Wigan 16 Huddersfield 18

[cpwigan]

Jon H makes me smile. He might understand conditioning a little but RL the game he knows very little. If Pryce did everything asked of him then why did Huddersfield keep attacking him, he made several mistakes defensively and his workrate was not good enough. He never breaks a tackle or make yards.

[Matthew]

A terrible game of RL - error strewn and very poorly officiated. I won't go into the inept performance by bentham as their is a separate thread for that. Suffice to say he has got less bottle than the Sahara desert.

As with the game that we lost to the bulls, when George went off we really lost our shape. He does masses of work in defence; both tackling and organising and links well with Pat and Sam. Whilst he may not score trys like Sam's, he is still a key member of our team and we really miss him.

Moving Joel to centre was the best option; but not only do we lose something at centre; but we lose far more in the forwards. With an inexperienced centre and what can only be described as a knackered donkey playing wing on the other side of the field; we lost our attacking edge.

Huddersfield played bentham far too easily and set the tone early with their professional fouls. Rather than sticking to our game plan; we then got involved with their untalented cheap-shot merchants (mason) and their bitter ex-Wigan cast-offs (wild, brown, robinson etc etc).

Unfortunately this occurred at the same time that a large part of the team choose to have an off night and we looked disjointed and predictable. Deacon proved that he is a good impact sub, but doesn't have the legs for a whole game anymore. Of the team, I thought that Sam and Fielden were our best players.

Pryce CANNOT be given another contract. Apart from catching the ball and falling over the try line; he did very little. Against a better winger than dodgy; we would have lost by a lot more. He didn't break (or ever look like breaking) a tackle, he didn't offload, chase kicks with any enthusiasm or look steady in defence. Goulding is ten times the winger that he is.

We really need to get our first choice players back in time for the play-offs. Tonight again proved that we have some very good youngsters; however we still need our senior players on the field if we are to win anything this year.

Lastly; I have a request for Michael Maguire. If we are going to have a sub that sits on the bench for the entire game, can it be me? I still just about look the part (6'7" and 17 stone) and will happily donate a tidy sum to a charity of his choosing. I will bring my own boots, will enthusiastically join in any fights and can use an exercise bike without instruction.

[Wigan_forever1985]

In regard to the player sitting on the bench if you mean Davies i watched the game on sky and saaw him take the ball in a few times towards the end of the second half unless my eyes have gone funny

[cpwigan]

He came on at the very end.

[chris11]

He came on and knocked it on if I remember right... he was on last 10 mins.



It looked as though Fielden was gonna play the full 80, not sure what was happening with our props rotation. Fielden got sin binned for 10 and then taken off at 70 so he played 60 mins. Each prop usually gets about 40... unless your feka

[cook123]

The main thing that lost us the game was the pace of the game it happended against saints against wire and against hudds last night they all deliberately slowed the game down with slow re starts from penalties not just when they were down to 12 and 11 men but throughout the game if this happens wigan cannot get into a rhythm and get momentum up as we are best when the game is fast. Hudds aren't that bad a team and in good form all the game we dominated more or less but just couldn't score.

[cumbria_warrior]

Fielden had a hell of a game, even if he did play 60min, I think he could of played the full 80 as he was pumped up, that was probably the best I have seen him play in last few seasons, looked like he had the fire of old fielden back, dont agree with the fighting but was good to see no backing down by stu or any of the lads.

[Kiwiseddon]

For me it was simple. You can't take away both centres and one winger and expect to win. Too many injuries, simple as that. Hopefully we'll do it at HKR.
And Fielden was magic. The fighting's a moot point but personally I'm glad he didn't back down.


What is it with him and people called Mason?!?

[waterside glens]

Fielden was awsome last night .To have a bitch like Mason scrab and stamp on him it's no wonder he hit back. I just wish the upper cut had of caught Mason, would have took his head off .We where poor ball in hand , too many injuries, poor ref (again) and we have zero movement and mobility when we have Pryce on the wing. Hudds could slide their defense knowing they would be in no rush to cover Pryce thats why we didn't score when we had a man advantage .We neen GLEESON, CARMONT ,PRECCY AND MICKY MAC BACK FOR PLAY OFF'S.

[MrDave]

Huddersfield came with the right set of tactics for them to beat Wigan. They knew they weren't going to out play Wigan so instead turned the game into a fight and after going 10-0 up Wigan forgot to play rugby. Huddersfield didn't play any rugby league they just waited for some gaps to appear and took the few changes they needed to win the game.

A few times this season Maguire has been out done tactically by other coaches but I think he made two bad decisions:

1) Leaving Ben Davies on the bench so long especially since Joel had to move to centre Wigan needed a better rotation of forward. If you put a player on the beach you need confidence that he can do the job.

2) Picking Thomas Leuluai as captain. Tommy has a habit of disappearing from games when things are not going too good and when Huddersfield got back into the game Wigan looked completely lost.