Wigan Warriors coach Shaun Wane has insisted that the Super League champions were keen to support Wayne Bennett’s much-maligned plans for a pre-season training camp in Dubai.
The England coach had proposed plans to take the national side to Dubai for a 12-day training camp in preparation for the World Cup later this year, before the RFL announced earlier this month it had been scrapped.
Wane was set to lose a number of his big-name players to the camp, but he insisted he was happy to support it – and the fact they are now spending all of pre-season with Wigan is merely a bonus for him following the camp’s cancellation.
“We wanted to support that in every way we could,” he said.
“When we heard about it we just knew we’d got George (Williams) and the rest of the England boys quicker than we expected, so it was good we could get some work into them.”
Wane also revealed that former captain Sean O’Loughlin was among the group of Wigan players who Bennett had invited on the trip, having missed the Four Nations due to injury.
He said: “We’ve not had long with our international in anyway but we’re making the most of it. It wasn’t just George who was going, Lockers was going and a few more but unfortunately for them it was cancelled.”
