with his interview on Wigan TV where I thought he came across as a mature lad for his age and he seems determined to make a big impression in pre-season training and I am quite sure that he will.

The best part of his signing is that a lot of Saints fans thought that they had signed him so it was great to see their disappointed comments when we announced that he signed a deal with us. More misery on the Saints!

Our pack for 2024 looks pretty formidable with the new signings and our strength in depth for the front row is impressive and despite losing KPP who for me can leave the club with his head held high. Dogs in the street are barking that Smithies is on his way to Canberra which is extremely disappointing as he has developed into a top class forward and his passing skills are greatly underrated by opposing fans.

For years in my opinion we have lacked real size in the forwards but the recent signings and the introduction of Junior Nsemba have addressed this head on. My concerns for the pack are that we look a little light in the second row and if Joe Shorrocks was to exit, this would put further pressure on us and I worry how we will keep all of our props happy.

Keeping the props happy is probably a good problem for Peet in that at the end of last season we were struggling to field four fit props in the 17 man squad which was a major concern for me at the time.

If Luke Thompson is fit and can regain his form before he left Saints, then we will have an extremely formidable pack and hopefully will lead to more silverware in 2024.

David Bailey

After the hustle and bustle of the regular season we find England battling Tonga in a three test series.

Jack Welsby was appointed captain on his own turf, Liam Farrell's omission led many to a head scratch and England toiled to a hard fought win with Tonga giving more than a fright in the last few minutes.

It was really pleasing from a Wigan perspective to see Harry Smith and Toby King on the park, and Smith looked comfortable in his role, with Mikey Lewis having a standout game as the running half.

It looks like being a close fought contest as the games move over to West Yorkshire. I am sure that come World Cup time there'll be a much different flavour to the squad but things are looking up for Wane and his charges.

Wigan meanwhile started the off-season with another recruit from under the radar. Sam Eseh Jr was a name being whispered down the East Lancs but out of nowhere, he was announced as a Wigan player.

With a few Super League games under his belt at relegated Wakefield, a 2022 Championship player of the year award from his loan spells and a bag load of potential, Wigan swooped.

He very much fits the mould of a project player, but has received very good reviews and adds even more to an already healthy Wigan pack.

As this is typed, the only departures from the Warriors are Kai Pearce-Paul, Toby King, Cade Cust and Iain Thornley.

I am sure there will be some more departures announced in the coming days, with Morgan Smithies rumoured departure top of the pile. There are still question marks over Joe Shorrocks and Sam Powell but if the cap allows, I'd prefer to keep them both around. With the number of tackles Smithies makes, they both put in the hard graft and can plug that gap.

Glynn Bradshaw

I thought the England game was quite entertaining, even in the first half, but England dominated territorially in the second half, and could have won by more.

It was a great tackle on Tom Burgess to hold him up in the second half, when he looked certain to score.

I thought Harry Smith did OK, didn’t look out of place and his kicking game was decent, and Toby King held his own.

I believe Tonga will be stronger this week for the run out, so could be an even tougher contest, and England will need to improve again to claim the victory

On the Warriors front, Sam Eseh looks like a decent signing, although I’m a little concerned that our signings are forward dominated and we look a little light in strength in the backs.

We were lucky with injuries in the backs last year, so hope that good fortune continues, but our forwards look awesome and will be hard to handle with strength in depth