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Anyone with even a passing interest in the English Super League competition will be aware that the Wigan Warriors have just completed a season to remember, sweeping all opposition before them.
Now Wigan are no strangers to success, and since their formation in 1872, they’ve won some 163 trophies, making them the most successful club in rugby league history, but few seasons were better for the ‘cherry and whites’ than 2024.
They kicked the year off by defeating Penrith in the World Club Challenge, to claim a record fifth title, then defeated the Warrington Wolves to take out their 21st Challenge Cup final. Next, they finished on top of the League Leaders’ Shield for the second year running, and then capped the dream season off by defeating Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League grand final, making it back-to-back wins and their 24th championship title. Their four titles in 2024 also saw them finish as the first club to win the “Grand Slam” since 1994. An incredible achievement.
Wigan Warriors’ Bevan French celebrates. (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
Wigan’s stand-out player during this season of unprecedented success, and arguably their best over the last five years, has been Parramatta Eels’ reject Bevan French. French took to rugby league in England like a duck to water after joining Wigan in 2019 and is now firmly established as one of the best players in the ESL.
Initially playing in the outside backs, French has now made a successful transition to the halves where he was named man of the match in Wigan’s World Club Challenge match, and both the Challenge Cup and ESL grand final victories. His rapidly growing list of achievements include:
– Scored 99 tries in 115 appearances for Wigan, including 20 try doubles, six trebles, and a remarkable seven-try effort against Hull FC in 2022;
– Named Man of Steel in 2023; and
– Named in the Super League Dream Team in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Long-suffering Parramatta fans must look at French’s success in England with a mixture of both admiration and disappointment. He is one of those rare, naturally gifted footballers who only come along every now and then, and he looked to have the rugby league world at his feet when he burst onto the scene to score 19 tries in 16 games for the Eels in his debut season in 2016.
However, in 2019, then Eels coach Brad Arthur banished him to the NSW Cup with Wentworthville, resulting in him leaving the club in July of that year in search of better opportunities in England.
Admittedly, French’s first-grade form was patchy prior to being dropped from first grade, but he’s since proven himself to be a wonderful spine player who can unlock even the best defence.
Eels fans will wonder whether a little more patience and some more astute coaching and player development from Brad Arthur would have seen Bevan French reach his potential as one of the Eels’ modern masters, rather than be crowned king at Robin Park in Wigan.
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