Head Coach: Simon Finnigan
Simon Finnigan was born in Warrington but grew up in Australia where he played for the Penrith Panthers junior team.
He was assistant coach at Toronto Wolfpack and then became head coach for Newcastle Thunder in 2019. He moved to the head coach position at Widnes for 2021.
As a player he came over from Australia to play for Widnes in 2003 and was there for three years before joining Salford in 2006. In 2008 he was at Bradford and then in 2009 he joined Huddersfield. He returned to Widnes in 2011 and then played his last season at Leigh in 2013.
He is an Irish
international and his last game before retirement was for Ireland against
Australia in the 2013 World Cup.
Captain: Jack Owens
Jack Owens made his professional début with Widnes in 2011. In 2015 he played one game for Whitehaven on dual reg and then he joined St. Helens in 2016 playing 28 games in his first year.
After a few games for Saints at the beginning of 2017 he went on loan to Sheffield Eagles in May and signed for them in late July (in order to be able to play for them in the Championship Shield). He spent 2018 at Leigh and returned to Widnes in 2019
In 2011 he played for the England Academy.
He usually plays at fullback but he has also played on
the wing and as a halfback. In 2013 he played four games for Workington on dual reg
Star Man: Matty Smith
Matty Smith provides the Widnes team with huge experience having played 299 games with super league clubs. He started with St. Helens (his hometown club) back in 2006 and since has also played for Celtic Crusaders, Salford, Wigan, Catalans and Warrington. He played his first game for Widnes, on loan from Saints, back in 2008.
During his career he has kicked many drop goals including some from long range. A particularly renowned one was for Saints against Salford in 2017, when he sealed a dramatic win in the last seconds after Saints had been 24-8 down with only 7 minutes to go.
At representative level he has
played for England and England Knights.
Matty Smith has played most of his
career at scrumhalf but recently he has been playing at loose forward for
Widnes.
Loans
Earlier this season
Widnes had Eribe Doro and Ellis Robson on loan from Warrington. Currently they
have hooker, Brad O’Neill, on loan from Wigan.
New Signings for 2021
The Fev Connection
Before the ‘Summer Era’, John
Gilbert was a member
of Fev’s 1983 Challenge Cup team. He played 16 times in Rovers 1976/77
Championship winning team and played a total of 243 times for Rovers. He spent
two seasons playing for Widnes before returning to finish his career back with
Fev.
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