Wigan squad for Warrington / Tonight's Match v Warrington

[morley pie eater]

Take away for me we're KPP has to start and play the 80, he's clearly a dangerous 2nd row option. Nsemba needs more minutes - I think Peet is too cautious on decisions like this. French is doing fine or even well at SO, there no need to change an evolving back line combination. Magi just isn't going to get a new contract.

Overall a good performance with a couple of shockingly lazy/poor defensive errors. Nice to see a ref even up a bad call with another. You don't get that at saints!

Love the typo, Mike! We can only hope that "Magi" turns up before Christmas!
I thought Paddy Magoo put in a decent shift taking the ball up last night. I would say his best game but for the Clarke try.

[archiekeith]

Kendall is dreadful about as much use as elephant ears on a mouse

yes or mouses ears on an elephant

[w.thomas]

1st half not so good better 2nd half. The defending for a couple of those try’s was dreadfully soft. Brynes performance was weak, he gets dominated too easily and just isn’t effective. I was hoping he would kick on this season but he’s gone backwards. He defies physics, he’s the size of a block of flats but couldn’t burst open a wet paper bag. Mago and KPP were class when they came in and Ellis went ok. Can’t understand the minutes he gives Nsemba, what’s the point? Let the lad have a few carries, he couldn’t have had more than 15 minutes. Decent enough win and onto the big one next week! Fingers crossed for a Wigan V Leigh final

[Gerrumonside]

Both Ellis & Byrne were bossed in the opening 20 mins and indeed our pack was to a degree for that opening stint when we had shorrocks at 2nd row its a lighter pack than with wire having Vaughn, dudson, Harrison & Philbin etc in theirs. 2nd 20 we seemed even - 2nd half we dominated them! Note that 2nd spell Byrne was a lot better…

Hats off to Mago & KPP last night - they were awesome when they came on.

[Southern Softy]

Not a whole lot of point slagging off individuals because it's where the team wants to go and what it wants to be that seems to be the crux.
As it stands (and I appreciate that we will be better when our forwards recover from injuries) we are a gifted and inconsistent side. We score amazing tries that few other side could score but cannot score from positions battering the try line that other sides manage on a regular basis.
French and Field do wonderful things (Field's first try last night) but make basic horrible errors that mean the minuses cancel out the plusses.
I think we can win the Challenge Cup because on any given day we can produce special efforts but we can't win a Grand Final because we aren't reliable.
The club may have to look at French and Field and say one or the other or use them differently and also look at Byrne and Smithies to see if we can do better.
For the remainder of this season, we should play Nsemba and Hill as many times as we can, bearing in mind their youth; ship out Mago; use King as an alternative for injury and try Miski maybe at centre to see if he can adapt; move Thornley on sharpish because he just can't defend and decide what we do with Hampshire.
I really do think the Cup can be ours but after that - let's plan for next season and beyond. We have new players incoming so let's be prepared.
(above should have been in italics but doesn't seem to be working)

I posted this after the Wakefield game and despite a decent win last night, can't see a reason to change.
I didn't think that Byrne could have as bad a game as he did and that Mago would do his impression of an open door in defence again.
Wardle was excellent and looks a shrewd purchase - KPP was startlingly good - Smithies, after that outstanding break, sort of disappeared for long spells but Shorrocks is vital for our defence.
Slightly off-topic but I assume that Ratchford is the latest in a long line of players who Powell has taken a dislike to so maybe he's available next season? What he is doing at centre while Wire play everyone else in the halves is bewildering.

[nathan_rugby]

Shorrocks ran 12m from 6 carries…

Is that a typo on the Super League site?

Regardless of defensive abilities or when he gets his hands on the ball that isn’t good enough is it?

[The Pearl1]

Shorrocks ran 12m from 6 carries…

Is that a typo on the Super League site?

Regardless of defensive abilities or when he gets his hands on the ball that isn’t good enough is it?

Missed 11 tackles too.

Should move to the bench and start Pearce Paul

[Firestarter]

Kendall is dreadful about as much use as elephant ears on a mouse

yes or mouses ears on an elephant

Very true on both accounts but on last nights display ide say hes as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike

[EagleEyePie]

Shorrocks ran 12m from 6 carries…

Is that a typo on the Super League site?

Regardless of defensive abilities or when he gets his hands on the ball that isn’t good enough is it?

Missed 11 tackles too.

Should move to the bench and start Pearce Paul

Shorrocks has never been best suited to second row because he's smaller than most outside backs. There's no size advantage of speed/agility advantage when he makes carries so he struggles to make ground. When he plays decent minutes down the middle he makes more metres because he can evade tackles easier and run at gaps rather than into players.

He's at second row because he's so good for the team defensively. It's a trade-off at the moment because of the players we have missing. Nsemba is great going forward but inexperienced defensively. If we were chasing the game Nsemba would have got more minutes. It turned out things were going well with Shorrocks out wide so Matt Peet only gave Nsemba a short stint.

I wouldn't pay any attention at all to the missed tackle count. He allegedly missed 8 tackles last week against Wakefield but I watched it again keeping an eye on that and he missed 2. The way Opta calculate missed tackles is if you make contact with a defender but don't complete a tackle that's counted as a missed tackle. It counts all the times Shorrocks places a hand on a ball carrier and then voluntarily drops off to get back into the defensive line, which he does a lot.

If he was actually missing the number of tackles the stats say he was, he would have been hauled off in the same way Byrne was after his poor start to the game. McIlorum is another player who falls foul of how Opta count missed tackles, because he rushes up and often reaches out to force players to change direction away from danger. The stats say it's a missed tackle, the reality is it's good defence, which is why everyone praises his defence despite him always being very high on Opta's missed tackle stats.

When it comes to Shorrocks at second row, it was still worth it last night because it allowed Pearce-Paul to play at prop where he was brilliant. If we moved KPP back to the edge we wouldn't have been as effective down the middle. With our props generally being a bit poor it worked out well to have someone like KPP as a prop.

As soon as Havard and Isa return I doubt Shorrocks will stay at second row. He's most valuable at 13 (he was one of few good players against Wakefield). Long term I don't think he'll be at Wigan too much longer because he's really an out and out 13 and with Smithies our first choice and O'Neill an option as that second hooker at 13 which a lot of teams do there may be even fewer opportunities for him next year. For now he's been incredibly valuable this season.

[Charriots Offiah]

One big fault I see in Bevan, and which is a golden rule in rugby league, is that if you throw a dummy you take the line on. He doesn’t and the result is he throws some hospital passes.

That's probably fair, Charriots, but nevertheless, he worries opposition defences when he has the ball in in his hands.

Oh I fully agree. But dummying and then passing the ball leads to interceptions or hospital passes in the main.