Wigan coach Shaun Wane has said he believes Hull will be “100 per cent” in the mix for honours this season – and has said that he’s heard plenty of good noises from their camp ahead of the meeting between the two sides this weekend.
Wane’s Warriors face Hull in an eagerly-anticipated battle of the top four on Friday night and, after their comprehensive win against St Helens in the Challenge Cup last Sunday, Wane said Hull “don’t mind telling everyone about it” ahead of the match at the DW Stadium.
Wane also spoke about Lee Radford and Hull’s decision to let Frank Pritchard and Sika Manu go play for their countries and miss the St Helens game, saying: “It didn’t come back to bite him (Radford) and I was amazed when he did it.
“He said he wanted to support international rugby league which is fair enough, but my priority is Wigan rugby league. It could have backfired but it didn’t, and it was their best performance of the year, and they don’t mind telling everyone about it.”
However, Wane did stress he expects Hull to be right at the top on merit. He said: “They will be in the mix, 100 per cent. If you look at them, that’s a strong squad with not many injuries.
“Hull are in seriously good form, they were great against St Helens although they were below-par. They’re a big team and they’re very confident and they seem to have a great team spirit – they talk about it all the time on social media.
“It’s a great challenge for us. I thought Saints were ordinary and Keiron would be disappointed with it.”
Wane also added that he’s an admirer of FC’s style of play in 2016.
“Hull is a huge club and the expectation there is like Wigan; they’ve a huge fanbase and they expect a lot. Lee has got a really good playing roster with some top class players and they’re playing to their potential. They’re playing a very good brand of rugby league. I’m a big fan of how they play.”
