Wigan Warriors head coach Shaun Wane is desperate to reach the 2014 Super League Grand Final after last year’s success.
The Warriors will battle it out with fierce rivals Warrington Wolves at the DW Stadium on Friday evening in a repeat of the 2013 Grand Final.
Friday’s victors will face a St. Helens side in rampant form, with the Super League Shield winners sealing their place at Old Trafford with a 30-12 dispatch of Catalans Dragons on Thursday.
“We don’t want this to be our last game,” Wane told the club’s official site.
“Any game against Warrington is a big game, they’re a big club and it’s a local derby.
“We know it’s a massive game and we want to play another game at Old Trafford. We know how big this game is.
“It’ll be a massive crowd and a great atmosphere, it always is when Warrington come.
“We just want to give our fans something to cheer about and if we play like we did against Huddersfield then we’ll certainly do that.”
Wane’s team demolished Huddersfield Giants 57-4 to reach the semi-final stage of this year’s play-offs, while Warrington strolled convincingly past Castleford Tigers.
And the 50-year-old coach is adamant his determined players won’t underestimate their local nemeses.
“The quality of our sessions has been outstanding, really intense. You can tell it’s the make or break time of the season,” he added.
“The lads have been really good, we’ve used it really well.
“They [Warrington] are going to really challenge us, they did in the first half of the game at the DW but we got the upper hand in the second half.
“We know what we need to do to win the game it’s just about us executing that.”
Meanwhile, Warrior’s influential captain Sean O’Loughlin expects Friday’s clash will be a thrilling encounter.
“Both sides will want an 80 minute performance, if both sides do that then it’s got the makings for a great game” O’Loughlin told the Warrior’s website.
“We play differently but we’re two very evenly matched sides; the games that we’ve played in the past have been close, hard fought games and have gone down to the death.
“I think if we both bring similar performances then it will be exactly the same this week.”
.@Mattysmith14 is ready…are you? 80 minutes away from Old Trafford – tickets available up until kick-off tomorrow pic.twitter.com/oP8jFUoeRN
— Wigan Warriors (@WiganWarriorsRL) October 2, 2014
Main image courtesy of Press Association via YouTube, with thanks.
