WOLVES chief Tony Smith says his players head to Wigan tonight, Thursday, with an extra bounce and prepared for the usual war with their fierce derby rivals.

“There’s always a bit more of a spring in the step when you’ve performed well and verall, and to a man, we was better across the board against Leigh,” said Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby.

“And particularly with the style in which we played. I thought it was a very energetic performance and that’s come out in the way the players have trained this week.

“It’s always easier to turn up for work when it’s going well rather than if your job isn’t going as well as you would like.

“And no matter where both teams sit in the ladder, near the top or somewhere else, the fact that Warrington and Wigan are playing each other is enough to know what’s coming.

“Each game we’ve played against each other this year has been a real epic. We don’t expect anything else.

“They’ve had a number of players return, we’ve now got a lot more players available to us than what we had at certain stages, so it should be a good one.”

Wigan, set to hand skipper Sean O’Loughlin his 400th club appearance, will be without England back rower Liam Farrell with a knee injury.

Wolves are yet to beat them this year, having lost the home league game in March, the home Challenge Cup clash last month and drew the Magic Weekend meeting.

Warriors 19: John Bateman, Joe Burgess, Tony Clubb, Tom Davies, Callum Field, Anthony Gelling, Oliver Gildart, Willie Isa, Thomas Leuluai, Liam Marshall, Michael Mcilorum, Frank-Paul Nuuausala, Sean O’Loughlin, Sam Powell, Ryan Sutton, Taulima Tautai, Sam Tomkins, Jack Wells, George Williams.