Match preview: St Helens

[josie andrews]

In association with Davanti Tyres, here is everything you need to know ahead of Wigan Warriors’ Betfred Super League tie against St Helens at Magic Weekend.

Wigan Warriors travel to St James Park, Newcastle for Magic Weekend as they face St Helens in Round 18 of the Betfred Super League on Saturday 9th July (4:45pm K.O.) Our LDRL sides will also take to the field at half time of the first team game.

Campaign so far

Wigan come into the game having won their last four Betfred Super League games since winning the Challenge Cup. St Helens are also in fine form and sit top of the table, two points ahead of Wigan, though do come in off the back of a defeat to Catalans Dragons.

Team News

Peet has made two changes to his 21-player squad to the one named against Wakefield last week. Tommy Leuluai drops out of the squad with a calf injury, with Sam Halsall also coming out of the squad with Cade Cust and Morgan Smithies returning to the 21.

See the full injury update HERE.

Wigan Warriors squad to face St Helens:

Peet has named his Cherry and Whites squad for Saturday’s fixture.

1 Bevan French
2 Jake Bibby
3 Liam Marshall
6 Cade Cust
8 Brad Singleton
9 Sam Powell
10 Patrick Mago
11 Willie Isa
12 Liam Farrell
13 John Bateman
14 Morgan Smithies
15 Kaide Ellis
16 Harry Smith
17 Oliver Partington
19 Ethan Havard
20 Liam Byrne
21 Kai Pearce-Paul
22 Joe Shorrocks
23 Jai Field
24 Abbas Miski
28 Brad O’Neill

Opposition

St Helens Head Coach Kristian Woolf also named his side for the fixture on Thursday afternoon.

SAINTS SQUAD

1. Jack Welsby, 3. Will Hopoate, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Jonny Lomax, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Sione Mata’utia, 12. Joe Batchelor, 13, Morgan Knowles, 14. Joey Lussick, 15. LMS, 16. Curtis Sironen, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. Jake Wingfield, 20. James Bell, 22. Ben Davies, 23. Konrad Hurrell, 24. Dan Norman, 27. Jon Bennison, 29. Dan Hill.


Previous Meetings

Last Ten:

St Helens 18, Wigan 20 (CCSF, 7/5/22)(at Elland Road, Leeds)
St Helens 22, Wigan 4 (SLR8, 15/4/22)
Wigan 2, St Helens 26 (SLR20, 20/8/21)
St Helens 24, Wigan 6 (SLR13, 4/7/21)
St Helens 8, Wigan 4 (SLGF, 27/11/20)(at KCOM Stadium, Hull)
St Helens 6, Wigan 18 (SLR19, 30/10/20)
Wigan 0, St Helens 42 (SLR14, 29/9/20)(at AJ Bell Stadium, Salford)
St Helens 40, Wigan 10 (SLQSF, 27/9/19)
St Helens 32, Wigan 10 (SLR22, 12/7/19)
Wigan 10, St Helens 36 (SLR11, 19/4/19)

Super League summary:

Wigan wins: 38
St Helens wins: 45
Draws: 4

Magic Weekend head-to-head summary:

Wigan wins: 2
St Helens wins: 2
Draws: 1

Coach Quotes

Speaking to the press ahead of Saturday’s match, Matt Peet said: “To us it’s the biggest game of the weekend but when you look across all the games, the way the league table has developed, they all look interesting in their own way but for us, Wigan v Saints stands alone.”

“It’s been good, there’s been a relatively short turnaround but everything is positive and upbeat, there’s lessons learned from the weekend and there’s plenty of reasons to be excited this week going into Magic.”

Read more from Matt Peet ahead of the game in his full preview HERE.

Match officials

The man in the middle on Saturday afternoon will be Liam Moore.

Ticket information

Ticket Categories

Wigan fans will be situated in the Gallowgate Stand. See below the prices for each category.

Category 3 – Enjoy the action from behind the sticks with Unreserved Seating in the Gallowgate Stand.
Category 2 – See the drama from the side-line in Unreserved Seating in the North Stand, letting you follow your alliances throughout the weekend.
Category 1 – Benefit from reserved seating throughout the entire weekend within the Milburn Stand.
Platinum Seats – Experience Magic in style with reserved padded seats, an exclusive stadium entrance, and access to the Platinum Club bar.

Pass Out System

Between six huge fixtures, a fan zone, and in-bowl entertainment, all hosted in a vibrant City centre close to bars, eateries, and leisure attractions, fans have the freedom to pass in and out of the stadium throughout the event, allowing you to get the full Magic Weekend experience.

Fixtures

SATURDAY 9th JULY

Wakefield Trinity v Toulouse Olympique (2:30pm)
St Helens v Wigan Warriors (4:45pm)
Leeds Rhinos v Castleford Tigers (7pm)

SUNDAY 10th JULY

Huddersfield Giants v Salford Red Devils (1pm)
Catalans Dragons v Warrington Wolves (3:15pm)
Hull KR v Hull FC (5:30pm)

Coach travel

Official Coach Travel is now available to buy.

Coach ticket prices

Season Ticket Holder/Member/Junior – £22.50
All others – £24.00

How to buy

To purchase either match tickets or coach travel tickets, you can buy online only via our Club Store, with no telephone or in-person sales available. Click HERE to buy now.

Kit Check

As confirmed in February, the Warriors will be back in pink this weekend as we take to the field in the alternative charity shirt in partnership with Cancer Research UK.

Around the ground

Hosted in the city famous for its friendly and welcoming atmosphere, the event has secured a new location for the Fan Zone in the City Centre, providing a great experience for all fans. Get all spectator information HERE or for more information on what is happening around the ground, you can refer to our Fan Guide HERE.

How to follow

Watch Live

This weekend’s game, along with the other 5 fixtures, will be live on Sky Sports. All the action on Saturday can be found on Sky Sports Mix, with Sunday’s games available to watch on Sky Sports Action.

Listen Live

Listen to free audio commentary of Wigan Warriors v St Helens from St James’ Park.

Our regular commentary team of Joe Mills and Bilko (Andrew Rimmer) will bring you full commentary, with coverage starting 10 minutes before kick-off (4:35pm).

How to listen

Head to our Mixlr page by clicking HERE. Alternatively, you can simply use the pop out player below.

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/07/ ... -helens-6/

[Gerrumonside]

Wondering how much change Matty will make to the team today? I’m guessing Smithies returns to 13 and if Ellis is fit is on the bench with Mago & Havard.

Wondering if Cust will be on the bench today with Field at stand-off and French at fullback - may keep Isa/KPP centre going to match Saints? Misky and Marshall are flying on the edges at the moment!

[morley pie eater]

I reckon our performance today will answer a lot of questions.

We all know that we've come on in leaps and bounds under Matty Peet. But this will be the measure against the real benchmark. How good are we?

We beat them in the semi, so we know we can win. But they'll be all the more determined because of that.

Based on our defensive record so far, I can see them scoring 18 points even if we play well, so a key question is "Can we score more against their defence? "

We know that Batty and Faz will challenge them, and hope that French, Field, Marshall and Miski can produce some magic. So, for me, it will come down to how our middles cope against their line-speed. If they dominate, as they're capable of doing, we could struggle to use our most potent weapons effectively.

[Suzieb]

Personally I would play Isa opposite hurriedly to rough him up a bit I feel that Isa is a better defender that bibby

[Suzieb]

Huddle

[Suzieb]

Hurrell sorry

[Big Steve]

Attacking wise we need to get French, Field, Marshall, KPP to get on the outside of Hurrell. He tends to shoot out in defence and if we play to get round him with the speed we have we should engineer some chances.

The fact Makinson is out shout weakens the defence outside too so we really should be looking to attack them there all through the game.

[Caboosegg]

If Ellis isn't fit it's a big loss he has added alot of strength to our pack and although not doing massive carries he comfortably dealt with Warmsley which has been a big issue for us in recent years.

[CheshireWarrior]

Significant losses in attack for Stains today in Makinson, Percival and Dodd. I'm feeling very optimistic!

[w.thomas]

KPP, Ellis, Miski not in the starting line up. Big loss that, especially in regards to making meters out or own half. Hard decisions for peet to make also in regards to French being back on the wing. Hopefully it’ll come off but we shall wait and see. I certainly don’t think it’s our strongest team but fingers crossed we will have enough.