London Game

[DaiJones]

Anyone else have any views on yesterday's debacle? I went and although we didn't play well by any stretch of the imagination can I offer some words of mitigation? Firstly it was incredibly hot, probably as warm a day as most of the lads have ever played in in this country. London were much better than we could have expected probably because they were fighting for their lives after Cas' shock win on Saturday and we badly missed all our props and our first choice half backs.

London had some big lads up front who made lots of ground every time they had the ball and a very canny and elusive scrum half in Dennis Moran who relished in the free rein he was given.Saying that, I thought the likes of young Hargreaves and Prescott performed very well considering their age and weight and Faz as ever desperately tried to get things going. Luke Robinson tried manfully but he was bettered by Moran, he's probably still feeling his way back.

Don't like to moan but the referee gave some very odd decisions and I think you could mention the word "crossing" in conjuction with at least one of the Broncos tries but lets not be churlish..if I had to choose one game to lose this season it would be this one: the two points for London are good news for them and rugby league

[Pem Rover]

According to your account of the game, the word 'debacle' would seem inappropriate. The lads seem to have given of their best in difficult conditions. Obviously it was a weakened team coming up against seasoned opposition. The big worry is, considering the new injuries, whether the team will actually be weaker again for Friday when we will come up against even tougher opposition.

[Alex the Warrior]

Not had the benefit(?) of seeing the game, but i wasn't as confident beforehand as you would expect given the two teams' recent form.

This was based on the first 20 minutes against Castleford last week where they made a lot of early progress owing to our lack of recognised props.

Imagine the temperature at pitch level may have been 3 figures, as it was 95 degrees at the cricket in Birmingham yesterday.

A result that i feel kills our top 2 prospects this season.

[DaiJones]

The use of the word "debacle" was meant to be ironic, satirising the Wigan tradition of being the worst team in Super League one week and the best in the world another depending on results.

I thought we had finally overcome our injury problems but can never remember a time when we have been so unfortunate as to have four props and two half backs missing at the same time. No team could prosper for long like that. I fear for our chances on Friday but I'm sure the lads will continue to give everything which is why no Wigan fans had anything but a round of applause for a very disappointed Faz when he came over to us at the end of the game.

[kt4ever_1]

But if you look back we have done this a few times before big games! WE get beat by a very poor side to be fair e.g. huddersfield before stains then the week after we are on fire! Also i think the lads rely alot on there support and juding by the attendance there cant of been that many wiganers there due to distance! And as everyone was saying it was a hot day and watchin the hull victory you could see how weak they were! So on fri lets hope for a good turn out tremendous amount of support and a cooler day with no wind or rain! Lets look forward!

[GeoffN]

I sgree, kt, we've often had a complacency problem against lower sides in the past, but I think that's got a lot better since Betts took charge.
I couldn't make it to the game, but it seems from all the reports and comments that our injuries finally caught up with us - it was bound to happen some time.
The injuries to Carney, Brown & Connolly are even more worrying, with Hull & Bradford coming up next.

[kt4ever_1]

Yea we need to focus on forth coming games lets just hope the weather cools down surely the hard ground wont do our injures any good! But being the great team we are we will troop through!

[robjoenz]

GeoffN posted:
I sgree, kt, we've often had a complacency problem against lower sides in the past, but I think that's got a lot better since Betts took charge.
I couldn't make it to the game, but it seems from all the reports and comments that our injuries finally caught up with us - it was bound to happen some time.
The injuries to Carney, Brown & Connolly are even more worrying, with Hull & Bradford coming up next.

Injuries can't be to blame for this loss and neither can lack of support from the fans. There were quite a lot of Wigan fans that made the journey, I stayed at the St. Giles in Feltham and there must have been a couple hundred there alone with coaches coming down on the day too and from other hotels.

I thought London played a good game and it was quite an evenly fought match. When we did look to have the edge just after half time Laughton made some rediculous decisions in my opinion and let London back into it. As someone else mentioned they must have obstructed our defence about three times on the run-up to one try, some of which were in front of the refs nose, yet he seemed oblivious.

With the exception of Farrell, Robinson, Radlinski (although his positioning was to blame for one try if memory serves) and the new lads we were pathetic in the final ten minutes. I know it's hot and we were on the back foot but we were only making ten metres in six tackles. The attitude of a couple was that the game was lost and they just didn't care. Tickle and Hock were recieved the ball and instead of looking to move forward he just stood there.

All in all it was a hot and sweaty game that we should have won but all credit to London and especially Moran, they deserved the two points.

[wolftown warrior]

i guess our injury pile up would inevitably catch up with us.. we are playing players out of position, got youngster getting there feet wet, & not mentioning our 6 AND 7 missing.. the guys who pull the strings , fair play to young luke for stepping head first into the mire!!

hopefully we can pull something out of the hat on fri, didn`t go on sunday.. but i will be there on fri, & i expect a bumber crowd.. 15+

if hull play up to how they can.. our record could go, however!!!!!!!!!! you know the boys will give there all for us on fri! regardless of WHO is playing WHERE.
none of the top six particually scare me right now.. we had our purple patch & caught up with the top 3, top two finish would be nice, but if 1 team can make the GF outside the top 2 it is wigan..

anyhow.. see you all on fri!!!
looking forward to it!!

[Sharpy_4a]

I was at the game on sunday but i think debacle is a little harsh considering a good side was sat on the side lines. We where out played by the better team on the day. Yes the ref made a few strange decisions the change of his mind in the wild stealing incident was the strangest one. But if you listen to GMR everyweek he gets called for bad decisions. One thing that does strike me as odd is that for the last four weeks we have had to wait nearly 40 mins for a free-kick. I find it hard to belive that every time a team plays against us they are perfect for a half but in non wigan games they get penalised. What do the rest of you think?

Back to the london game. To be honest we should have won all that dodgy had to do was catch the ball and put it over the line but he didnt manage that. Perhaps im being harsh he at least made a tackle this week, so two things in a game is perhaps a bit much. to ask of him.

All in all i thought we where lucky to drop on cas last week with the team we had after all there isnt realy a bad pack in superleague theses days and with Cas winning on saturday it made it even harder for us.

The only sollace from the result is that cas are still going down so they wont be able to vote in favor of reducing the sallary cap so that everyone has to play at there level.