Injured Martyn Ridyard was on the sidelines as Leigh beat Wigan in a friendly, and now he’s ready to get back on the field…
It was a bit frustrating watching the lads get their first run out of the season last week against Wigan and it will be even more so this weekend when we face Dewsbury in our second warm-up game.
The hamstring injury that I picked up in camp in Lanzarote is practically healed and I have had a few runs this week but just to be on the safe side I’ll be doing nothing more strenuous than running on with water on Sunday.
I’d hoped they might give me a few minutes, I’d rather get a flogging in a game than a flogging in training!
Wigan’s reputation for bringing through young talent is well earned and we saw a few fresh faces against us in Micky McIlorum’s testimonial game last week. It’s something we’ll look to do in the future as a club. It is not a surprise that Wigan have done so well over the last few years, and their policy of developing their own stars has been a big part of that. That strength in depth is a big asset.
You get players like Joe Burgess who might go off to the NRL but then up steps a player like Dom Manfredi who could have been pushing for an England spot if it hadn’t been for injury last year. Wigan are certainly the benchmark for bringing through talent.
That said, it was good to get a win against them in that game. They were on top of us for the first 25 minutes but we stayed with them which was a good test for the boys, and we came through to the end, winning 50 points to 10.
We had a review of the video from the game earlier this week and there were some good things to note but also lots to work on too.
It’s good to be able to look at the negatives and then work on putting them right, which is why friendly games are so important. We want to hit the ground running when we face Castleford in Super League and proper matches against well drilled teams will help us do that.
We have a really good bunch here now and the new players have added a new dimension to our game. We had a new centre/back-row partnership in Glenn Stewart and Ben Crooks and I thought they did really well.
Ben Reynolds too; for me he was man of the match and he was playing instead of me at stand-off. You have got to give credit where it’s due but I could do with a run out to knock him off!
The season can’t come quickly enough for me. Playing Castleford at their place, under the floodlights and in front of the Sky cameras will be special. I never get nervous or anxious at the start of the season – that happens for me at the end because I never want the season to end. I’m just itching to get started now. Bring it on!
