‘Proud’ Denis Betts wants semi-final heartache to motivate Wigan Warriors Women moving forward

It was a strong effort from the Wigan outfit less than 24 hours after Matt Peet’s side claimed their place at Wembley in the men’s competition following their win over Hull KR.

But the women’s side couldn’t make it a double day in the capital, falling to a 34-20 defeat to Lois Forsell’s Leeds Rhinos who will face St Helens in the final for the third year in a row.

“I’ve been proud of the girls all year,” Betts said, in his debut season in charge.

“We’ve come on massively from the first couple of weeks and we did a massive assessment on what we wanted to achieve, how we were going to get better and today was our first real test.

“It’s the first time we’ve run into a side in the top three and the first real challenge that the girls have had in front of them.

“We’ve had a big change in personnel from last year to this year, and also when you look at our halves being really young, our bench being really young.

“We’re here for the experience, we’re here for the challenges that lay ahead.

“It would have been nice to go to Wembley but I thought we’ve learned a lot of lessons about the group and where we are.

“And it’s got to hurt. The expectations have changed, it’s not just about doing enough anymore.

“It’s about changing the aspirations of the group and the expectations of where we feel like we can finish. That's the mindset shift that we’ve had.”

Wigan suffered numerous injury blows throughout the encounter at the Totally Wicked Stadium, including to try-scoring full-back Grace Banks and interchange Jenna Foubister.

The scores were level at 14-14 at the break and Jade Gregory-Haselden gave the Warriors an early lead in the second half.

But Leeds crossed for three unanswered tries to secure their spot at Wembley, with the final to be a part of a triple-header day in the capital.

Betts continued: “Losing Jenna was a bit of a blow. She was fearless, at 17 she came on and she was on fire.

“It was a bit of a blow losing her early in the second half.

“We’re a bit beaten up, it’s too early to tell on the injuries.

“They’re all quite emotional, we worked really hard and we believed that we had a chance if we had hit certain marks and did some certain things a bit better.

"But every time we scored, we let the pressure off and we just couldn’t get far enough away when we actually had some decent ball in decent field position.”

Both Challenge Cup semi-final ties were live on BBC iPlayer, with Wigan legend Betts believing Sunday’s tie was a strong advert for the sport.

“I thought it was a great showcase for women’s rugby league,” the 54-year-old concluded.

“There was some great physicality, they got stuck into each other, there was some great skill and lots of endeavour.

“I think people watching it would have been excited by what they were watching.”