Match Reaction: Leeds 34 - Wigan 10

[ragman]

Well I suppose we could console ourselves with the fact that Leeds had one of those nights were they got everything their way including the officials!!

..and plenty will do exactly that, rather than the face the unpalatable truth that is obvious to anyone with even an ounce of objectivity.

[turf]

Bailey is worse than Mathers. Get him dropped.

Smith and Bentham's decisions were appauling tonight.

Bentham should have given that "try" he ruled our for an alleged "obstruction" the "benefit of the doubt", as I notice he was keen as mustard to award the "benefit of the doubt" to Jamie Peacock.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!!! The inconsistencies with these guys just makes my blood boil.

Bentham was keen enough to rule out our try for obstruction and yet Smith missed at least 2 blatant ones which should have been a penalty to Wigan.

[jammie]

when an awful team and an awful set of officials are on the pitch at the same time,if you are the awful team you are going to get hammered,yes leeds got away with murder(as only they and stains can)but we were terrible if we cannot get the basics right then everything else goes out of the window.what i find hard to understand we were near faultless last week, yes i know leeds and bradford are miles apart on the playing front but we should surely take forward the good things we did last week eg.completing our sets and getting good kicks away.we played like we had never met each other before.never mind let's not throw the baby out with the bath water,cup's arn't handed out in march it's a long season and next week we have to get back on the horse because nobody can remember who beat who in march it' what happens at the back end of the season that matters(bloody hell i'm brain washed who do i sound like?)

[Noble Out]

Our coach speaks:

"I thought our effort and vigour in the first 15 minutes of the second half was a whole lot better but we certainly paid the price for a poor start."

I thought rugby league was an 80 minute game. 15 mins out of 80. What about the other 65 mins Brian??????

[jackoh]

This is not me , We can`t blame Noble tonight.
THe players concentration wasn`t there .
We dropped the ball in the first half when we were crying out for retaining it and getting field position .
I counted at least 2 forward passes for their tries , but can`t complain for the Lulu try which was obviously offside . Why doesn`t Richards follow up his kicks to bring his players onside.
The obstruction no try was identical to one disallowed by North Queensland earlier against Brisbane , I personally agreed with the call, but could see that the Leeds player could have run round Lockers to make the tackle.
We shouldn`t be beating ourselves up over this loss .
Leeds were better organised and played as a team , they also got some dubious decisions that murdered us .
When we gwt the ball in hand and field position as in the second half we matched Leeds and it was they that were making errors .
Lets get behind the team and put this loss behind us and hope that we`ll learn from it .

[DaveO]

never mind bailey what about our so called captain, just take a look at Leeds they have at least 3 players on the park who are capable of captaining the side. who from wigan would you say is fit to captain and lead the team coz olochlin clearly isnt capable, my 7 ye\r old daughter is more vocal than him.

The BBC made this point:

"Lacking inspiration and leadership, Wigan wilted as Leeds continued the onslaught ...... "

from here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 28232.stm

Dave

[GeoffN]

They met a leeds side on fire at home. Hock had a horror. Overplaying time and again. Bailey was lousy but concentration was not on the match. The number of good passes that went to players not expecting it showed up very clear. However two good trys were knocked off. The number of ball steals that leeds got away was a major factor. The team was in shock from the first twenty mins. However it was not as bad as you imply. The team is worth progressing with, Jim

I agree Jim, I don't think it was as bad as a lot are making out. Leeds were just on fire for that first 25 minutes, by which time we'd left ourselves too much to do, and started playing "panic football". Their kicking game, in particular, was excellent; those two 40-20's were killers. Everything just went right for them (lucky bounces of the ball, refereeing decisions, everything) and wrong for us. Sure, there were a lot of handling errors, but a good proportion were actually ball steals not given by the officials.

I don't think any team, Saints included, could have lived with them in that first half. They made us look a lot worse than we really were, IMO.

[platt-warrior]

Well posted GEOFF common sense at last!!!

[slimshady]

Smith is the new Ganson!! He has murdered us each time we have been Ref'd by him . Is it me but "Benefit of the doubt" is a crock of shit, its a try or it isnt end of!!!

[Wigan Watcher]

Lockers was streets ahead of both Hock and Bailey tonight

hahahaha