St Helens vs Wigan Warriors is a rugby league cup final – Rowley

One of the highest-profile fixtures of any Betfred Super League calendar takes place on Good Friday when St Helens face the Wigan Warriors at the Brewdog Stadium.

For Saints, it is a chance to bounce back from a nightmare performance against Hull KR last week as their injury-hit side were thrashed 52-10 by the world champions at Craven Park.

Head coach Paul Rowley has taken time out in a huge week to tell The Sportsman Rugby League’s The Last Tackle how his team have been preparing for Friday’s derby game following the disappointment in east Hull.

“It was a tough evening against a bit of a perfect storm,” Rowley explains to The Sportsman’s Lewis Smith. “Hull KR were obviously back at home after such a long time and they performed brilliantly. So there were a lot of lessons for our team.

“There are a lot of youngsters in there at the minute, who probably learned some hard lessons as well. But if we’re going to try to take the positive that hopefully means those lessons will set them in good stead in their future careers. It was a reset in many respects for us as well.”

And the former Salford Red Devils coach says his side can even take something from Hull KR’s performance into their future fixtures.

“We address it and identify the areas where we fell short of our standards, and the reasons why. And also we take a look at what our opposition did to us, recognise that, acknowledge it and try to emulate some of those things ourselves, which we normally do.

“Every week has been a learning week, for me as a coach coming here and learning about the staff, learning about the players and how we manage situations in different scenarios, and how resilient we are as a group.

“But St Helens is the most successful team in Super League history and that’s not by fluke. There’s a reason. It’s got resilience and durability in there, and we perform and hold standards when it’s toughest, so I expect that again in this period.”

Rowley endured a horrible 2025 as Salford’s off-field decline made a mockery of their Super League challenge, with the club eventually ceasing trading and a new phoenix outfit taking its place in the Betfred Championship.

Yet the early stages of his new role at St Helens have not been plain sailing either, with the 10-time Super League champions having been hit harder than most by injuries at a time when the whole competition has been beset by fitness problems.

“I think there’s a lot of contributing factors,” he says of the league-wide ailments. “A lot of coaches have been asked questions on this and I kind of agree with them all in some sense of the word.

“The internationals made the season feel a bit longer, whether we were playing in it or watching it, it was still there and rugby’s in the forefront. And then the season started a little bit sooner by a week or two, and it’s already a short pre-season.

“So it might be unique to me because I had a tough year last year, but I felt like rugby’s just continued without breaks.

“Mentally, I don’t know if that’s had a part to play. And in the wet winter the training ground has been heavier than the pitches we play on because these are essentially football pitches, they’re fast tracks, and there’s obviously the ruck as well. So there’s a little bit of everything.”

Friday afternoon sees Rowley take on the challenge of the Saints-Wigan derby for the first time. And he’s under no illusion as to the task, especially with the Warriors’ own need for a response after their shock 30-16 home defeat to previously-winless Huddersfield on Sunday.

“This is like a cup final in many respects. It’s a full house, two great sides, well decorated, strong histories, and an unbelievably fierce rivalry. So I’m looking forward to the occasion, because that’s what it is: an occasion.

“It’s different to every other game. I can’t, as a coach, give you the narrative that it’s just another game because it’s not.

“Both teams will want to react, both teams will have been honing down on the fundamentals this week and talking about their standards. We have, and I know Wigan will do the same.

“We’ve spoken about the press attention around it. Even though I don’t do socials and too much press, you’d have to be blind not to see and hear the buzz around the town and the interest in it. It sold out a couple of weeks ago, which in itself tells you what this means to both towns.”

The big derby kicks off at 15:00 BST on Friday, with The Last Tackle having a full build-up to the whole Rivals Round programme on The Sportsman Rugby League.

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