Wigan Warriors PDRL coach left delighted with double header opportunity and could see improvements from his side

Gareth Roughton’s side took on Warrington Wolves in a friendly at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, ahead of Stefan Ratchford’s testimonial game last weekend.

Despite losing 22-10, the Wigan coach took plenty of positives and hopes the format receives further opportunities like this.

He said: “We’ve been running the PDRL and LDRL for the past three years, and when the pandemic hit, it was a bad one because we had only just started to build some momentum.

“The PDRL lads were chomping at the bit to get stuck in again. When we got to the end of last year we had made a lot of progress, and Saturday gave us the opportunity to see how far we’ve come.

“We had played Warrington last year, and we could see the improvements, we were ten-fold better against pretty much the same side.

“Being given the chance to showcase it to quite a number of people definitely gave the lads a bit of a spring in their step, because it’s the biggest crowd they’ve played in front of.

“I think I speak for all the teams when I say, the more eyes we can get on this format of the game, the better. It would be great for our lads to do more double headers, but it’s by no means an expectation.”

Roughton says it is an honour for his team to be representing Wigan, as well as putting PDRL rugby on the map and making it openly available.

“Ultimately as a club we just want to showcase the game and get it out to as many people as possible. We want to give a platform to people who don’t think they can play rugby because of a disability, it’s all about inclusion.

“If we can represent the club and show the other sides what we are made of, then we can see where we end up. It’s an exciting time for Wigan as a whole, and we are delighted to be a part of that, representing it the best we can.

“We’re looking forward to playing a part in the 150th anniversary celebrations, and we want to prove a point this season. There have been a lot of growing pains in the last few years, but now we’ve got a really strong base.”

Roughton is hoping for a season of improvement by his side, and hopes they can build on the Warrington game.

“Every side will be trying to find that first benchmark this season. We know fitness is key, and that is an area we need to work on more, but we want to look after the lads and make sure they’re not putting themselves at further risk.

“In the last couple of seasons we have been the wooden spoon in the league and it has been a challenge, but this year I do think we can turn a few heads. We want to make that push up the table.”

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