Wigan v wakey

[Wigan_forever1985]

My Take

I didnt expect us to comeback firing on all cylinders and we showed glimpses of form which was promising. I think ZH had an excellent game and is becoming a real rock for us likewise i thought young smith looks like a real talent and certainly wasnt afraid to put his hand up. Powell was his usual dependable self but i cant help feeling having watched the NRL and Wakey today how much a good scooting half can capitalise on the 6 again rule and its an area we will miss out on, Wood really caused us issues with that

It was scrappy and we were lucky to get the win in the end but a wins a win

Ive said it before and ill say it again the biggest loss in the last few years for us is bitcon - we just arent anywhere near the levels of fitness he had us at. You cant underestimate how important fitness is, tired players not only are ineffective they make bad choices.

I saw a lot over the break of pockets of players setting up their own "PT" side businesses, which is fine but looked like some of them were in charge of their own fitness and that of their squad mates. Paul Johnson was a million miles off being ready to take over from MB and it shows.

[Levrier]

My Take

I didnt expect us to comeback firing on all cylinders and we showed glimpses of form which was promising. I think ZH had an excellent game and is becoming a real rock for us likewise i thought young smith looks like a real talent and certainly wasnt afraid to put his hand up. Powell was his usual dependable self but i cant help feeling having watched the NRL and Wakey today how much a good scooting half can capitalise on the 6 again rule and its an area we will miss out on, Wood really caused us issues with that

It was scrappy and we were lucky to get the win in the end but a wins a win

Ive said it before and ill say it again the biggest loss in the last few years for us is bitcon - we just arent anywhere near the levels of fitness he had us at. You cant underestimate how important fitness is, tired players not only are ineffective they make bad choices.

I saw a lot over the break of pockets of players setting up their own "PT" side businesses, which is fine but looked like some of them were in charge of their own fitness and that of their squad mates. Paul Johnson was a million miles off being ready to take over from MB and it shows.

Physical and mental fitness seem to be missing. Without SOL we do not have a dominant personality to drive the team around. The other worry is that we are trying to fit players into spaces. I know that centre is not a very highly regarded position but how poor does our wide attack appear without our first choice centres. If only we could find another Carmont.

[First Try Tickle]

Centre is one of the most important positions on the pitch. They should be so dangerous they pull people from the middle to cover and if the cover doesn't arrive then they should be able to draw both the opposition centre and winger and then put our winger in the clear.

When Gildart was paired up with Marshall he was scoring wing tries for fun. Now the tries he gets are from either other players or ones he's made himself.

Bibby has shown nothing to says he's good enough and neither did Manfredi yesterday.

The only other recognised centre is Hankinson but again he isn't really good enough.

I've said it before that we should have gone for Crooks.

[Wiganer Ted]

One bonus for me was that as we are now in the "Golden Point" era it's good to have a player in Harry Smith who will go for the "Golden Point" in the 80 mins and not wait for extra time.
His one point and going for a 7 point lead rather than 6 point won us the game.
Matty Smith proved the value of this some years ago. When he kicked the drop goal you could visibly see opposition players' heads go down.
Hopefully Smith can take this with him throughout his career.

[Southern Softy]

It was Sam Powell who organised the drop goal and then we wandered off down a blind alley and lost possession. He then set up the second and successful attempt. It was around the first cock-up that I said "Matty Smith would have been looking for a drop goal as soon as it meant that Wakey had to score twice."
I would have thought Hastings should have been running the team for a drop goal but he seemed strangely detached at the time. Also, there was nothing from the sidelines to tell the team to aim for a one-pointer.
For all his faults, the watching Shaun Wane wouldn't have been silent.

[Southern Softy]

Lam's post-match interview is unbelievable.

"Tommy rolled his ankle – we could have played on with him but with it being the first game back we didn’t want to risk it.
It was difficult. We lost him in the Semi-Final last year and capitulated"

That's not why we lost. It was because Salford learnt from the first match and we didn't. If you don't understand that, you probably need to be coaching somewhere else.

“Bevan (French) went down early in the game too with a knock to his back and we ended up playing him on the wing just to make sure we didn’t use up a sub.”

Answers on a postcard if you understand that. You have subs to be used either for rotation or injuries - otherwise why have them? And will French now have to miss a match(es) having played on with an injury?

[pearsy]

We won't have to worry about Burgess form banned for the next game

[the pieman]

my take on this is that some things dont change.

we havent seen a live game of rugby since March and all some people can do is moan .

if its not all the games are being played at Leeds, its the sound is wrong cos its not a Wigan chant, to Lam isnt good enough to every player in a cherry and white shirt isnt good enough, not heard anyone calling IL or KR for a short while, so sure that wont be far away.

Surely just seeing competitive rugby is what everyone wants to see at the minute. Yes, it may not be the best game ever as the players havent played for almost 5 months, so to expect a flawless display and player absolutely bang on for fitness too wasnt going to happen

[Southern Softy]

We won't have to worry about Burgess form banned for the next game

What a nonsense. Apart from the fact that he was hopeless generally, the ban is for Fiifita's play acting looking for a crusher tackle that never was. George wouldn't hurt a fly and we can all see that in his tackling.

[jackthelad]

my take on this is that some things dont change.

we havent seen a live game of rugby since March and all some people can do is moan .

if its not all the games are being played at Leeds, its the sound is wrong cos its not a Wigan chant, to Lam isnt good enough to every player in a cherry and white shirt isnt good enough, not heard anyone calling IL or KR for a short while, so sure that wont be far away.

Surely just seeing competitive rugby is what everyone wants to see at the minute. Yes, it may not be the best game ever as the players havent played for almost 5 months, so to expect a flawless display and player absolutely bang on for fitness too wasnt going to happen

Understand your positive outlook, not expecting 100% from the off however,how do you explain many other teams fitness and cohesion in comparison?

Fitness, game management, team selection and positional changes do seem fair questions?

since the build up to starting back all the above should be 100%

The NRL don't appear to having these issues

All that said, Yes its great to have the game back!!