Firstly, I may just give up with my predictions. I was hopelessly far off with my 'Hull by 4' thinking. Saying that, it was a welcome delight to see Wigan win quite comfortably in the end against Hull FC by 46-4. According to the television people, it was 441 minutes between Wigan conceding their last try in September 2024, against Hull KR, and the one scored by Lewis Martin on Friday evening. These 441 minutes are not a Club Record of not conceding a try of course. According to my calculations, we have to go back to the 1901-2 season for this particular record. Wigan went unbeaten between January 1st ~ March 19th when this particular record was set. A 10-3 win against Stockport on January 1st started the ball rolling. Wigan did not concede a try against Hull KR (twice), Millom, Birkenhead, Radcliffe, Bramley and Widnes, before finally conceding against Radcliffe on April 7th. In its self, that spanned seven matches and a minimum of 560 minutes. To go deeper and know when Radcliffe scored their try is impossible, as the timings are not available in old match reports. Still, quite impressive from Matt Peet's men.

The 326th meeting between Wigan and Warrington since 1895 will see pastures new for Rugby League. The United States of America play host to their first competitive match of Rugby League between two British domestic sides. Of course, Warrington and Wigan faced each other on June 10th, 1989,  in Milwaukee, but this was an exhibition match and not officially sanctioned. You won't find this game in the records books.

As for countries played in, the USA will become the eighth nation that the famous Cherry and Whites have gone into battle, following England, Wales, Scotland, France, Australia, Ireland and of course Spain. We played Leeds in Dublin back in 1995 for the Charity Shield. We missed out on a trip to Canada when the Toronto Wolfpack collapsed and we have as yet never played in New Zealand. How long before Rugby League follows other sports and play matches in Dubai? We have also played in the Crown Dependency of Isle of Man in the Charity Shield.

Warrington go in to the game having a winning start to their 2025 campaign after their triumph in the Challenge Cup against Whitehaven and opening League season wins against Huddersfield and Catalans last time out. It's their Year, clearly. I have it on good authority that Warrington Council have set about routes for their forthcoming parades in June and October when they complete the Double. The Wire have clearly strengthened and with another year as Head Coach under his belt, Sam Burgess will no doubt be relishing the trip to Vegas.

Out of the previous 325 meetings between the Colliermen and the Wire, Wigan have been victorious 188 times, with Warrington coming out tops 126 times, with 11 drawn matches.