Wigan Warriors must show teams their true qualities if they are to kick-start their Super League season, according to head coach Shaun Wane.
The Warriors were beaten in convincing fashion at Castleford Tigers last weekend, slumping to a 42-14 defeat.
And Wane insists that his side must show their true grit in order to get back to winning ways against Hull FC on Friday evening at the DW – especially with the new Super League format adding extra impetus into maintaining a position in the top eight until the split 23 rounds in.
“You look at what Hull did in the first half (against Leeds), if they put two halves together like that then they’ll be unstoppable,” said Wane.
“They’re a good team but they couldn’t keep it going, you could tell from the coach’s comments after the game that he wasn’t happy with the second half.
“I wasn’t happy with the 80 minutes (at Castleford) so they’ve got an advantage over us.
“They’ll get more confidence out of watching our game than the other way round and I’m not having that.
“Our players are too good to have people thinking that of them so we need to make sure that teams see the best of us and no team has seen that yet.”
Hull raced into a 12-0 lead against Leeds Rhinos last week but the Headingley outfit came back strongly to seal a convincing 43-12 triumph.
Wigan, meanwhile, never looked at the races against the Tigers and, following the disappointment of their World Club Series loss to the Brisbane Broncos, Wane, who believes that sides raise their game when facing the Warriors, admitted that only a win is acceptable.
“They’re coming to us at the DW and I want a performance – we’ve not talked about winning but we have talked about certain facets in our game where I want us to improve and if we do that then we’ll win.
“We are the team to beat still. From the 80s and 90s when Wigan were so dominant people like seeing us come unstuck a bit and it’s my job to make sure that people don’t get that joy.”
Main image courtesy of Super League TV via YouTube, with thanks.
