St Helens head coach Paul Wellens insists there is no need for hype when world champions Wigan roll into town on Good Friday for a clash that could go some way towards shaping the new Betfred Super League season.

The sport’s biggest domestic showdown throws up plenty of added interest with the visitors eager to stretch an unbeaten start that includes emulating Saints’ World Club Challenge win over NRL champions Penrith.

Apart from a surprise home defeat to Salford, Saints have also reverted to their unfamiliar role as challengers with aplomb, and two successive wins over Leeds at Headingley has set them up well for a game in which a victory will shift the narrative of the campaign so far.

Having faced off with his side’s biggest rivals more than 50 times in his stellar career as a player, Wellens does not need reminding of the magnitude of a fixture which will once again have the ‘sold out’ signs hanging outside the Totally Wicked Stadium.

“It’s Wigan on Good Friday – it sells itself,” said Wellens.

“Fans and players can’t wait for the game to come around. It’s the fixture you draw a circle around at the start of every year, and we are always excited about the challenge.

“It’s two teams who have achieved a lot of success in recent history, and a lot of that comes from knowing how to handle big games and big moments, and how to channel your emotion in the right way.

“This is the big game in British rugby league. We have Grand Finals and Challenge Cup finals, but after those showpiece occasions, I think Saints against Wigan on Good Friday is the game everyone wants to watch.”

Wellens hopes key men Tommy Makinson and Lewis Dodd will be fit to return from recent injuries, while Mark Percival is also available after suspension. However in-form forward James Bell is banned.

Wigan, whose superb start to the season fell a little flat last Friday when they were forced to fight to see off determined Championship side Sheffield Eagles in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup, hope to welcome back Willie Isa and influential full-back Jai Field.

Warriors head coach Matt Peet may not be able to match his Saints counterpart in terms of a top-level playing career, but having battled his way through his club’s coaching ranks he too knows only too well what the match means to each local community.

“It’s a completely unique game,” said Peet.

“Rugby league fans understand it, people in the two towns understand it. Whether the teams are flying high or having indifferent seasons, it sells itself because of the history behind it.

“It’s about striking a balance between the two. You can’t shy away from the emotion of it, but you’ve got to get the rugby side right.

“I think a lot of the motivation is already there. You don’t have to remind the players that it’s a fantastic fixture.

“Both teams are used to playing in these kinds of games. The players know how to handle it, and they can put it to the back of their minds and play their best game.”

After delivering a stinging response to his critics by leading Wigan to Grand Final glory last week, Harry Smith is relishing the prospect of winning his second England cap in the first match of a three-test series against Tonga on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Wigan stand-off played an increasingly pivotal role in his club’s surge to the Super League title, culminating in kicking six points in their 10-2 win over Catalans at Old Trafford last weekend in the Betfred Grand Final.

It marked a glittering end to the season for Smith, who missed out on the prestigious Harry Sunderland man-of-the-match trophy by a single vote, and was all the more impressive given early season concerns over his inconsistency with the boot.

Ahead of the clash at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium, Smith told the PA news agency: “I’m very happy with how the season went in terms of leadership and game management, and winning the confidence of my team-mates and (Wigan head coach) Matt Peet.

“I got a bit of stick due to my kicking, and some of it was probably a bit unfair. I thought my overall performance, creating stuff for the team, was really good.

“I never really over-thought it. I knew the work I was putting in would pay off, and I just had to keep looking forward and not backwards. I feel like I’ve really managed to make those improvements in the last few months.”

Smith made his only previous England appearance in a one-sided 64-0 thrashing of France earlier this year and knows his side face a different proposition against a Tonga squad stacked with talent from Australia’s NRL.

In the absence through suspension of regular captain George Williams, Smith is set to form a new half-back partnership with Hull KR’s Mikey Lewis, one of two potential debutants in coach Shaun Wane’s 19-man matchday squad alongside Leeds’ Harry Newman.

For more experienced members of the squad, the series represents the chance to finally shrug off any lingering disappointment from last year’s dramatic golden point World Cup semi-final defeat to Samoa at the Emirates Stadium.

Smith added: “The Samoa game has not been mentioned much, because there’s obviously quite a lot of players in the squad who were not involved, but there are definitely some who still have that bitter feeling.

“It’s more about how we can move on with the aim of getting to a World Cup final in the future. It’s why we take up the sport, to play in the biggest games, and the difference between this and the France game is obvious.

“You can feel it in training, the intensity is much bigger than before the France game, because not only are you surrounded with really good players, but you know how good those are who you are coming up against.”

St Helens full-back Jack Welsby has been handed the honour of becoming England’s youngest ever captain on his home ground and will come face-to-face with domestic team-mate Will Hopoate in the opposite position.

Saints team-mate Tommy Makinson is another survivor from the Samoa nightmare and he believes Welsby’s ascent to the captaincy, in place of the now-retired Sam Tomkins, has been an inevitability for some time.

“I’m really proud first and foremost,” said Makinson. “It’s been coming and in his performances over the past two or three years, we’ve all seen what Jack can do.

“He’s a back-to-back Man of Steel candidate and all the accolades have come his way. He’s not really very vocal, but he’s honest, hard-working and more than anything he’s a good bloke, and that’s why everyone respects him.”