{"id":609263,"date":"2026-05-28T22:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609263\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:39:10","slug":"wigan-warriors-teen-sensation-rewarded-with-wembley-trip-in-light-of-pundits-big-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/609263\/","title":{"rendered":"Wigan Warriors teen sensation rewarded with Wembley trip in light of pundit’s big declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Wigan Warriors have confirmed their Challenge Cup squad and there\u2019s a Wembley reward for one teen sensation, who has been tipped for a huge future.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that Wigan\u2019s squad is drastically different from the one named last week<\/a> when Matt Peet rotated his starters in a bid to avoid bans or injuries, however, a number of players who featured last week have been named.<\/p>\n

Established first-teamers Sam Eseh and Patrick Mago are obviously involved but so too are Kian McDermott and Taylor Kerr, the latter being the man who Matt Peet<\/a> chose to captain the young Warriors at Craven Park.<\/p>\n

Kerr does not turn 20 until August and whilst last Thursday\u2019s performance was only his seventh senior appearance for Wigan, few would be able to tell given just how accomplished he was in what was his first start for the club.<\/p>\n

A loose forward who is capable of playing at hooker, in the halves, or elsewhere in the pack, Kerr is incredibly highly-thought of at Wigan and it would not be a surprise to see him sneak into the matchday squad this week, even if it is as the 18th man.<\/p>\n

That would be a major reward for his impressive performance last week and given the fitness concerns over shock inclusion Bevan French, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see Kerr claim a spot on the bench, as he did in the semi-final win over St Helens.<\/p>\n

Wigan Warriors selection drama, Bradford\u2019s controversial \u2018no try\u2019 call and Las Vegas Teams revealed \u2013\u00a0Click here to listen to the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Pundits astounded at Wigan Warriors teen\u2019s quality<\/p>\n

Two men who were mightily impressed with Kerr last week were Sky Sports pundits Jon Wilkin and Sam Tomkins, with the latter stunned at Kerr\u2019s ability to be Super League-ready at such a young age.<\/p>\n

Wilkin said in awe: \u201cTaylor Kerr, now, I\u2019ve seen bits of him, but (there is) junkyard dog in him. He physically went after Hull KR.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tomkins, a former teen sensation, he said: \u201cHe\u2019s brilliant. Every time we\u2019ve seen him, we\u2019ve seen him come on against Warrington and Taylor Kerr, he was just so impressive, so ready for this level at such a young age. That\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s credit to the youth that Wigan can bring through because there were some kids out there that weren\u2019t ready for this level, that was clear, but there were some lads out there that they\u2019ve tasted this level and I think some of them kids will go, you know what, I\u2019m not that far off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr was surely one of those who fits into the second bracket and the coaching staff at Wigan clearly feel he is not far off, with Matt Peet also beaming about the forward following last week\u2019s performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to play for us for a long time, we believe,\u201d Peet declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a lot to his game, he leads the young lads really well, and he\u2019s been playing for us on merit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been in our best 17 plenty of weeks this year, and he\u2019s just got a lot of the psychological characteristics that we look for in a player.\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":"Wigan Warriors have confirmed their Challenge Cup squad and there\u2019s a Wembley reward for one teen sensation, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-609263","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\/609263","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=609263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}