‘I had to watch us play in hospital on my laptop’
The Wigan coach tells Charlie Morgan why Challenge Cup win can set seal on a painful year
The Wigan Warriors head coach, Shaun Wane, chuckles as he confesses that he “went out and got p-----” before getting a prominent tattoo inscribed on his right wrist a few years ago. It was Michael Farrell, Wigan’s former mental performance coach, who first introduced Wane to the Japanese word kaizen. Two symbols alongside one another translate simply as “improvement”.
“It means ‘never be happy’,” Wane says. “And I’m never happy. Our psychologist dug it out for me because I told him how I was always looking for something better. Now it’s on my arm and all over the way we train. I never want my players to be satisfied. In analysis sessions, we’ll show tries and ask them how they could have been scored better.”
These are the words of an imposing yet affable man who seems, on the whole, pragmatic rather than impulsive. So, when 52-year-old Wane reveals that the past few months have comprised both a career-defining win and “one of the worst days of my life”, you get a sense of how Wigan’s fortunes have swung this season.
The peak was a 22-6 victory over Cronulla Sharks to win the World Club Challenge in February, exorcising memories of a torrid 36-14 thrashing against Sydney Roosters in the same fixture three years back.
There is an element of slapstick comedy to the trough. Having played in cherry red and white between 1982 and 1990, Wane rejoined Wigan as a scout in 2000. Since taking the reins in 2011, he had not missed a match. Then, in early July, chronic pain in his hip became unbearable.
“I told Kris [Radlinski, Wigan chief executive] that I needed the operation and I needed it now,” he says. “He knew I was desperate, so he said ‘Yep. Get it done.’”
So far, so straightforward. Except Wigan had an important trip to Catalans Dragons in the Super League that very day.
“It was the toughest day I’d ever had,” Wane continues. “The operation was at 10 in the morning, the game was on at two. I watched it on my laptop, gown on. A woman came round to check my blood pressure, and my missus told her not to for the minute. It would have been sky high. But we got the win and I was out two days later, three days ahead of schedule. They were glad to get rid of me. I’m the worst patient ever.”
Wigan’s Super League title defence has been similarly disrupted by injury. They are now battling in the Super 8s after failing to register a win in the competition between late April and early July. Midway through this run, Wane (right) fielded an extremely inexperienced side against Hull – today’s opponents in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley.
Although a staunch advocate of promoting youth, he worried for some of his players’ safety. As it happened, a 39-26 win for Hull featured six tries for each team. Now, with skipper Sean O’loughlin back, Wane believes Wigan are far better equipped. Arriving in London as Challenge Cup holders, Hull are coached by Lee Radford. While Wane respects the 38-year-old immensely, he is also confident that some carefully crafted tactics can bring Wigan their second trophy of 2017.
“Lee likes skill. You look at Sika Manu, Scott Taylor, Liam Watts – they’re all ball-players. He also likes size. They’re a tough team to break down, purely because they’re huge. They’ll be five, six, seven kilograms heavier per man than us. So, we need to be smart. “Our detail in contact needs to be very good. If we can do that, we can win. We think they’ve got a flaw that we can exploit that we’ve been working on all week, so if there’s a team that can break them down, it’s mine.”
His hip stopped Wane from a relaxing round of golf after travelling down from Wigan on Thursday, but a trip to London also means precious time for his charges to promote their sport in a glaring media spotlight. Wane – as he says, never satisfied – believes the Rugby Football League “can do miles” better to promote the sport.
“I watch every sport. I watch NRL, I watch football, I watch NFL, I watch union. We have a product that we should be proud of but I don’t think enough people see it.
“We’re coming down to our national stadium to show it to millions and millions on the BBC. I want to put a performance on.”