Liam Farrell's 300th Wigan Warriors appearance did not go according to plan but he fully intends on making his 301st a hit.
Wigan host Castleford Tigers tonight looking to immediately bounce back from Saturday’s sobering 28-0 thrashing at Catalans Dragons. That brought their 100 per cent winning start to the season crashing to a halt - and was the worst possible way to mark Farrell’s milestone match.
“It was a tough defeat to take,” admitted the long-serving second-row. It was a good Catalans team but we put a lot of it down to ourselves. We put down too much ball and gave away too many penalties. We’ve not sat down for hours on end looking at it. We’ve made some key points and now look to Castleford. We’re hoping to get back to what’s been working for us.”
Farrell has won four Grand Finals and a Challenge Cup with Wigan and rarely ever thought about playing anywhere other than his hometown club.
“It’s pretty much always been Wigan,” said the England forward. As a 17 year old all I wanted to do was make my debut for this club. I was lucky enough to do that in 2010 and said to the lads last weekend how I still feel as grateful now after 300 games as when I was debuting at 19. There’s been some very good times in between, we’ve won a lot of trophies and I'm very grateful for that. But hopefully there’s a few more to come and that’s my aim over the next few years: to win more silverware.”
Wigan have not lifted a major trophy since winning at Old Trafford in 2018 but hope to end their barren run under new boss and fellow Wiganer Matty Peet. Castleford are struggling under their own new coach Lee Radford having won just once in their opening five games.
Farrell, 31, admitted: “Cas have had a funny start. They were unlucky not to win at Huddersfield last weekend and are still trying to find some form. But they will come good and they’ll come to our ground with a bit of confidence looking at our last two performances.”
Warriors are without Kaide Ellis after their Australian prop was hit with a five-game ban following his red card for punching in the defeat in Perpignan. Castleford have lost Jordan Turner to a broken hand but Jake Mamo and Bureta Faraimo are back.
Meanwhile, Wigan are mourning David Stephenson, the ex-Great Britain centre who scored all their points in the famous 1987 World Club Challenge win over Manly and has died at the age of 63.
