Wigan coach Michael Maguire spoke of his pride in his players after they beat St Helens 18-12 in the Challenge Cup semi-final.
Saints stars played through the pain
Wigan coach Michael Maguire spoke of his pride in his players after they beat arch rivals St Helens 18-12 in the Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final at Warrington.
Wigan won the Cup at Murrayfield in 2002 but it is 16 years since the last of their eight consecutive triumphs at Wembley and Maguire said: "It's great to see Wigan back where they belong.
"I'm very proud of the players. At half-time, I commended them for their hard work. They just fought for each other to make sure they didn't get across the line."
Wigan captain Sean O'Loughlin added: "It's a good feeling. We've definitely done it the tough way and earned it."
Saints coach Royce Simmons revealed afterwards that England internationals James Roby and James Graham both played with pain-killing injections to combat hand and neck injuries, and captain Paul Wellens led the tributes to his injured team-mates.
"Jammer's phenomenal," he said referring to Graham. "There was an stage early on in the week when he could hardly walk and I thought there was no chance could play in the game.
"It says so much about him as a character and a person. He made a sacrifice for us today and he's not the only guy. We had a few put their hands up and played through the pain barrier."
Courageous
Simmons could not fault the commitment of his players but he accused them of playing into Wigan's hands in the first half.
"They were very courageous," he said. "I knew they would be, that's the character of the blokes.
"We went into the game with a few blokes carrying bumps and bruises and a couple of senior players carried severe injuries into the game. It wasn't until the captain's run that we sort of put a side together.
"We had a fair bit of possession and it would have been good to get across the line at least once in the first half but Wigan's defence didn't allow that to happen and we got a bit excited and tended to go side to side when we needed to be a bit more direct.
"I thought we were easily the best side up them scoring and yet went in down at half-time and in the second half we didn't have much ball."
