They are the two quickest full-backs he’s seen - and Wigan’s Iain Thornley has one either side of him.
It is no wonder the big centre is enjoying his rugby again given he has Jai Field and Bevan French whizzing around. Thornley scored twice in Friday’s 40-22 win at Warrington - his first tries since rejoining his hometown club after a seven-year absence.
Electric Aussie full-back Field was on fire again creating the space for the 30-year-old to do his thing. The brilliant French was on Thornley’s wing before switching to No1 in the second half. He recalled: “We had a good night, especially first half down our right edge.
"You’ve John Bateman and Harry Smith, then Jai coming around and Bevan outside him. There’s a lot of strike and it takes defenders off me because they’re worried about them. It gives me a bit more space to do what I can do. A lot of attention has been on Jai and what he does because of his danger and it frees us up.
“It’s just raw speed. I think it’s something Jai’s had forever. I can’t say I’ve ever seen any with the speed he’s got. Matty Bowen was pretty quick but he was a bit more agile on his feet. Probably the closest, was when Bevan was in full flight playing full-back a couple of years ago. It’s not bad for me now having them on either side of me!”
Wigan will need all of them to be at their best to beat St Helens in Saturday’s Betfred Challenge Cup semi-final at Elland Road. They are joint top with their arch-rivals in Super League but lost 22-4 against them on Good Friday. Thornley, who rejoined from Leigh in the off-season, was sidelined with a shoulder injury having already missed eight weeks with an ankle problem.
Friday was only his fourth game this term and he said: “I was gutted to miss the derby as I was there on the sideline and the atmosphere was class. I actually thought in the first half our pack did well against theirs. We kept their big strike forwards quiet. Fingers crossed we can do that again. We had an injury to Tommy (Leuluai) in the second half so we had to switch the team around a little bit which may have affected us.
"But there was a large part of that game we were very happy with. If we can replicate that for the full 80 hopefully we can get the result on Saturday. Across the park, Saints have a lot of strike players so you can’t just focus on some.
"They've won the last three Grand Finals so it shows just how good a squad, club and team they are at the minute. They are the team to beat and we’ll be doing our best to study them this week and see where maybe we can exploit them.
"Personally, I enjoyed that game at Warrington. It was good just to get through back-to-back games after that frustrating start since I came back here! But it also gave me confidence I can keep adding to the team and doing my best."
Thornley was a try-scorer the last time Wigan won the Cup in 2013 before leaving for spells at Hull KR, Catalans and Leigh.
He said: “I don’t want to think too far ahead but that’s definitely in the back of my mind. I did it the last time I was here. It couldn’t be written any better than that if we can do it again."
And it would complete a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the ex-Sale Sharks player who - just two years ago - was playing part-time with Leigh after his return from France.
Thornley said: "I’d started focusing on life after rugby. I was doing an electrical apprenticeship during the day and then part-time rugby at night. I got to play rugby with my brother (Andy) at Leigh as well.
"He’s a project manager up at Sellafield so he’s always been in that semi-professional role because his job’s too good to give up. It was nice to get to play with him and maybe I did think I was slowing down a bit and getting ready for life after rugby.
"But Leigh got thrusted into promotion to Super League because of what happened with Toronto. The chance was there, I was 28 and I just thought I’ll have this one last go at it. We didn't have the best year at Leigh last season and it was a shame we couldn’t stay up.
"But on the back of it Wigan were interested with the performances I was putting in. They were losing some backs as well and they approached me. I was made up as Wigan was my first-ever professional club and I came through their system. It was a nice thing to go back and hopefully I can give some more performances like Friday to continue to help the team and also for my family and friends as a lot are Wigan supporters."
