Matt Peet says it is time to give Super League more respect after Wigan became the second straight English side to win World Club Challenge

Matt Peet says it is time to give the Super League more respect after Wigan became the second consecutive English side to win the World Club Challenge.

Peet’s Warriors upset NRL premiers Penrith Panthers at a sold-out DW Stadium on Saturday, following on from their North West rivals St Helens who stunned the Aussies in their own backyard last year.

It is the first time Super League clubs have become back-to-back World Club Challenge champions since winning five between 2004 and 2008. The NRL is widely seen as a far superior competition with more money and TV viewers, but Peet thinks we need to start trumpeting. our own game anymore.

“The NRL is incredible, there’s so much to do, but we also have a competition,” said Peet, whose side has equaled the Sydney Roosters record with five World Club Challenge titles.

Coach Matt Peet thinks we should start proclaiming our own game more instead of NRL

“We know what we have in this country and we should be more proud of it. We talk too much about what they think of us, but we just have to worry about what we think of ourselves.

“I’m proud to be a rugby league man. I’m proud of rugby league in the North West. We should not shy away from what we are. We are rugby league people representing the working class.

‘We admire the NRL, but we ourselves have a special competition with special individuals.’

Wigan have won the Challenge Cup, League Leaders’ Shield, Grand Final and World Club Challenge since Peet took charge in October 2021. But Peet added: ‘The players did it, not me. You can be a good coach, but if you don’t have good players, you won’t achieve much success.

‘It was a special evening, but who says we can’t have something like that again? The thought of this being our last big night is devastating.”