French: Means a lot

• Wigan Warriors’ Bevan French spoke to the press alongside Matt Peet on Saturday evening.
• French: “It means a lot to everyone in the Community of Wigan.”
• Watch match highlights and more reaction on Wigan TV HERE.

Bevan French reflected on Wigan’s Betfred World Club Challenge victory over Penrith Panthers.

“It’s pretty crazy and surreal to be honest,” French said at full time.

He added: “Matt spoke about the connection that everyone has in the group and to go and win against a team like Penrith with their history and their calibre of players – three Premierships on the bounce, it means a lot to everyone in the Community of Wigan.

“This competition means a lot to the people of Wigan, they still talk about World Club Challenges from 30 years ago so it means a lot to us.”

Reflecting on the game, the stand-off said: “We know we have a squad here, our backline in particular, who can score points. We’ve been doing that for a few years but I think where we’ve changed over the last couple of years is priding ourselves on our defence. We always knew that our attack would be there as we have the individuals to be able to do that.

“We were clinical, we got down there a few times and were able to score but it was our defence that won the game tonight.”

Quizzed on his disallowed try, French spoke in jest: “The international rule is two feet behind the kicker, I think I only had one but the important thing is we won so that didn’t really matter.”

WHAT A START 🤩@WiganWarriorsRL strike first in the World Club Challenge 👏#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/myYm9OYw1b

— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) February 24, 2024

French did register an assist, however, getting the pass out to winger Abbas Miski to open the scoring on the evening: “That comes down to the trust we have in each other. It’s a special combination that we built-up last year and one we’ll be hoping to continue this year.”

Bevan French is sponsored by Di Taylor & Alex Crompton.