DENIS BETTS says the commitment of the whole club has been key to Wigan Warriors being on the cusp of Women’s Challenge Cup glory.
It’s a first major final for Wigan since winning the Super League competition in their first season, 2018.
After falling behind Leeds Rhinos, St Helens and York Valkyrie in recent years, the club are now back on the rise.
Already this season they have comfortably beaten Leeds (twice) and York, and they are now looking to defeat Saints for the first time since that title-winning campaign.
Betts, formerly coach of the men’s team who took charge ahead of last season, has played his part but so has investment into the academy – producing stars such as Isabel Rowe, Grace Banks and Jenna Foubister – and training facilities.
“If you can’t find talented rugby players in the Wigan area, you’re doing something wrong,” said Betts.
“Talented kids from eleven or twelve now have pathways and coaches around them. There’s a great feel for the women’s game in the Wigan borough and the north-west area, through St Helens, through Wigan and Leigh are doing some good stuff.
“There are a lot of talented young girls and it’s just giving them an opportunity now to fulfil their ambitions through those early age groups and develop.
“As a club we’re the standard-bearers across men’s and women’s at the moment.
“Facility-wise, we’re very fortunate. We’re at Orrell now, a women’s-only facility shared between Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors.
“Half-a-million pounds have been spent on it with a new pitch, new gym, new stand. We’re now using that to its fullest capacity and it will offer opportunities for girls to get better.
“We look after the girls as a whole club, through the leadership of (CEO) Kris Radlinski, the new ownership of Mike Danson, the chairmanship of Professor Chris Brooks.
“They are engaged across every facet from the women’s game and the men’s game to the academies. They know exactly what’s going on.
“The connection between the men’s teams and the women’s team is great. (Men’s head coach) Matty Peet is fully engaged in watching the girls play, he’s got young daughters himself and sees the value.
“The girls, over the last two years, feel like it’s their club as well now.”
This season’s extraordinary start has been credited in no small part to a long pre-season after missing out on the Grand Final.
“We made a choice last year after the loss to St Helens in the semi-finals that we would not really have any time off,” explained Betts.
“We worked really hard through that pre-season, instead of disappearing for six-to-eight weeks until Christmas and then starting again.
“We made sure we didn’t lose what we’d done in previous years. Habits can be hard to form and easy to lose. We’re seeing the benefits of that now.
“Also we’ve got some very good players, who are very talented and understand what we expect of them.
“The girls are probably more professional than some of the men’s players. Some of them have to get up in the morning, work all day, look after kids, get in a car and come to training, prepare for that, get some physio, get on the field, do a full two-hour session, go to the gym, get in the car and go back home.
“If that’s not being professional, I don’t know what is. We’ve got girls at university and college. Grace Banks has a full-time working apprenticeship and it’s very hands-on, she’s at it from half seven in the morning and her mum picks her up and drops her off at training at 5 o’clock.
“That’s the commitment you don’t see. We don’t pay the girls. We compensate them so they’re not out of pocket for doing what they do, but we’re trying to support them in lots of other ways.”
Winning on Saturday would go some way to making all of those sacrifices worthwhile, but Wigan must find a way to beat four-in-a-row defending champions St Helens.
Betts admits Saints hold an advantage from playing at Wembley for the past two years the final has been held there, and says managing the emotions that come with the occasion and a first appearance at the stadium will be key.
“We come into this game with no Challenge Cup or Wembley experience, apart from Megan Williams who came off the bench last year with St Helens,” he said.
“But as a team we’ve got Vicky Molyneux who has played in big stadiums and World Cups, and the same with Georgia Wilson. They’ve played in big games but none as heady as this.
“All the advantages on that side are with St Helens because of the experience they’ve had in the last two years and how they handled it. That’s the challenge for us but we don’t know until we get there. You can’t replicate playing at Wembley.
“If we can control those emotions and we can put ourselves in a place to turn up and perform without the emotions playing a massive part in it, I’m pretty confident we can give a strong effort against a fantastic St Helens side.”