Maguire happy ahead of Wembley

Wigan coach Michael Maguire admits his side have enjoyed the perfect preparation for next Saturday's Challenge Cup final.

The defending Super League champions emerged injury free and warmed up for Wembley in style with a 60-12 rout of Bradford at the DW Stadium on Friday night to open up a three-point lead at the top of the table.

"It was something we spoke about early in the week," said Maguire. "The players wanted to make sure they nailed this game going into next week. It was a real good performance. They really enjoy playing with each other. Everyone is working for each other and doing all the little things well, which is a real pleasing thing for us."

With Andy Coley and Lee Mossop rested, Maguire gave prop Eamon O'Carroll his first appearance for 15 months while Gareth Hock and Paul Prescott both pressed their claims to replace the injured Ben Cross in Wigan's Wembley line-up.

"It's definitely going to be headache for me through the week but it's a great one to have," said Maguire.

"Both of them are very capable. We will sit down as a group and come up with the right team.

"We're very healthy. We rolled a few tonight but it was really pleasing to have Eamon O'Carroll come back from a long injury lay-off.

"He was probably told he'd never play again and to come back do what he did tonight is a credit to him."

Wigan's victory, which included two length-of-the-field scores, would have been even more emphatic but for an off day by goalkicker Pat Richards, who succeeded with just six of his 12 attempts, although he did score a hat-trick of tries.

"He just had one of those nights," said Maguire. "Paddy practises all the time and normally nails those. I just hope he gets them next week."