{"id":638051,"date":"2026-06-14T10:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638051\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T10:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:04:16","slug":"wigan-warriors-star-has-best-game-in-wakefield-trinity-win-as-pundits-assess-englands-world-cup-selection-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/638051\/","title":{"rendered":"Wigan Warriors star has “best game” in Wakefield Trinity win as pundits assess England’s World Cup selection dilemma"},"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

Brad O\u2019Neill played his best game for Wigan Warriors in their win over Wakefield Trinity, Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin believes.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill, who was named Man of the Match in the 48-10 win, made 39 tackles with just one miss and was part of an aggressive Wigan pack that \u201cschooled\u201d what has been a formidable Wakefield middle unit this season.<\/p>\n

His Player of the Match award was made even more impressive given that winger Noah Hodkinson scored four tries and was another player to put on a career-best performance.<\/p>\n

At 23, the hooker is closing in on his 100th Super League appearance, and is a firm contender for a spot on the plane for the Rugby League World Cup.<\/p>\n

His efforts against Trinity earned the plaudits of both Wilkin and Jodie Cunningham, who joined Brian Carney as part of Sky\u2019s broadcast of last night\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n

Post-match, Wilkin said: \u201c[It was an] international standard performance from a nine.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, State of Origin standard performance, from a young nine. It\u2019s as good as it gets, the only thing is his running game, isn\u2019t it? Which is so much secondary to that defensive stuff in big games.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026He\u2019s got a lot of the assets you need to be a great hooker, and I think that\u2019s the best game I\u2019ve seen him play for Wigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkin also went as far as comparing him to some of Wigan\u2019s great hookers of the Super League era, in what is tremendously high praise for the star.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think you see an evolution of players, don\u2019t you, over time?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Terry Newton was the raw product, then Micky McIlorum was the more refined version of that product, with aggression, physicality, intimidation, but less of the rough edges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we see in Brad O\u2019Neill is a fully polished up diamond of that. He\u2019s got all the aggression and physicality. He\u2019s intimidating\u2026 but there\u2019s none of the baggage with him either, which is why he goes unnoticed as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Arthur commits to Leeds Rhinos, Hull KR lose back-to-back and Captain\u2019s Challenge rule debated \u2013 Click here to listen to this week\u2019s episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Who is England\u2019s best hooker ahead of the Rugby League World Cup?<\/p>\n

New England boss Brian McDermott will have plenty of key selection decisions to make towards the end of the season, but perhaps none more so than his hooker selection.<\/p>\n

You would argue that there are four main candidates for the role, with O\u2019Neill one of those, especially after he missed out on Ashes selection at the end of last season.<\/p>\n

Jez Litten and Daryl Clark were two that then-boss Shaun Wane opted to go for, whilst Warrington\u2019s Danny Walker is another that has produced efforts worthy of a call-up.<\/p>\n

Asked about the upcoming dilemma for the World Cup, Cunningham responded: \u201cBoth [Litten and O\u2019Neill] make the plane for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you\u2019ve got Danny Walker, who I think is playing well. Daz Clark. It\u2019s a position we\u2019re probably quite blessed, and the back end of the season and the form they show is going to be really important to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrad O\u2019Neill, from his performance tonight against a good Wakefield side, I think definitely has put his hand up to be on that plane.\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":"Brad O\u2019Neill played his best game for Wigan Warriors in their win over Wakefield Trinity, Sky Sports pundit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-638051","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\/638051","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=638051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}