WIGAN WARRIORS coach Denis Betts is grateful for the headaches he will have to endure over the next couple of weeks as their debut Challenge Cup Final appearance nears.
The former star second-rower has an almost fully fit squad at his disposal as Wembley nears, and knows the amount of competition among his players will leave him with some tough choices to make ahead of both that game on June 7 and the league game against Leeds Rhinos this Saturday.
One player who has been struggling in recent weeks is Anna Davies. After making a two-try appearance in the Cup semi-final against the Rhinos, she then sat out against York and Barrow in the league, allowing Tiana Powell the opportunity to stake her claim in the side and continue her impressive start to life at the club.
And it is a similar situation across the board.
“The depth we have here is built on how hard we’ve trained together and what we have done,” said Betts.
“By stripping the squad back to 25 players we have a group in which everyone is more than capable of playing in this team.
“So as well as Anna, you can see us pulling out Holly Speakman, who had a fantastic game against Leeds, and bringing in Jade Gregory, who played really well against York. We left Rease Casey out after a great game against Leeds and played Mia Atherton, who did really well against York.
“It helps me because it makes it tougher to coach moving forward because everyone one of those girls wants, and deserves, to be picked.
“They all know they are fighting for a place in this team so they know they have to perform, play hard and show me that they want to be here.
“They are constantly doing that, and of course they all want to play at Wembley so I’ll have some tough choices to make.”
