Wigan 38 Crusaders 6

[NICKYKISS]

We just got the job done tonight against a side that doesn't look like having more then 6 points per game in them all season. Their attack was woeful but we did defend well and attacked ok in patches.

With a little more patience in attack we'll get better and better as the season goes on.

Individual wise there has to be huge praise for the efforts of Roberts, Phelps, Gleeson, Fielden, J Tomkins, Coley and Lockers. I thought they were all very good tbh.

[DaveO]

I was very impressed, especially with the attitude, fitness and enthusiasm of the players. A good all round performance, without any real weak links. Massive improvement from Roberts, Riddell & Fielden, who have all been criticised in the past. I have to say, though, that I'm still unconvinced with Riddell, despite his increased fitness - we still look a lot sharper with TL at hooker and Sam & Deacs in the halves. Also not sure how much Feca's weight loss has helped - he didn't appear to be on the pitch any longer, and was perhaps less effective than usual in running the ball in.

I thought it was noticeable that Feka's speed off the mark was much better. I was surprised he wasn't on longer.

I tend to agree about Riddell. Roberts looked better in that game in terms of pace and attitude than all of last seasons games put together. I am not sure that can be said about Riddell who managed to get the ball stolen off him 3 yards out and when he came on in the second half passed the ball into the ground. When Mcillorum is fit then given the way we look with Deacon at 7 and TL at 9 I think Riddell will have improve some more to keep his place.

I'd say all the other players just looked generally sharper. I was really impressed with J Tomkins, Gleeson looked well up for it and Fielden also. A few things didn't come off for him but he looked to be enjoying himself.

Dave

[weststand-rich]

I was very impressed, especially with the attitude, fitness and enthusiasm of the players. A good all round performance, without any real weak links. Massive improvement from Roberts, Riddell & Fielden, who have all been criticised in the past. I have to say, though, that I'm still unconvinced with Riddell, despite his increased fitness - we still look a lot sharper with TL at hooker and Sam & Deacs in the halves. Also not sure how much Feca's weight loss has helped - he didn't appear to be on the pitch any longer, and was perhaps less effective than usual in running the ball in.

Superb defence - Crusaders really only looked like scoring with plenty of help from the ref, and the forwards in particular were putting in some massive hits. A bit rusty in attack still, but that's only to be expected in the first real game - with a bit more composure we could easily have doubled our score.

Geoff, I agree with your comments regarding the halfs and hooker juggling.

Feka was on the pitch for 36 mins. 25 the first time and 11 the second. Maybe that's not much more, but I think the difference was though he wasn't shot when he did come off.

[stevethegas]

The only problem with the win was the opposition. It's hard to take them seriously, but they gave Leeds a torrid hour in front of a big crowd in Wrexham last week so aren't complete duffers. Not many of whom bothered to travel to Wigan though!
However the two things that impressed were the ability of our defence line to get into the oppositions' faces. They rarely made more than 20m in a set of 6. And the other was Wigan's speed of attack, often were making 50m per set.
It all just looked and felt like a really well knit machine. Guilty perhaps of trying a bit too hard near their line, but I came away happier than at any time in the last 2 years (except perhaps from the game at Edinburgh last year).
Well done Maguire and the boys - keep it up.

[jaws1]

Posters have said that the opposition was weak you have to reflect to the first game last year how weak were Wakefield? injury hit and reserves in the team we all no what happened then.
Last nights game you could see a marked improvement in the team both as individuals and team effort lot faster around the play the ball area defense was a massive improvement and on fitness from last year.Yes we did drop a few balls and wayward passes What's more there is now a buzz going around the stadium and around town given more games under their belts and MM to summarise the team's display and iron out the faults I think we are in for a good season.Yes we did make mistakes and we were not perfect but there is room for improvement time will be the factor more game time we have we will improve dramatically.Good yardstick next friday against Hull KR. Apart from Deakin this is the same squad as last year.

[cumbria_warrior]

Thought the team look more of a team. Look at last years start, it even got to the stage where players were not congratulating each other, last night they all made the effort to celebrate a score, also looked more into the game especially Roberts, hope this is the usual aussie second year for him and riddell, hope to see Sam T a bit more involved next week, remember this is only week 1 and things hopefully will get better and better

[ancientnloyal]

I noticed Mossop ending the game playing in the prop role. Prescott, Coley and Feka were off the field I assumed there was an injury in there somewhere as the timings of feka and prescott especially were quite short. Injuries perhaps or was MM looking at Mossop as a choice at prop if needed?

[adiddy]

An excellent 1st game for the players to find their competitive feet! I couldnt believe how good all the players looked when they came out for the warm up.....I know everyone is wowing up Feka, but for me Gleeson looked physically bigger and fitter and now has the v shape to his torso ala Gidley! A lot of mistakes but thats fine for the first game, especially a game that last year would have been taken for granted by Wigan as a certain win! And we all know what happens when youtake a team for granted! A big shout like everyone else to Fielden, lockers, and Roberts who had good games and its good to see Roberts looking lithe and fast like he did in the nrl! Much bigger test next week but if we defend like we did, and keep the fast play the balls, and quick attacks, we should fear no-one! Not saying we'll win everything but the future looks exciting!

Matt

[KOOCH]

Thank god for the comprehensive views on last nights match.As I had been building myself up for weeks for the game.When lo and behold the worst thing happened.I received a phone call at work from my wife saying that some moron had run into the car whilst she was in Asda shopping.I could have screamed the place down. Then I realised that thankfully she was safe and well.The car looks like it as been hit by a tank instead of a bloody Vauxhall Corsa.It turns out the moron is eighty-four years old and had only reversed into someone else on the same car park at Asda.Not that all eighty-four year old people are bad drivers.But for god sake did he have to pick last night to do a bit of ram raiding?Thankfully no harm done to either parties.Just picked up the courtesy car.So next weeks match at HKR looks safe.Not much mention of Cameron Phelps in the reporting even though he seemed to play a blinder according to sporting life.

[ancientnloyal]

Phelps did well but he couldn't be more impressive against a defense with a dispersed format instead of a linear defence.

There were a few kicks by Witt that should have been gathered better I remember around 3 wigan players waiting for the bomb and it seemed nobody was shouting for it, Gleeson wasn't even looking at the ball I think we gave away a penalty after that play.

Plenty to work on and plenty to look forward to