Wigan Warriors Women boss Denis Betts hails ‘inspiring’ Challenge Cup winners after Wembley rout

Denis Betts praised his Wigan Warriors side after they retained the Women’s Challenge Cup with a dominant 54-6 victory over rivals St Helens at Wembley.

The Warriors produced another outstanding display under the famous arch, running in 10 tries to successfully defend the trophy they won for the first time last year.

It follows a historic 2025 campaign in which Wigan completed a quadruple by lifting the Challenge Cup, Nines title, League Leaders’ Shield and Super League Grand Final.

Betts admitted he sensed something special was brewing throughout the week as his players prepared for another major final.

“I’m really pleased for them - it’s a great feeling,” said Betts. “I think we all felt it at the start of the week, you just sense when it’s right.

“The hardest weeks are the ones that you know you are going to win, keeping focused and that kind of stuff, but this week, the girls led it.

“That experience of last year, how we trained and what we did, you can sense that little bit of tension and the focus goes up, and our training went really well - there was just an intensity about the girls.

“As a coach, there was a bit of a feeling there, and it’s the same feeling I had as when we played York (in the semi-final), that if we got this right on the day, the weather suited us - nice, dry and fast.”

Wigan’s performance certainly justified Betts’ confidence, with Georgia Wilson, Eva Hunter (4), Beri Salihi, Anna Davies (2), Grace Banks and Remi Wilton all crossing for tries in a one-sided contest.

Warriors captain Wilson opened the scoring, and Betts reserved special praise for his skipper.

“Everybody has talked about how we deal with last year and what we do on the back of last year, but the mindset shift - last year is last year,” Betts said.

“It was a good starting point, it set a tone for us, but the mindset is to be a little bit different this year and be a little bit more ruthless with ourselves and our performances, and just stepping up again, and the girls have absorbed that.

“As a coach, they’re a fantastic group to work with because they just want to get better. They’re a really good group.

“G banged the drum for us because I thought she was amazing. I thought she was our team’s player of the game.

“Jenna (Foubister) was great, and Eva was very good, but I thought G led from the front - she was really good.”

Betts believes the current Wigan side is helping drive standards across the women’s game, with many of the club’s young stars continuing to develop and raise expectations.

“They have transformed this game - this game is different now,” he said.

“I think after last year’s final, I spoke to a vast number of people, I had lots of people who came from Wigan, and they were like, ‘I didn’t realise the women’s game looked like that’, and it didn’t until these girls made it look like that.

“That was down to them. I came in and asked how they wanted to play, then we broke it down and we gave them the skill set they were able to do that.

“My job as a coach is to support their need to get better and how they want to play and how they approach the game, and they deliver.

“I just talk to them, ask questions and tell them what to do. They’re the girls that go out on the field and they’ve changed the game.”

Remarkably, Betts believes there is still more to come from his side despite another Wembley masterclass.

“We sat in here last year, and we said the same thing. It’s like everyone went ‘wow, that was good’ and the thing is, I don’t think we played that well today and the girls don’t,” Betts added.

“They’re constantly trying to improve. That is really inspiring to me as a coach because they want to get better and I’ve got to prove that a positive mindset and how they train will enhance them.”