Wigan Warriors: Three things we learned from the pre-season victory over Whitehaven

Wigan Warriors overcame Whitehaven 22-14 in their opening game of pre-season.
Wigan Warriors overcame Whitehaven in their first pre-season outingWigan Warriors overcame Whitehaven in their first pre-season outing
Wigan Warriors overcame Whitehaven in their first pre-season outing

A squad made up of academy and reserves players made the trip to the Recreation Ground to take on the Championship club.

Despite falling behind on two occasions, the young Wigan side grew into the game and improved as it progressed.

Here are some of the key talking points from the match:

1. A good defensive test

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Whitehaven started the game well, and stretched the Warriors in the opening stages, scoring their opening try after only three minutes.

Defence was one of the big tests for the young squad, who soon composed themselves and got up to speed.

As the game went on, they looked more organised and dealt with any pressure much better.

Reagan Sumner demonstrated that the youthful side could compete physically, with a big hit in the first half to deny Whitehaven.

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Meanwhile, Tom Mitchell and Jacob Douglas also looked assured when dealing with high kicks.

Despite having tough moments, they dealt with things pretty well and will be better for the experience.

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Youthful Wigan Warriors side come from behind twice to overcome Whitehaven in to...

2. A clear improvement in the second half

The Warriors invited too much pressure onto themselves during the first half.

While they became more organised in dealing with what Whitehaven threw at them, they struggled to get out of their own half in the opening 40 and made a couple of errors.

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When both sides went down to 12-men for 10 minutes shortly after the break, Wigan dealt with the situation much better, and kicked on from there.

Despite conceding in the second half, they looked much more assured and matched their more experienced opponents well.

3. Patience in attack

It took a bit of time for things to click for the Warriors in attack, with a bit of final product lacking during the first half, failing to create anything too threatening when they got up the field.

Once again, after the break things improved, as they grew into the game and started causing Whitehaven more problems.

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Jacob Douglas looked lively, going over for Wigan’s first and making a good break to assist the second.

Harvie Hill, who was captain for the day, and Junior Nsemba both looked strong when carrying the ball forward, while Tom Forber was a good creative force along with Logan Astley.

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