WARRINGTON Wolves will be going ‘all out’ to maintain a fine record against Wigan Warriors tomorrow night, Friday.

Although on the minds of supporters, all players’ thoughts of next week’s Carnegie Challenge Cup quarter-final tie with Hull Kingston Rovers should be brushed aside for one of the biggest ‘derbies’ on the Super League calendar, kick off 8pm.

And Warrington’s Wiganer Paul Wood intends to lead the way in helping Wolves continue their climb up the Super League ladder.

Warhorse Wood, who clocked up his 200th game in last weekend’s fifth win of the season at Hull, has plenty of experience to know how special a match is between Warrington and Wigan.

The intense rivalry goes back to the birth of rugby league and this year’s transfers of Martin Gleeson to Wigan and Richie Mathers to Warrington, as well as national coaches Tony Smith and Brian Noble going head to head, will only add to the occasion.

“Wigan is a big, big ‘derby’,” said Wood, who revels in the ‘stick’ he receives from his friends and family ahead of games against his home-town club.

“There’s just something about this ‘derby’ and it does add a bit of extra spice.

“We’ve been pretty successful against them at The Halliwell Jones Stadium. They’ve not won at our ground in Super League and we don’t want that to change.

“We want to work hard and keep that bit of pride that we’ve got over Wigan.

“Every week is a big week but with the Challenge Cup tie against Hull KR coming up and Wigan being the big ‘derby’ that it is, this is a massive fortnight for us.

“We’ll be concentrating on Wigan this week as we know we need to build our momentum in the league. Our minds will be fully on Hull KR when Wigan is over.”

Not so long ago Warrington’s ranks were full of Wiganers hungry to show their home-town club what they were missing and, although the personnel may have changed, the feelings certainly have not.

“This is the first season in 11 years of being at Warrington that I’ve had to travel over to Warrington from Wigan for training and matches without being in a car full of Wigan lads,” said Wood.

“With the majority of the Wigan lads leaving (Martin and Mark Gleeson the most recent), it leaves me on my own in the car and it’s costing me a fortune in petrol.

“Thankfully I’ve got a sat-nav so I manage to find my way okay,” he joked.

“Warrington have always had a tradition of having a lot of Wigan lads playing in the team.

“But on the positive side, there are more Warrington lads in the squad now and that’s the main thing – getting the Warrington lads through the system.

“And all the Warrington lads feel the same as me, Wigan week is special, we all look forward to it and we all want to win.”

Wood, who is hoping to have a Testimonial year confirmed by the Rugby Football League, is enjoying his rugby after some frustrating seasons with injury but is also feeling buoyed from seeing young players doing well too.

“I’m helping director of youth development John Bastian with the coaching of the under 16s because I think it’s important that we continue to see more Warrington lads coming through the system.

“The fact that they are shows that squadbuilder, the academy and the reserves set-ups are all working.

“Coaching some of the young lads is giving me a bit of a buzz now to see they’ve moved into the under 18s academy team and are doing really well.”

With the eye of a rookie coach, he knows Wolves need to step up their game from the performance against Hull in order to get the better of Wigan.

He said: “We’ll be working on a lot of stuff this week.

“I think we’re going to have to be really big on our kick chase as well as our shape in attack.”