Sean O’Loughlin could be crucial against St Helens, says Shaun Wane

Wigan coach Shaun Wane thinks captain Sean O’Loughlin could be the key to them beating St Helens.

The Warriors face old rivals Saints in the Super 8s at the Totally Wicked Stadium on Friday night, 7:45pm kick-off.

O’Loughlin has been included in Wane’s squad for the trip after recovering from injury. Wane admitted O’Loughlin’s return is a boost to the team’s confidence.

He said: “He’s done it time and time again. He has outstanding leadership qualities, he’s one of the most skilful players in the world and he’s a class player.

“He’s good to have around in training. Our training is good but having him around this week has took to another level, our training has improved and we are a better team with Lockers in it.

“If we keep him healthy until the end of the year then we have got chance of doing something.”

Table toppers St Helens have done the double over Wigan in the regular Super League campaign this year, but Wane doesn’t think there is too much between the sides.

He added: “The twogames we’ve lost against them could have gone either way.

“They are an outstanding team and a very good team on their day. As Catalans showed, you can frustrate them, you can put a bit of pressure on them but not many teams have been able to do that.

“We are not beating ourselves up about the two games we’ve lost against them. I watched them both again yesterday and we weren’t that far off. We didn’t perform great and they ended up both quite close scoring games. We know if we are on that we can challenge them.

“We just need to make sure we can execute what we talked about and if we do that then we’ve got a chance.”