19-man squad vs Catalans

[morley pie eater]

On a positive but by-the-way note:
~ they scored 0
~ 11,106 attendance not bad for Cats
~ we have the 3rd best points difference in SL.

[ancientnloyal]

Great win, i had my doubts with the weakened pack but, hey, play to your strengths.........set up a great game friday now....... on another note what was with the chinease spam that davo was on about? I signed in and thought wtf

Lenagan bought 32,000,000 Chinese supporters, or a click farm, in Qinghai Province

[Caboosegg]

On a positive but by-the-way note:
~ they scored 0
~ 11,106 attendance not bad for Cats
~ we have the 3rd best points difference in SL.

Sunday, mothersday and Wigans current form i was expecting less than 11,000, and it didnt look overly packed.

Hopefully the performance should bring a few back for the next home game. Wasn't perfect but there was some brilliant attack on show.

Suprised Greg Bird didnt get yellow card today though.

[Caboosegg]

Quite possibly a nice guy but a poor 7 and St Helens soon found that out.

But in my opinions Williams best seasons at wigan have been with Smith at 7.
You might not like him but he was an organiser.

Didn’t see him organising much today. His skill levels are poor, his kicking game is still ropey, his defence is suspect and he is slow. Apart from that he’s ok.

Smith didn't do anything good or bad today, then again Tomkins also didnt do much (apart from whinge).

But yes hes kicks were average, his passing i thought was fine. Didnt see much defense from cats at all though really

[pearsy]

All this Chinese over the site might give IFL a idea to play a home game in China?

[jobo]

All this Chinese over the site might give IFL a idea to play a home game in China?

Cracker.

Hope it's in Hong Kong though.

[shaunedwardsfanclub]

Despite the fact Cats where poor, before the game I thought we had top weight on today.
The ball was shifted regularly wing to wing avoiding going toe to toe with their much bigger pack.
The youngsters put in a good show and if I'm honest can't see why Powell should expect to walk back in?
Fingers crossed confidence will be bubbling and we can get some more back for next week!?

All our younger players stood up, technically they are very good hence our best defensive performance of the season we stopped holding players up in the tackle and instead clamped the ball and put them on the deck - it makes a massive difference. What I like about our young lads is they all have a bit of niggle in them. We changed our defensive formation with Hardaker playing in the line,ala Australian style and this seemed to restrict the space in centre field, resulting in their forwards having less room to play in. The results were evident, a big fat 0. Macca I believe is on borrowed time, Gigot should be at fullback and Tomkins in the halves, Langi at 6, Kasiano
Is a waste of money as is Smith. What price Wane to Catalans? Back to us, what a difference Budgie and Fredi make, our centres were both good today - they both probably played their best games for some while. Both Williams and Sammut dictated play well, although I still worry about Jarrod defensively. Hardaker had his best game so far. Our forwards laid the platform that has been missing to date. Bullock is a fine signing and Naverette performed a lot better today. Tommy was far slicker around the ruck A’s was Shorrocks so I would be amazed if Powell got back into the team. Isa was isa, all effort but poor skills. Flower seems to be playing on one leg but give it a real go. The young lads were all excellent and the future looks bright.

It makes selection interesting next week although I think it may be too much to ask Smithies and Byrne to go around again next week.

[josie andrews]

Also, its amusing to see how quiet this board is when wigan are winning compared to losing a game.

Oh grow up. The game only finished half an hour ago. Plenty people still on the road home.

As I would have been had I been there. I wasn’t there today because, as I believe they did last season, the club arranged a fixture on Mothers Day and so I have been on duty elsewhere. I just got back in, came on hear with me cuppa, cleared out a load of spam for some Chinese moron, ditto some idiot selling fake ids and was looking forward to some discussion about who did what and instead we have you having a pop.

You need to “delete permanently” or it still stays on the site!

I’m doing it every day, deleting & banning these posters

[EagleEyePie]

It was a fantastic performance despite Catalans clearly being off their game. With the young pack we had out there was always the chance that the size and experience of the Dragons would make it a walk over for them.

The key was obviously defence. They dominated territory early on and were making easy metres but defensively we were incredibly well disciplined. Obviously the tactic was to try to beat their forwards with pace and agility, hence our outside backs making a huge number of carries down the middle early on - and it certainly worked. I can't remember the last time all of our back line were outstanding. Even the much maligned Sarginson was fantastic. Budgie and Gildart though, what a joy it is to see those two back together. I've loved seeing the effort Marshall and Davies have put in over the last couple of years and they've become two very good Super League wingers, but both Burgess and Manfredi have the potential to be among the best wingers in the world.

Whether by accident or by design, starting with Navarette and Bullock worked. We had enough to throw at Catalans and were strong defensively for the first 25 - then when Smithies, Byrne and Shorrocks were on the field they were aided by Flower, who was everywhere in defence and made sure the big men of Bousquets and Kasiano could have little impact. Byrne was also impressive and I thought when he and Flower came on our defensive intensity lifted.

Sammut was impressive, as was Leuluai. His kicking game in particular was very smart and made sure to turn the Catalans pack around when the opportunity arose. Shorrocks continues to impress off the bench too. His passing speed and accuracy is exceptional. I'd be so disappointed if Powell gets back into the side.

Paisley also did well out wide and got into the game more as it went on, plus his outrageous pass for one of Budgie's try's was brilliant. The only player who didn't really do that well was Isa, who showed his limitations as a back row forward. Always gives 100% effort and is pretty solid defensively but his attack is just run forward and a bit of footwork, anything else he seems to struggle with.

As for Catalans, they were dominant in the first half and really should have put some points on the board. However, it's not surprising they lacked ideas with Smith pulling the strings. And as dangerous as Gigot can be he looks better as a fullback, as a more unpredictable part of a structured attack, rather than being more restrained in the halves.

[DaveO]

Not really when we are losing people post about it throughout the game.

So now you are accusing people who post anything when at the game to only do so when we are losing? You need to stop embarrassing yourself. If people post anything at the game I think you will find it is when points are scored, whoever scores them.

you do realise you can just ignore comments you don't agree with instead of a constant need to try and belittle people?

and before you try and turn that around, my comment was mearly an observation and the only people it should really offend are those that maybe do only post during matches when we are losing?

unlike yours which is a direct attack at a poster! (shame im not a snowflake, i might of got offended)

You were trolling.

You posted a snide remark that was basically trolling and you could not waste to post it. To try and play the victim now is silly.