SEAN O’LOUGHLIN wants the current Wigan side to summon up the spirit of 2017 when they take on Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge next month.
The DW Stadium showdown on Saturday, February 24 is stirring up plenty of interest, with more than 19,000 tickets already sold as home coach Matt Peet targets a sell-out of around 25,000.
Wigan, who begin their Super League defence away to Castleford the week before, are out to equal Sydney Roosters’ record five WCC wins.
Their last was seven years ago, when Cronulla Sharks were seen off 22-6 by Shaun Wane’s Warriors at the DW, where 21,011 attended.
Winger Joe Burgess, playing at the DW for the first time since returning to Wigan from a year playing in the NRL, became only the second player to score a hat-trick of tries in a WCC (after Michael Jennings for Sydney Roosters in their 36-14 victory over Wigan in Australia in 2014).
O’Loughlin, now an assistant to Peet, played loose-forward and skippered the side.
“We went into the game as underdogs but we had a belief kind of attitude that we wanted to go out and win it,” he told the club website.
“Having Waney around meant he was able to speak about his memories of winning against Manly (as a player in 1987) and how much it meant to him – especially as it was at home.”
Wane was at prop in the 8-2 victory in a try-less 1987 encounter at Central Park seen by 36,895 in which centre David Stephenson kicked four penalty-goals.
Manly secondrower Ronnie Gibbs, who later had a spell at Castleford, became the first player to be sent off in a WCC for an elbow on Joe Lydon as he attempted a field-goal.
Wigan’s other wins were in 1991, when Penrith were defeated 21-4 at Anfield, and 1994 (20-14 away to Brisbane Broncos, when an event-record 54,220 turned out).
