Leigh Centurions forward Danny Tickle has promised that the club will relish the atmosphere in Friday’s mouthwatering ‘battle of the borough’ between Neil Jukes’ side and Tickle’s former club Wigan.
After victory against St Helens last weekend, Leigh head to the DW Stadium for the first league meeting between the sides in 12 years, looking to make it back-to-back wins in Super League.
And Tickle, who spent a number of years with Wigan earlier in his career, has insisted that Leigh will enjoy the occasion and thrive under the spotlight.
“There’s no challenge better than Wigan, the side who are world champions and who won the league last year,” he told TotalRL.
“We know that we’ll have to be 100 per cent and fix up a few areas to get the result. But a lot of the Leigh fans have made us aware of how big a game it is and it’ll be the same for Wigan.
“They’ve been there and done it every single year and they’re a world-class side – but we’ll enjoy going there and we’ll certainly relish the task, I promise.”
Wigan captain Sean O’Loughlin revealed in the build-up to the game that he felt the Wigan-Leigh clashes are on par with Wigan-St Helens games – and Tickle admitted it should be a fantastic spectacle.
“I’d like to think that we could make it a competitive game and a great night,” Tickle said.
“All the fans will turn out in force and I think I’d agree with Sean that it will be a competitive encounter and a good match.
“We’re quite aware that’s our first season in Super League but if we perform to our best and everyone does their job then we can compete against most of the teams in Super League.
“Obviously it was a really important we put in a good performance last week against St Helens. We’re building each week; it’s disappointing what happened against Castleford, we had a chance against Leeds but we went into the Saints game doing what had to do.
“It’s the club’s first win in Super League since 2005 and we knew the wait had been too long for our supporters.”