lucky 13 wrote:The defence last night first half was bad. It was better second and that was because Bateman was on, it looks like a bit of trust issues on your inside man. I was unsure if we was sliding or rushing, picking it was hard because the line didn't slide at times. The first try you can see Smith almost telling Hughes which man to take, he seems never quite to trust Hughes and so the gap is to the outside of Smith. Later we see both Goulding and Charnley rushing in this is because the damage is done inside them with bad reads or lack of trust from the outside man on his inside man. Charnley Goulding Smith have been part of the best defence for the last few seasons it's inside them that needs to get up to speed. Hughes is still young and while Bateman is also he seems to sure that side up. They did score one more or less when he came on but after that we looked much better. Bowen looks to be finding his feet, great try and looks solid under the bomb. To come in to a structure like ours thats been built around Sam must be hard. I do think he can provide a little more and pick up the ball at first second pivot or even from play the ball, it gives us speed that we lack on occasion in those positions. I hope he can do this once he settles he was great at it for the cowboys. This is a new team lacking Sam, Pat, Mossop and Hansen when you then have SoL and mac missing you are going to be a little bit adrift of last season fo a while.
Beat me to almost everything I wanted to say. I'm sure that for one of the HKR tries, Hughes was on the wrong side of Matty Smith. You could watch Charnley and Goulding being pulled across to cover so that it looked as if it was their fault when the try was scored - it wasn't.
Thought Bateman made a difference when he came on - Bowen had a great match in defence and attack (he looked really fit) - Farrell was the key to the performance (Barry M& Terry O also thought so). Burgess improved in decision-making, apart from that high ball take when he was shoved intro touch and he made a great tackle late on to snuff out an attack.
What I don't understand is what Jordan James was doing on the pitch. I know Dudson is undisciplined but he's much better than that.
We looked better and if we play as we did in the second half, it should be OK but we were truly awful in that first half. I know HKR ran all their strength out in the first half but we should be beating them by 30 points or more every time. I thought we looked really subdued when we came out for the kick off - very unWigan like.
Looks like Warrington will be the test. They don't look very good this season (haven't replaced the players who left properly) and we should be able to turn them over - let's hope so.
