Derby Day!

[Mike]

We've got loads of levels to go up and they were basically at their top level. Only beat us by 2 with 14 players in our squad and only 12 on the field.

Not nice to lose, but let's see what happens when it matters.

[w.thomas]

I’m not sure about that, why didn’t we go up some levels and beat them then? And it mattered yesterday it was Good Friday! The ref didn’t help but the attack was about as sharp as a butter knife

[thegimble]

I’m not sure about that, why didn’t we go up some levels and beat them then? And it mattered yesterday it was Good Friday! The ref didn’t help but the attack was about as sharp as a butter knife

You do not just turn the gears on and off it takes time to warm up. Just like last season we will start improving June Winning yesterday means nothing you win nothing.

[Flash]

I’m not sure about that, why didn’t we go up some levels and beat them then? And it mattered yesterday it was Good Friday! The ref didn’t help but the attack was about as sharp as a butter knife

And how, exactly, do you expect them to go up several levels playing a third of the game down to 12 men? It doesn't just affect you when they're off either. It has a knock on effect for the entire game. That both cards came at the end of each half when fatigue plays it's greatest part and when we traditionally score points should also be taken into consideration.

Apparently Saints only lost to Salford because of the red card. Funnily enough that doesn't come into it when it's Wigan down to 12. Go figure!

[Exiled Wiganer]

I was annoyed but not particularly concerned. We are a really good team, and have a great squad. I think Walters and a fully fit Nsemba will make a huge difference to our attack, as we will then be able to hit teams from anywhere. From what I have seen so far, with Catalans weaker, we are the best side in SL.

The only circumstances in which I think we might come undone in an important game are if we are away from home, and we don’t keep 13 players on the pitch. Which was what happened yesterday. We won’t have another away game in the Cup if we beat the beatable Tigers, and are good enough to ensure a home play off fixture. So, we shouldn’t be heading back to Saints again in 24.

Our team and our squad is superb, and has so much potential for future growth and our coach has enormous credit in the bank. Disappointed but happy with the direction of travel.

[Charriots Offiah]

I’m not sure about that, why didn’t we go up some levels and beat them then? And it mattered yesterday it was Good Friday! The ref didn’t help but the attack was about as sharp as a butter knife

Answer, we didn’t have enough punch in the forwards. Havard, Cooper and Walters will give us that. It was obvious that in a tight game Peet does not trust Mago, Nsembe and Leeming. We needed to work their middle unit over more to create gaps for our speedsters. In my view there is a massive amount that we can learn and improve on from their perspective, I don’t think it gets any better - defence is their biggest weapon.

[Charriots Offiah]

I'm guessing when Peet named the team he had a plan on who he was going to rotate and when. Unfortunately this would all have been blown out of the water due to the sin-binning, the HIA sub and the sending off.

Peet obviously amended the plan but it looks to me like he is saying that he can’t trust Nsembe, Leeming and Mago in a tight game. When we were down to 12 men we should have been rotating our forwards rather than flogging Thompson and O’Neill who, by the way, were our best performers.

If that is true and he can’t trust those three in a tight game we have a problem in that he is potentially going to use the bench minimally in a tight game which means he will flog the other players. Two of those three you would expect on the bench every week. You can’t have a bench you will only use if we are winning comfortably.

You are bound to want a good rotation strategy against Saints and the game is going to be a close on 99 times out of 100. I don’t think we need to over think it. He just had a bad game as coach.

Walters, Cooper and Havard will be in our 17. Thompson and O’Neill will always be on the pitch at the end of tight games. I think Peet made some odd decisions yesterday but maybe there are factors which we are unaware of.

[Charriots Offiah]

I’m not sure about that, why didn’t we go up some levels and beat them then? And it mattered yesterday it was Good Friday! The ref didn’t help but the attack was about as sharp as a butter knife

You do not just turn the gears on and off it takes time to warm up. Just like last season we will start improving June Winning yesterday means nothing you win nothing.

No, but allows you to dent the other team’s confidence.

[Mike]

Although I'm sure we'll improve in attack as the season goes on, I do have a couple of concerns about our style.

We have a passive defensive line speed. We often let teams march up the field. I think we've seen this for long enough that it's an intentional coaches "bend don't break" mentality. This is in contrast to Saints and Penrith who have fast line speed and look to restrict metres. Now our on line defence is amazing so this strategy seems fine as we don't concede many points.

However, this is coupled with our ineffective metre making against a team with a fast line speed. We don't make enough metres to get an attacking kick at the end of the set. The arm wrestle part of the game ends up becoming us defending our line set after set. It happened against Penrith and Saints. We need penalties and errors to get good field position.

I'd hoped the new depth in our forwards would help the metre making, but that hasn't happened so far. I think the defensive style is a coaching choice.

Hopefully we can continue to overcome the field position issues we have and continue to win the big games. IMO If we could restrict the oppositions metres and make a few more ourselves we'd be out of sight in those big games.

I do agree with Peet that I'm happy with the direction of travel overall though.

[fozzie58]

I do hope,all things considered that the defeat yesterday will be the spur to shake them out of this patch of poor,albeit winning form one of the highlights of the last couple of years has been the style of play under Peet you have to factor in the bad weather I suppose the warmer days can’t come soon enough and hopefully a return to a more expansive style of play.