Ratcliffe: Worked hard for each other

• Women’s head coach Kris Ratcliffe reflects on his team’s performance after beating Castleford.
• Ratcliffe: “They worked hard for each other in the middle as a team, so there were plenty of postitive performances across the board, rather than any individual brilliance.”
• FT | Wigan Warriors Women 22-8 Castleford Tigers Women.

Kris Ratcliffe encouraged his side to keep up the hard work after beating Castleford Tigers for the first time, in their 22-8 win in the Betfred Women’s Super League on Sunday afternoon.

Georgia Wilson was at the double, with other efforts coming from Rachel Thompson, Carys Marsh and Emily Baggaley. 

Speaking to wiganwarriors.com at the full time whistle, Ratcliffe offered his reaction: “I thought we made it hard for ourselves a lot of the time, we turned some soft ball over which I think was probably linked to nerves; we’re well aware that it’s been a long time since we’ve had a win against one of the top three sides and it’s something we’ve been targeting. 

“The longer it went without these kinds of results, the more that nervous energy builds, we were also aware that we haven’t beaten Castleford before, so I think we were just trying too hard at times where we just needed to do the simple stuff. When we did that, we caused them problems and we looked in control.”

The Warriors held a narrow lead of 10-8 at the break, going on to score three unconverted tries and keeping the Tigers to nil in the second 40. On the second half performance, Ratcliffe said: “I don’t think we did anything better in terms of our attack in the second half, we just fronted up a bit better in defence. Some of our hits in the first half were a little bit soft and we turned the ball over a little bit more in our end, as opposed to the second half where it was more around the middle of the park.

“When we did turn it over in the second half we were just more solid in contact, but that also comes off the back of the fatigue levels for Castleford being down on numbers as well, so it’s really great to have a win and something we’ve been aiming for against this opposition, and it keeps our run going but at the same time we can’t get ahead of ourselves and we’ve still got to be better than that.”

Ratcliffe was keen to praise his sides togetherness: “I thought Lucy Baggaley did really well off the bench today, she added some impetus to us going forward, and our usuals stood up as always, Vic (Molyneux) worked strongly all game and I thought Paige (Costello) had her best game for us this time. They worked hard for each other in the middle as a team, so there were plenty of postitive performances across the board, rather than any individual brilliance.”

The Betfred Women’s Super League resumes in the first weekend of July due to the upcoming Mid-Season International fixture this Friday.

Speaking on the preparation before the next game, Ratcliffe added: “We’re sort of getting used to weeks off. It’ll be the same kind of process, rather than thinking too much about the opposition we’ll really focus on individual skills and what we can do better as individuals that will contribute to the team overall. As well as another push on fitness and speed, before we get ready for Featherstone.”