Ellis: Tighten the screws
- Kaide Ellis spoke to Wigan TV as he looks ahead to his first visit to Perpignan.
- Ellis: “We need to tighten the screws this week and hopefully get over the line.”
- Catalans Dragons v Wigan Warriors, Saturday 12th March, 5:30pm GMT K.O.
Kaide Ellis said Wigan need to ‘tighten the screws’ as the Warriors prepare to face Catalans Dragons at Stade Gilbert Brutus on Saturday evening.
“Toulouse were very good, I thought. They threw a lot at us to test us and I thought they did that, it was a scrappy win or not to be disrespectful, an ugly win. We weren’t at our best but I think you can draw on that later in the year, looking that we can find a way out of games like that – to win ugly,” he said.
“It wasn’t perfect but before that I feel that we’ve been near-perfect for six weeks so we need to tighten the screws this week and hopefully get over the line.”
On their opponents, Catalans Dragons, Ellis said: “It’s been mentioned that last year the boys thought they were going to do better than they were until they got here against Catalans and got beat 48-0. We have addressed that, not to say that we think we’re better than we are it’s more just to look back on the memory of last year and make sure it doesn’t happen this year. They’ve got better, League leaders’ last year and they were in the Grand Final, it’s going to be a tough game. It’s a test to see where we’re at, whether we in or lose hopefully it’ll bring out some good signs.”
He added: “We touched on it before we left the UK, the mission was to win two from two. We thought coming away with a win and a loss, or two losses would be a failure. As well as enjoying each others company and gelling as a team, the main goal was to win these two games and that’s what we aim to do.”
Away from the game, Ellis spoke on his first experience in France: “It’s been very exciting, a different opportunity, different experience and I’ve never been to France before so it’s pretty cool playing two games back-to-back in a different Country.
“The City was cool to see, it was a bit challenging not being able to speak French, trying to order food and coffees and things like that but it was good to get around, see the old buildings and mixing with the local French people so it’s been good.”
Finally, the forward spoke about Liam Farrell, who is set to make his 300th appearance for the Club on Saturday night: “300th game this week, that’s very hard to do. I’ve heard people talking today about how professional he’s been, how hard he’s worked and that his career revolves around hard work, you can see that every day in training – he’s always wanting to better himself.”
