O’Loughlin: Put things right quickly

• Sean O’Loughlin reflects on Wigan’s Coral Challenge Cup exit at the weekend.
• The Warriors captain talks about how the team must now look forward and the need to learn from the defeat against Leeds Rhinos.
• O’Loughlin: “No amount of words can get the result back, so going forward it’s about performances on the pitch.”

Sean O’Loughlin says Wigan Warriors must bounce back as quick as possible from Saturday’s Coral Challenge Cup Semi Final defeat.

The Warriors exited the competition following a 26-12 defeat against Leeds Rhinos at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

O’Loughlin says all the team can do now is look forward and right their wrongs out on the filed as soon as they can.

The loose forward said: “The disappointment is massive after that game but there is nothing we can do about that now.

“The boys aren’t happy about it, but we have to put things right as quickly as possible and that means turning our focus to Super League. No amount of words can get the result back, so going forward it’s about performances on the pitch.”

“The quality of the squad and the belief is still there, it’s just about putting it into a game. We don’t have long to wait as they’re coming thicker and faster, we also have people coming back, so it’s about getting on the pitch and putting it right.

“The only thing that is in our hands now are the games and training. We can’t get the Semi Final back, which probably makes it hurt more as we’re missing out on going to Wembley, but it just means our motivation is purely Super League.

“If we get a reaction and see what we want to see from ourselves, then we will get a performance.”

“Learning wise, we have to play better in these games – it was an important game and we were nowhere near our best. It’s putting into practice what the learning curve is about.

“We need to play the conditions a bit better as well, and with the season going on longer we might see that bit more.”

The 37-year-old hopes the defeat will see a positive reaction from his team and push them on for the rest of the season.

“I’ve been involved in Semi Final losses and there’s been examples of where we came out of it not too good, and others when we have kicked on. We need it to spur us on, we need to get wins and get as high up the table as we can, to hopefully get the Play Offs.”

With Warrington also exiting the Challenge Cup – following a 24-22 defeat Salford Red Devils – O’Loughlin believes they will be having similar conversations as the Wigan squad.

“They’ll be saying all the things we have, being pretty brutal with each other. You can speak about as much as we want, but only a performance will fix it up.”

Written by Amos Wynn

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