Widnes v Wigan

[Kittwazzer]

Why is Stephan Marsh at Widnes this year - it's not his fault I'll tell you that.

He had a big point to make yesterday and by all accounts, he did it in spades!

[jobo]

Nobody wants SW to succeed more than me but he's either had a brainf*rt or he's starting to believe his own publicity. He's doing himself no favours by saying the team he put out was well capable of winning it, when they were equally, as was proved to be, more than capable of losing it.

Hopefully, seeing the secrecy that surrounds injuries, the 4 he left out were all injured and couldn't play but he can't admit it and another hopefully is that nothing surfaces as regards anyone betting on this result.

[DaveO]

WANE: WE DIDN'T UNDER-ESTIMATE WIDNES
:doz: Smells like bullshit

It certainly is. Saying he was confident the team picked could win when he replaced Tommy, Lockers and Sam with reserve players yet losing is all the proof you need that he did underestimate Widnes.

He felt his selections were good enough to beat them and they were not. What else is that other than underestimating the opposition?

He clearly felt the likes of Mellor, L Tomkins and Russell along with Tuson at 13 and already having to play Hughes in the centres because Carmont was out was capable of winning the game instead of one featuring Sam, Lockers, Faz, and Tommy.

He says we had a couple of injuries and he had to see how some young players would go. Not at the same time you don't! If you have injuries and are already playing inexperienced players such as Hughes you don't compound the issue by playing even more.

The experienced players named in the 19 who were rested should have played and this isn't hindsight because you only have to look at the forums to see plenty of concern over the rumoured selections before the game.

[Stormfan]

WHAT THE... round 6 and your coach is RESTING players. I haven`t heard anything so crazy.If it was round 17 and players had played State of Origin I could understand it.

[GBH]

WHAT THE... round 6 and your coach is RESTING players. I haven`t heard anything so crazy.If it was round 17 and players had played State of Origin I could understand it.

Exactly if they need a rest now after 5 games best give them there p45's as its ridicules to claim they needed a rest!

This was all about Wayne trying to prove Maguire had it wrong not blooding his under 21's, well he certainly proved something!

[cpwigan]

I know certain players that played were at various times in the week told they would not be played. Mossop was down not to play yet played and got injured?

Blooding players is necessary and welcome BUT if Waney thinks the way he did so is the right way then we are going to have major problems. Gradual blooding in no more than 1 or 2 has to be the go and a more flexible bench in case it goes pear shaped. Asking youngsters to make debuts without our best and most influential player (Lockers) and our best attacker (Sam T) is madness IMO. Look at Sam T, he made his debut surrounded by established stars.

Too many untried youngsters in a game results in the Leeds / Saints 70+ defeats / nightmares.

For me Waney learned nothing and we learned too much about him which is worrying. Waney got it wrong and he needs to man up and admit that he did so.

Lockers is Wigan RLFC IMO, no Lockers, poor Wigan RLFC.

[DaveO]

WHAT THE... round 6 and your coach is RESTING players. I haven`t heard anything so crazy.If it was round 17 and players had played State of Origin I could understand it.

I only follow the NRL off and on but I get the impression while the clubs are generally very good at unearthing young talent no coach would ever deliberately rest five players in order to put several youngsters in at once.

Is that a fair reflection of how it goes in the NRL?

[markill]

I can't believe there is any one of us who genuinely thinks Wane got that one right. He didn't.

He rested too many leaders, it was bound to have an impact on our game, particularly away from home against a motivated team paying one of their few massive games full of people who Wigan discarded. That can explain why the standards dropped off in each half.

I didn't go, I only listened on the radio. It sounded like in the last 20 minutes every bit of ball had to go to Finch and Hock because no one else was standing up. That is the problem of taking out all your leaders.

I think lockers or tommy and sam or pat we could get away with, but not losing all four, maybe even if you want, rest lockers from starting 13. If we had him to bring on when the 18 point lead was being lost it would have probably been different.

However, I also can't believe that any one of us doesn't think our team on paper was good enough to beat their team on paper. Even in practice we'd think we could win. Heck, we scored tries very easily early in both halves by the sound of it.

I don't think Wane will learn a massive amount about the individuals who played yesterday, debut or not, played well or not. 80 minutes is a small sample to learn a great deal.

He will learn that you can't play four players who don't play much with the others. He will learn that having only one of your usual 5/6 leaders out there isn't helpful for younger players coming in or for you to take momentum back in your favour.

I think he is trying to let the players know that losing wasn't good enough and excuses aren't good enough. Him taking the blame for team selection doesn't stop the fact that an 18 point lead with 30 minutes to go was lost. The team selection by then was made. The players on the picth got us into that position. It was going ok wasn't it, panic over we thought...

Regardless of what we think about the team selection. We shouldn't have lost to Widnes. We shouldn't have let an 18 point lead go against any team. Every person within the club needs to know that and if you were playing and involved in losing that lead then you need to know that isn't good enough. I'm sure Wane knows this. I'm sure he knows his involvement wasn't good enough, just as the players involvement wasn't collectively good enough in that last 30 minutes of each half.

[Pietastic]

Hmmm, not really sure why I've logged on, it's hard to extract any positives from that result.

Not only have we dropped two valuable points I just can't believe SW has been that naive as to expect those youngsters to start a game against a Widnes team desperate for a win, away from home and on a strange surface.

I just can't get my head round it, I know nothing about coaching but all ends up he got it badly wrong yesterday. These kids need nurturing along, not throwing in the deep end without experienced players to guide them.

[BriH]

Just recovered from the shock.

Before I heard the team selection I was thinking a win by +50 points.
Top of the League.

Then............catastrophe.

Why oh why do you leave out 5 key players? By all means blood young players but surely in one's or two's when the need arises e.g. injuries or, the League position is very strong e.g. 6 points clear at the top.

A moment of madness that I never want to see repeated. Let's hope IL had a quiet word in his ear.