{"id":553604,"date":"2026-04-27T17:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/553604\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T17:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:13:10","slug":"wigan-warriors-open-to-joel-tomkins-return-as-new-boss-reveals-matt-peet-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/553604\/","title":{"rendered":"Wigan Warriors open to Joel Tomkins’ return as new boss reveals Matt Peet conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Catalans\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

After leaving Catalans Dragons, Joel Tomkins is back in rugby union but his new boss has revealed Wigan Warriors would happily hire the dual-code coach.<\/p>\n

Appointed as the defence coach for Gloucester<\/a> for the upcoming rugby union season, the club\u2019s head coach has revealed that Wigan Warriors\u2019 Matt Peet would \u2018have him (back) straight away\u2019 if Tomkins were to make a return to rugby league.<\/p>\n

The ex-Wigan player has moved between the codes as both a player and coach, initially leaving Wigan Warriors in 2011 after to take up a role with Saracens. He\u2019d play the 15-man code for three years and made three appearances for England but then returned to rugby league, re-joining Wigan before later signing with Hull KR and Catalans Dragons.<\/p>\n

It was at Catalans that he got his first taste of being a head coach but he had coached in the youth set-up at Wigan previously. It was confirmed earlier in April that Tomkins had stepped away from Catalans citing personal reasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s since been confirmed at Gloucester and head coach George Skivington has revealed just how highly-thought of Tomkins is in both codes, particularly by Wigan Warriors head coach Matt Peet.<\/p>\n

Wigan Warriors\u2019 worries, Hull FC drama and NRL takeover talk \u2013\u00a0click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Wigan Warriors coach gives huge backing to Joel Tomkins<\/p>\n

Per RugbyPass<\/a>, Skivington explained the huge acclaim that Tomkins is regarded in with the 39-year-old\u2019s character and ambition hailed.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI know a lot of the rugby league guys, especially at Wigan and had a lot of conversations about Joel as a character, what he brings, and then obviously met with Joel and was really impressed with him as an individual. He\u2019s ambitious.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe regrets leaving union all those years ago. He likes rugby union and is going to move his family down here from up north, settle into the area, and rip into it. There is someone really strong and hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admitting that the appointment is a \u2018gamble\u2019 given Tomkins\u2019 lack of experience coaching rugby union, Skivington noted the success of past cross-code appointments whilst also revealing insight into what Matt Peet thinks of Tomkins.<\/p>\n

Skivington revealed: Matty Peet from Wigan couldn\u2019t speak highly enough of him as a character. And said if he wanted to come and coach at Wigan, he\u2019d have him straight away.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has played rugby union for England. So he knows how to play rugby union, and I think we all start coaching somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s obviously got experience in rugby league, but I think there\u2019s a punt with everything we do. There\u2019s a punt in bringing in someone who\u2019s older, experienced, who maybe isn\u2019t as hungry to learn as there is bringing in someone hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After leaving Catalans Dragons, Joel Tomkins is back in rugby union but his new boss has revealed Wigan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-553604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}