Betts previews Women’s Derby

• Denis Betts looks ahead to Wigan Warriors Women’s Derby clash against St Helens this Friday night.
• Betts: “I’m pretty happy with where we are as a group, we know there’s some challenges to come and some games that are really going to test us, especially over the next month.”
• Get tickets for The Derby Double-Header HERE. Watch in full on Wigan TV HERE.

Denis Betts looks ahead to Friday’s Betfred Women’s Super League Derby clash between the Warriors and Saints at The Brick Community Stadium.

Giving an injury update on his squad, Betts said: “We’re pretty good, we had a couple of girls coming back over the weekend which was good. Molly Jones has had a sore ankle – she came in and played really well at Barrow then hurt her ankle playing in the Origin game so she missed out at the weekend but we’re hopeful she’ll be back in contention this week.

“Eva Hunter came through really well and we’re looking at a strong compliment of players available at the moment.”

On the season so far, which sees the Warriors Women sit top of the table with six wins going into the Derby fixture, he said: “I’m pretty happy with where we are as a group, we know there’s some challenges to come and some games that are really going to test us, especially over the next month.”

Reflecting on Saturday’s 50-0 victory on the road at Featherstone, he added: “I was happy on both sides of it – it’s always nice to get a zero on the board and you’re doing something right if the opposition aren’t scoring tries.

“We can do better with the ball and we feel we left some points out there, our completion rate wasn’t great but we have the ability to fix that up. We scored some really good tries and we defended our line.”

Looking ahead to Friday’s Derby Double-Header, the Warriors Women’s boss commented: “They’re one of the best teams in the competition. They’re Challenge Cup holders and they’ve been flying in the league this year.

“It’s a big challenge for us, they’ve got a really strong pack and we’re quite young where they’ve very experienced. It’s our home ground, it’s a massive game for the girls so we’re hoping that it’s such a big Derby game with both us and the Men playing against St Helens – we could have a bumper crowd in here for the game.”

He added: “This is what the girls have been craving, this platform to be able to play and show that they’ve been working hard and they’re getting better.”