T'Other Side: Widnes Vikings

    

FIRST TEAM SQUAD

LAST TIME OUT

2021 MATCHES

 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: Steve Tyrer

 

Steve Tyrer made his professional début with St. Helens (his hometown club) in 2006. During the 2008 season he played 10 games for Widnes during a loan spell. In 2009 he joined Celtic Crusaders and again had a loan spell at Widnes.

In 2010 he signed for 2010 and in 2011 he had his first year as a Widnes signed player.

He moved to Halifax in 2012 and remained there until he re-joined Widnes this year.

He is an excellent goal kicker (with a remarkable success rate of 87% for this year) and he has also scored 8 tries.

Whilst at St. Helens he played for the England U18 team.

 

Loans

 

Earlier this season Widnes had Eribe Doro and Ellis Robson on loan from Warrington and Brad O’Neill on loan from Wigan.

 

The Fev Connection

 

The full list of Fev players who also played for Widnes includes some stellar Rovers names. We have singled out three in particular – Liam Finn, Ian Hardman and Tangi Ropati.