Wigan Vs Catalans

[Owd Codger]

It was not just a case of us playing bad but also a case of Catalan playing better than they have been doing.

Like I said in the thread about the favourites to go down, they will get better as the season goes on as they have a decent squad of players and like Wigan a few new players.

[Mike]

Despite Daves comments, I quite enjoyed the game TBH. The ref did his best to inject a bit of atmosphere and for that I thank him. More fun than Hull KR anyway and the last dummy and try was worth the money alone.

Anyone else amazed that no one seems to catch up with Bowen when he makes a break. He doesn't look fast but he must be!

PS action has been taken on breaches of site rules earlier in this thread. No more comments please.

[yokozuna]

I didn't see or hear the match last night, but obviously we weren't impressive overall.

But, didn't Catalan beat up the Huddersfield pack last weekend, a side who aren't the best but aren't mugs themselves? I think Wigan aren't even at 50% yet and maybe that's partly a hangover from the WCC trip and also part of a plan to peak later in the season? Or am I just being optimistic?

[cpwigan]

At this stage the points are vital given early lost points but I have always worried about our game plan in terms of exiting our half and thus controlling field position then possession and ultimately the scoreboard.

You can point the finger at the forwards BUT I believe the exit set we use are not geared to control and thus the forwards particularly the front rowers are always at a disadvantage. Hard yards / running hard is secondary despite what may be said to trying to put on scoring plays from all areas of the pitch. Such a philosophy is far more high risk and 99% of teams take the other view. Hence, in the arm wrestle you are invariably disadvantaged and often due to not controlling the game you fall behind and have to come back in the 2nd half.

It is not something that has just happened, it has always been the philosophy of Shaun Wane and he could easily argue we won a CC & GF so it works BUT you have to remember it works when the opposition make lots of mistakes, Hull in the CC, Wire recently because field position is 'gifted' to you. I would argue that any coach worth anything would play a very simple yardage game v Wigan and thus easily gain control of the game. The Roosters, the Giants did that to Wigan and many have in the last 1/3rd of 2013.

To play such high risk RL you also have to have the players to do it. Our philosophy in our own half is very 'British old school' and is akin to Widnes under Doug Laughton BUT he had the players to do that, Offiah/Currier etc Sorensen/Grima almost playing as centres. Remember Widnes playing old school were great to watch at times but came unstuck v hard ball Australian inspired RL.

We do not have the players IMO to play lateral RL in our own half. Your game plan should be based around the players you have at your disposal NOT the way the coach aspires to play RL.

Roby was hopeless BTW, recently Ganson had to give him a half time coaching talk and therein lies an issue. Is SL is officiated as it is then you have to cut your cloth accordingly and CONTROL field position / possession not try to go lateral and score from your own half because the speed of the POTB is simply not fast enough to do so.

The Cats try was one of the tries of the season, decade BUT they lost the game.

Personally, if we adopted a game plan to control field position / possession when we have the ball in our own half we would win games far easier and have more time to play the RL Wane wants in the right parts of the pitch.

Re; play to the players you have; Bowen shows that he just wants the ball direct and early to put on a skill and do his thing. He doesn't want to be waiting for coaching manual set second man plays. He is instinctive and wants to play as he sees it. Give him the right platform. Afterall this is SL which is getting weaker not stronger. Lets keep it simple and respect what wins 99% of RL games; control field position and possession!

I think Jack Gibson used to preach playing RL simply and he was right then and remains right today IMO.

[Panchitta Marra]

Despite Daves comments, I quite enjoyed the game TBH. The ref did his best to inject a bit of atmosphere and for that I thank him. More fun than Hull KR anyway and the last dummy and try was worth the money alone.

Anyone else amazed that no one seems to catch up with Bowen when he makes a break. He doesn't look fast but he must be!

PS action has been taken on breaches of site rules earlier in this thread. No more comments please.

Young Burgess kept up with him mike when he went under the sticks and to be honest it looked as though Budgie was backing off in pace so he didn't go past Bowen.

[markill]

Picking a man of the match would have been impossible is Bowen hadn't pulled that try out. Lots of Wigan players had possibly their worst game of the season after I had been saying we were the best wet weather side around. That only seems to be the case in big games or against other top sides because we regressed to old ways last night in conditions that were too heavy to be too expensive. I thought Taylor and Crosby in particular were poor compared to how they have been playing although Taylor was a lot better in his second spell. Rare to see Farrell need to be taken off and a few others looked tired but thankfully Catalan tired more. Lockers didn't improve the side as much as I anticipated, it didn't look like the set moves had been well practised. And what on earth was the point in those scrum plays where the centres swapped? We got away with one after the start we had. Bowen's try was total magic though, the take was impressive enough in itself.

[Wigan_forever1985]

I'll not quote you cp as it's a long post but in reply to your post - in short I agree

In my eyes the pitch is marked and for example your first 20 should be a red zone no passing unless absolutely necessary to limit the amount of mistakes

I believe that this is why we need an on field director, ala finch/sin field/briers. Because I don't believe that we are clever enough sometimes. At times we can play some great rugby and like you say for a lot of the time it works because the standard isn't high enough to need a consistently smart game plan but in the close crunch games I still think we will come unstuck.

The biggest criticism of Shaun wane from most last year was that we had no plan b when things weren't going well for us. We couldn't change our approach or adapt to a game plan that wasn't working. I still feel despite our success that has an element of truth. Luckily our plan a is very good and too much for most teams but when things get tough I think we will be found wanting. That is when we need the on pitch leader to say right this is the way we are going to do it now. Marty smith could grow into that player but his execution sometimes isn't quite there.

I think it's also true to say play to your strengths use the players you have to write the tactics instead of the game plan to influence the players.

I don't mean this to come of as doom and gloom because that isn't how it's meant, we are in a privileged position where our 50-70% performance is still too much for most so I don't think we are going to lose to the lower end clubs! but the bigger clubs where wire may have fallen stains for me are coming back to power in a close game I can see Luke Walsh doing what Sean long used to do to us.

[chnwh]

There's an old saying in sport that the sign of a good side is to win when not at your best. We were far from our best last night but still found a way to win the game. That's good enough for me because we all know the coaches and players will realise what needs working on.

The referee was horrendous. He seemed scared to make a decision on his own and had to be told by the players on several occasions what the right call was (the Catalans offside in the second half when we opted to kick at goal). His management of the defensive line was even worse. The top referees will retreat 12+ yards to have a clear view of the defensive line and who has/hasn't got back 10. Roby went back 10 and STILL allowed players to stand in front of him. The touchies need to cop the stick for that aswell though because they should have been screaming at him that players were offside. If they were and he ignored them then he's even worse than I first thought.

[jobo]

Error strewn with bits of quality.
Good result in the end and a creditable win for a team in transition such as ours.

[ddtftf]

This really was 2 points lost for Cats, yes they were poor the last 20 mins but Wigan were far from any good.

I think CP touched on it against Warrington that the pack didn't make the yards as well as Warrington's pack and last week was a warning.

This week the pack struggled against a very heavy and physical pack that if it could have lasted the 80 they would have won. We can ill afford this in the bigger games.

We IMO have only one prop who can make good headway and bust the tackle first off and that's Taylor. The rest IMO are too lightweight, however they still do what is required to a certain standard but ATM it's not quite there.

I will say it again, Bowen will be Wigan's best player when the weather gets better and he is key to how Wigan will defend there titles. He has assists in him this lad and can position himself to perfection. He needs a bit more protection however Tomkins received far more IMO but that will come.

I also feel he is underestimated by opposition players and fans which is good for us.

This was ground out 2 points in the bag, despite how it was achieved. It moves us up the table and that's all that matters, great teams grind wins out look at the Challenge Cup final last year as an example.

Next team please!!!

According to the stats Wigan made more yardage in the Warrington game ( see stats Boots & All Phil Clark )