Wigan Warriors man 'buzzing' for teammate Kian McDermott after taking late call-up in his stride
Wigan Warriors prop Liam Byrne said he was ‘buzzing’ for his teammate Kian McDermott, who received a late call-up to make just his second appearance for the first-team at the weekend.
McDermott, who was promoted to the first-team from the academy ahead of this season, made his debut for his hometown club Wigan in a 46-6 win over Salford Red Devils back in June.
The 18-year-old forward has been named in Matt Peet’s 21-man squad a number of times since then, and was part of Wigan’s travelling contingent that made the trip to the south of France for their clash with Catalans Dragons last week.
Initially, McDermott had not been named in Peet’s matchday line-up, but was drafted onto the bench shortly before kick-off after Adam Keighran pulled out with a knee injury. McDermott entered the action in the second half and looked calm and composed, despite the sudden nature of the late call-up.
"I roomed with Kian on the trip and he’s a top lad, I was buzzing for him,” said Byrne, who made his 150th appearance for the Warriors.
"I know it would have been a bit of a shock being pulled in last minute, but I think he took it by storm. I thought he went after it and was class.
"I was really happy that he got a chance to show what he was about. He was good.”
It was another strong performance from the Warriors, who ran in seven tries to take a comfortable 40-4 win over the Dragons.
“I thought it was a really good win,” Byrne added. “I thought our goal-line defence was really good.
"There were times when we were down to 12 men, there were a couple of things that went against us, Adam Keighran pulled out in the warm-up, we lost Paddy (Mago to a failed head injury assessment), so I thought the way the lads pulled through was class.”
Meanwhile, this week brings the small matter of a St Helens-Wigan derby, which forms part of a double-header alongside a top-of-the-table Women’s Super League clash.
“Always a huge game,” said Byrne. “We know what those games are like and we know what to expect, so we’ll be looking forward to it, we’ll get all our stuff done in training and we’ll go into that confident.”