For the first time in his rugby league career, Jack Welsby will feel at home on Saturday in the town which is so close to his heart. The 21-year-old, arguably the most mercurial talent to play for the national side for a decade, is as proud a Wiganer as you are likely to find despite the fact he has become a star for their great rivals over the Billinge Hill, St Helens.
He cites the likes of the Wigan Athletic cult hero Ben Watson and current England teammate and former Wigan Warriors star Sam Tomkins as his childhood heroes. But whenever Welsby has returned to Wigan as a player, he has been firmly in enemy territory given the huge rivalry between the two towns of Wigan and St Helens, where Welsby is now adored and adopted as one of their own.
