Tonight's Match - Wigan squad for Hull FC

[morley pie eater]

Firestarter has mentioned our problems in wet weather for weeks now, and it seems that he's spot on.

Whether it's the weather or whether it's not ( ), we rely so much on Field and French at 1 and 6 producing on attack - surely we've signed Keighran to play 6 and be goalkicker. If it works, great, but what to we do with Field?

[southportcdm]

Very relieved to get away with that one. The lads played their hearts out but didn't play smart wet weather rugby and nearly blew it. The conditions, to a large extent, negated the running skills of Bevan and Jai. The usual problem surfaced in that our pack isn't powerful enough to drive it down the middle against a decent opposing pack. We then lacked the organisation/craft to work opportunities in such difficult handling conditions. We must correct this for next season. I accept that we have injuries and a suspension but everybody has problems at this stage of the season. Taylor went off injured for them and of course they lost Houghton early. Having said that their young hooker caused major problems with his running, an obvious tactic in wet weather which we still don't seem capable of matching. Hopefully Leeming and Brad's continued development will solve this problem.

[No straw damn us]

is brad oneil injured or was he just dropped?

He played, but we controlled the game better when Powell came on. His kick deep behind Hull in the 2nd half of extra time being something we should have done earlier in the game particularly in the 1st half of normal time when we had the wind at our backs.

[josie andrews]

Diabolical from Smith

What about rest of team stupid penalties poor decisions not many came out of last night with any honour. But we need weekly scapegoat.

Oh by the way who kicked WINNING drop goal.
He spoke last night after game and he wasn't at all happy with himself. I felt sorry for him. But he's a young lad doing 2 of hardest pressure jobs on pitch. Give lad a break. Don't see any other players stepping up to goal kick. Or peet protecting him from all this. No it's because we need a scapegoat and why everyone is concerned with Smith kicking there going away from the blatant obvious our none existent clueless attack and discipline. The problem lies with coaching staff imo not players

I agree, too much pressure. Need to get a proper kicking coach in like they did with Tomkins! From RU if necessary they can kick for Great Britain

[Charriots Offiah]

Got slated when I said this a couple of weeks ago, but I'll say it again...Peet is not all that as a coach. We will not improve under his term in charge. He might be a nice guy who can motivate his players /friends....but tactically and particularly attack-wise, he is not good enough...

And you base your logic on? Genuine question as you sound in the know.

People are saying we are clueless in attack but we had 5 poetntial tries that we messed up. We had plenty of opportunity the player skill wasn't where I needed to be.

Marshall failed to collecta Smith kick
Field missed the ball on the ground
King knocked on when catching
Miski fell over when he had a clear run
The "forward" pass from Field

I thought that us the worst I have seen wigan play in years but we still broke Hull down we just lacked the completion.

You have forgot French passing the ball when he should have slid over the line.

[eaststandspy]

I have had a more enjoyable time listening to my mind controller telling me about her day.

That was awful, when Harry smith lined up to take the last conversion attempt I thought " if ever you convert a try then please do it now" the thought of having to endure maybe an extra 10 minutes was too much to bear. When he missed I could have throttled him, love him though.
We were good in the forward battle, we pretty much dominated them the whole game, however we were bereft of any attacking flair. Allowing for the conditions, I think Bevan had his most ineffective game for a long time so there was nothing from our stand off.
Hull scrambled well and coped with us quite easily in defence, though they were worse than us on attack, it was a high kick or nothing. I think players who did have good games were Toby King, Patick Mago & Abbas Miski. Mago (sign him up) & Miski were good metre makers which makes me think again that Abbas could be a good number 12. We will never know if we don't give it a try.

The ref, my God he certainly didn't endure himself to the WIGAN fans, a few dodgy decisions which I will need to watch on TV because I wasn't sure viewing live. One I was sure of, from kick off in golden point time they catch and pass the most blatant forward pass you will ever see. Despite his unobstructed view the ref missed it when the whole of the East stand could see it, should have been Wigan ball about 15 yards out. Poor.

Ah well we came out on the right side of the result, everyone has those days, we close that chapter and move on to Catalan with a much better performance.

[boggart]

Wigan were lucky. A top notch coach with a game plan to win away, typically excellent Tony Smith; a team good enough to put it into practice (just); the discipline to stick to the plan and two decent half backs. None of these Wigan had. Looking at the potential of the talent Wigan had on the field, they should be beating everybody, but they aren't, what's the problem?

[Barney841]

Wigan were lucky. A top notch coach with a game plan to win away, typically excellent Tony Smith; a team good enough to put it into practice (just); the discipline to stick to the plan and two decent half backs. None of these Wigan had. Looking at the potential of the talent Wigan had on the field, they should be beating everybody, but they aren't, what's the problem?

Novice coach and back room staff?

[PF Warrior]

Diabolical from Smith

What about rest of team stupid penalties poor decisions not many came out of last night with any honour. But we need weekly scapegoat.

Oh by the way who kicked WINNING drop goal.
He spoke last night after game and he wasn't at all happy with himself. I felt sorry for him. But he's a young lad doing 2 of hardest pressure jobs on pitch. Give lad a break. Don't see any other players stepping up to goal kick. Or peet protecting him from all this. No it's because we need a scapegoat and why everyone is concerned with Smith kicking there going away from the blatant obvious our none existent clueless attack and discipline. The problem lies with coaching staff imo not players

I agree, too much pressure. Need to get a proper kicking coach in like they did with Tomkins! From RU if necessary they can kick for Great Britain

I agree with you Josie. There is no doubt that Harry is a class player. I think that it is confidence problem with Harry. We have to remember that he is still a youngster.
A kicking coach would help him with his confidence a union kicking g coach would be of assistance to Harry. Just a thought what about an NRL coach. A retired kicker Jonathan Thurston or Cameron Smith. It would no doubt be more expensive than hiring a Union Coach, but it may give the best results.

[boggart]

I think young Harry needs to be relieved of some of the responsibility he's currently being required to carry. We need another kicker, place and/or tactical. No use keep giving him a pasting, that'll just erode his confidence even more. He's a talented player, let's give his talent a chance to develope.