19-man squad vs Catalans

[Southern Softy]

Well, we have nilled Cats in the not-too distant past and you can only beat the side that turns up (or,rather, didn't turn up) but it was pretty heartening, particularly from the young and relatively untried players. It did look as if the one tactical change made since the start of the season was to put George firmly on the left. In the first few matches, George and Tommy seemed to switch sides from time to time and it really didn't work. Now with a definite, left side of Burgess, Gildart, Greenwood, Williams and SOL chiming in - that looks as good as any in the league.
However, put that with the rest of the team and we come out best of the rest - i.e. Not as good as Saints or Warrington but able to compete with Castleford, Wakefield etc. The plus point is that both Saints and Warrington tend to start the season on fire and then run out of gas as the season gets towards its climax. Could be a good season after all, although we'd need a fair bit of luck with injuries. Surely, we've got someone up and coming who can play second-row on the right - Isa is clearly struggling.

[Firestarter]

Ide like to scrap squad numbers and go back to the old system....was much better imo

[fozzieskem]

I've no axe to grind with wane ,he is one of our own and he did it his way with alot of success. However more entertaining rugby will put bums on seats because there was no more than 8 thousand on yesterday ,nowhere near 11 thousand that was stated.
We made more clean breaks the last two games that we've managed a long time ,hopefully this will continue.

If I’m honest I thought the first half was very wane like,they defended at last and then finally decided to probe the Catalan defence,suddenly realised it was there and had at it.

I think it’s clear Lam likes both Shorrocks and young Paisley as part of his side I hope he sticks with them,that said Smithees and Partington didn’t look at of place at all but again you have temper how poor Catalan were,I was shocked at how bad they were but did it Wigan needed a result like that if nowt else but to start the nerves and that it was done without Lockers too is a big plus.

I only ever ask to be entertained and yesterday I was.

And yes I’m tired of squad numbers too they simply aren’t needed just a grubby (in my opinion) tactic by clubs to grab money from fans

[Mickw]

I've no axe to grind with wane ,he is one of our own and he did it his way with alot of success. However more entertaining rugby will put bums on seats because there was no more than 8 thousand on yesterday ,nowhere near 11 thousand that was stated.
We made more clean breaks the last two games that we've managed a long time ,hopefully this will continue.

If I’m honest I thought the first half was very wane like,they defended at last and then finally decided to probe the Catalan defence,suddenly realised it was there and had at it.

I think it’s clear Lam likes both Shorrocks and young Paisley as part of his side I hope he sticks with them,that said Smithees and Partington didn’t look at of place at all but again you have temper how poor Catalan were,I was shocked at how bad they were but did it Wigan needed a result like that if nowt else but to start the nerves and that it was done without Lockers too is a big plus.

I only ever ask to be entertained and yesterday I was.

And yes I’m tired of squad numbers too they simply aren’t needed just a grubby (in my opinion) tactic by clubs to grab money from fans

I thought we engineered some good opportunities first half but messed em up every time ,but granted they as bad as hull were on friday.
I don't see any great teams in this league ,wire and stains both doing ok but by no means unbeatable and they've both got the DNA of failure to over come later on in the year.
Might not be us this year but we can upset a few later on this season .

[Wiganer Ted]

Some very entertaining tries there.

[moto748]

Well all day today I've been looking forward to finishing work so I could sit-down and re-watch the full game with a commentary (when could you last say that?), so I could find out what those shirt numbers were! I wanted to see how Smithees went, but it was hard to tell at the game. Well clearly he did great, as did Paisley and Bullock and the rest of them. Sure Cats capitulated in the second half, but we scored some great tries off the back of solid defence. Power, pace and skill; some proper rugby league! Looking forward to a great contest at Cas now!

[morley pie eater]

I remember Andy Farrell's first few games, early 90s. Vague memory that he was about 17? I'd never seen him but heard about him.

He looked steady, solid, but, other than being a big lad for his age, you wouldn't pick him out as anything special. Clearly he'd have been told to keep it simple, don't do anything silly.

Now I've seen Ollie Partington for the under 19s on Wigan TV, and he has looked controlling, dominant, in some ways an old-fashioned ball-handling prop or loose-forward.

He seems to be creeping into the first team squad under the radar - solid, dependable, but not mentioned in despatches. Is there a parallel with Faz? Will he be allowed or encouraged to play like he did for the 19s? Or is this it, just solid, ok squad player?

Can anyone enlighten me?

[josie andrews]

I remember Andy Farrell's first few games, early 90s. Vague memory that he was about 17? I'd never seen him but heard about him.

He looked steady, solid, but, other than being a big lad for his age, you wouldn't pick him out as anything special. Clearly he'd have been told to keep it simple, don't do anything silly.

Now I've seen Ollie Partington for the under 19s on Wigan TV, and he has looked controlling, dominant, in some ways an old-fashioned ball-handling prop or loose-forward.

He seems to be creeping into the first team squad under the radar - solid, dependable, but not mentioned in despatches. Is there a parallel with Faz? Will he be allowed or encouraged to play like he did for the 19s? Or is this it, just solid, ok squad player?

Can anyone enlighten me?

Ollie could be a future captain at Wigan IMO