Homegrown Wigan Warriors talent tipped for bright future as attitude and technique lauded

That’s the view of his teammate Bevan French, who has sung the praises of academy product Eckersley, who has taken to Super League like a duck to water.

The 21-year-old has enjoyed a fine start to life in the first-team, scoring 12 tries in 24 appearances since his debut in 2022.

Eckersley has played in all seven of Wigan’s Super League games so far this season, scoring a try and registering an assist whilst showing his versatility of being able to play anywhere along the backline.

“I know Matty (Peet) spoke about the Saints academy (in the Good Friday pre-match press conference), the young fellas coming through there and the selection headaches they’ve got at the moment and it’s going to be the same for him moving forward when Adam (Keighran) is back and healthy,” said French. “It’s a headache for the coaches, thankfully not for us!

“I think everyone has been impressed with how Zach has been handling himself and the performances he’s been putting in. He continues to ask questions week in, week out. Last year, he had a good chunk of the season where he got man-of-the-match against Saints and things like that.

“He always wants to grow week on week and asks a lot of questions which is good to see from someone so young, looking like they are eager to learn all the time. Just for that attitude alone, I think he’ll have a very successful career.”

Eckersley, a former sprinter in his junior days, showed a clean pair of heels in Wigan’s win at Hull KR last week with a 70-metre effort straight from a scrum play.

And that begs the question: is the Oldham native the fastest player at Wigan?

“I know he’s got me (beaten), so he and Jai (Field) can battle that out,” French laughed. “I’m done trying to keep up with those two!

“Even on the weekend, you saw his try, his technique, he can cover a lot of distance with his strides, he makes it look effortless, so it’s impressive to see and that’s what fans love to see as well, the speed with him and Jai just taking off and just doing things like that, so it’s very exciting times.”

There’s not just Eckersley in that category of being willing to learn and develop though, with the likes of fellow homegrown talents Jacob Douglas and Jack Farrimond also impressing in Super League during the early rounds of the 2025 campaign.

“I don’t think us as elders really have to go out of our way to do much because they’re always asking questions, coming to you, and things like that,” French said of mentoring the club’s production line.

“I know Zach and Jacob are always looking to improve and asking questions, they’ve got their own coaches in the reserves too and they’re doing other stuff there with their progression, but it’s also about getting to know the person as well.

“I think Jack Farrimond, you probably don’t put too much into him as you would do with Zach or Jacob, because he is a free-flowing, off-the-cuff type of player. You don’t want to change too much with him, you’ve just got to let him be rather than implement things into his game.

“I love watching Jack play, he’s exciting. He’s off-the-cuff, we saw a bit of that last year with the couple of tries he scored at Magic, he’s another one with a big future for sure.”