Wigan Warriors to face Whitehaven in pre-season friendly ahead of the 2023 campaign

A young squad made up of players from the academy and the reserves will travel to the Recreation Ground to take on Whitehaven on January 22 (K.O. 3pm).

The fixture will be the Warriors’ first outing of 2023, with more warm-up games set to be announced.

Wigan’s head of youth Shane Eccles said: “We are looking forward to taking an academy and reserves select squad up to Whitehaven for what should be a great challenge for the players. This is a great opportunity to see our young players competing against a Championship team.

“From speaking to Whitehaven, we know they have big ambitions for the season and when they approached us about playing a friendly, we were keen to get this arranged.

“It should make for a great day and hopefully we will see a good number of supporters travelling up to watch and support our young players.”

The last time the two clubs met was back in 2008, when Sam Tomkins scored five tries on his Warriors debut in a huge 106-8 victory in a Challenge Cup tie at the DW Stadium.

Wigan will discover their Super League schedule for 2023 on November 3, when the full fixture list is released.

The season will get underway on February 16, with regular campaign concluding on September 24.

The traditional Easter fixtures will take place between April 6 and April 10, while the Grand final is on October 14.