Wigan Warriors centre Iain Thornley is happy to be going into Sunday’s Challenge Cup fifth round tie at Hull Kingston Rovers during a run of good form.
The 21-year-old, who had a stint at Sale Sharks last year, had a hand in Anthony Gelling’s first half try in Wigan’s 46-6 win over Salford in the last round of Super League
Despite Wigan’s record Super League win in their last visit to MS3 Craven Park just over a month ago, Thornley is expecting a different challenge this time.
“We wanted to go into the cup game with a good performance so we can spend this week with our focus on the game and not fixing things up,” said Thornley.
“We definitely had the Hull KR game in our minds going into the Salford game.”
The Robins will have the services of halfbacks Michael Dobson and Travis Burns at their disposal who both missed their heaviest defeat.
Rovers have the added kudos of dumping St Helens out of the competition in round four.
But Thornley insists Hull K.R’s growing confidence coupled with the Warriors’ burden of being heavy favourites will not affect Wigan’s preparation.
“We’re happy and we’ll go into the game in good form,” he said.
Thornley has produced nine tries in his 12 first team appearances this year and will be looking to add to the brace he scored when the clubs last met.
Meanwhile, mounting speculation on the future Sam Tomkin has accelerated this week.
Auckland-based NRL side New Zealand Warriors flew Tomkins’ mum out to watch them beat Gold Coast Titans last week.
And former Wigan Warrior Thomas Leuluai, now at rugby league’s other Warriors has revealed Tomkins has spoken to him about a move.
“I have talked to Sam, he’s asked me about it,” Leuluai told Fairfax Media NZ.
“He’s asked me what I thought about him coming here.”
English bookmaker, Victor Chandler opened a book on Tomkins’ next club last week installing New Zealand Warriors at 7/4 favourites.
But betting was later frozen due to an influx of bets on the club.
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