O'Loughlin eyes double with Wigan

Sean O'Loughlin hopes Wigan can enjoy a strong finish to the season
28 July 2013

Wigan captain Sean O'Loughlin urged his side to push on towards double glory after booking a trip to Wembley in convincing fashion.

The Warriors lost their place at the top of Super League after a derby defeat to arch-rivals St Helens last week but responded by crushing London Broncos 70-0 in their Challenge Cup semi-final.

The margin of victory was a record for a semi-final, beating the previous best set by the Warriors against Bradford in 1992, while Pat Richards' 30 points was an individual best haul in a last-four tie.

Wigan now return to Super League duty with back-to-back home games against Hull KR and new leaders Huddersfield, which could prove decisive in the race for the top spot.

O'Loughlin said: "With the position we are in in the league, and being in the final now, we should be in a strong position going into the play-offs. We are in a good place as a team with pretty much a full squad to choose from injury-wise.

"We are quite strong but we know a lot can change if you don't keep that momentum and keep going forward. It is important to finish the season strongly.

"We are sitting second now with Hull KR and Huddersfield in the next few weeks. If we win those two games we can put ourselves back on top."

Wigan were strong favourites against the Broncos, the Super League's bottom side, and the result was never in doubt. Richards and Josh Charnley scored two tries each while eight other players got on the scoresheet.

O'Loughlin said: "Saints was a tough loss to take but when you have got a game coming up where you are one step away from Wembley, it looks after itself. It was a good game to be involved in. Obviously it was a comfortable win for us but it is great to get to Wembley and play in an atmosphere like that.

"Everyone was telling us all week it was a game we should win, and it was more about by how much, but we had to make sure we concentrated 100 per cent. To not let them score probably showed more mental toughness than anything."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in