Wigan squad for Catalans (R10)

[Ipinwigan]

I am not sure that Byrne should keep his place in the team with the current virtually fully fit squad, still the potential for stupid penalties from him.
I would think that once Walters is in the team and Cooper is fit, then Byrne should be left out. I also think Harvie Hill offers more than Byrne.
One thing with a fit squad, players should have to play very well to keep thier places.
The work rate from Thompson and Havard is outstanding and Mago is a great impact player.
Nsemba goes from strength to strength and still only 19, what potential he has to become a true great.

[EagleEyePie]

I thought we say a really good response from the team following last weeks performance. The first half wasn't great but Catalans aren't a bad side and depending on your perspective, the fact we were making so many unforced or uncharacteristic errors could be taken as a positive, since they are errors that can be fixed up through better concentration and composure. Watching the first half I thought there were times when the players seemed to look a bit frustrated when something went wrong, and it would lead to further errors or lapses in concentration. Once we settled down from that things worked out well.

There were times when Catalans looked more dominant down the middle, and we poking their head through the lines and putting us on the back foot. We had to work hard to regain that control down the middle. Despite that I thought our defence close to our line was exceptional, with one very obvious exception early on when Bousquet scored.

We had far more to offer with ball in hand though. I thought in general Catalans put more sustained pressure on our line than we did on theirs, but that was because we didn't need to put them under sustained pressure to break through. Some of our tries were really classy. The Field step and floated pass, the Smith chip and collect when he saw Mourgue in the defensive line. The Wardle inside pass to Farrell. That was the kind of creativity and ball movement we sorely missed against Rovers. Even the chip ahead for Field from the drop out that led to the Miski try. With the pace in our side that's the sort of thing we can do to get us out of a sticky situation or make defenders second guess.

One of our issues early on was just our predictability I think. Catalans were putting good kick pressure on Smith and he was struggling with some of his last tackle kicking so we weren't ending our sets well. I said at the game we just needed to let French kick because they wouldn't be as prepared for it and we'd have better results. Sure enough, French puts in a great long kick that they run into touch, we get a positive outcome. Sometimes when we're under pressure we go to our default setting of just give it to Smith so he can kick us out of trouble.

It was a mixed night for our hookers. I thought defensively O'Neill was strong and he made some really effective carries as usual but also two really silly identical errors. Leeming came on and immediately had an impact which is great to see. Catalans didn't know how to handle him for that initial period. The only negatives would be that impact dies down very quickly, and defensively he can be a bit shaky. It's all about making improvements game on game though.

After a shocker last week Farrell was one of our best players. Defensively sound and good going forward. Not that I expected anything less from such an experienced player. Nsemba continues to impress. His carries are so strong which is unusual for such a young player. In defence, we know there are some weaknesses in terms of reading the game but there aren't many (if any) 19 year old forwards who don't have those issues. You learn to read the game with experience. The frightening thing is how dominant he is when he makes tackles. If he gets hold of you you're staying down.

Our middle players stood up well against a tough pack. Metres were harder to come by than usual but I was impressed with Havard. He seemed to play good minutes despite only just returning and he made some good carries and smart tackles. The only negative was probably Byrne. I was hoping for a bit of a reaction after his suspension but I thought he was ineffective going forward and his most notable contributions were a silly error as soon as he came on and conceding a daft penalty. We've got competition for places and I think he was the weakest of our middles last night. Walters looks to be on the way back and I'd like to see him included soon but with Nsemba playing so well I think it's a prop that would have to make way to accommodate him.

[morley pie eater]

I thought we say a really good response from the team following last weeks performance. The first half wasn't great but Catalans aren't a bad side and depending on your perspective, the fact we were making so many unforced or uncharacteristic errors could be taken as a positive, since they are errors that can be fixed up through better concentration and composure. Watching the first half I thought there were times when the players seemed to look a bit frustrated when something went wrong, and it would lead to further errors or lapses in concentration. Once we settled down from that things worked out well.

There were times when Catalans looked more dominant down the middle, and we poking their head through the lines and putting us on the back foot. We had to work hard to regain that control down the middle. Despite that I thought our defence close to our line was exceptional, with one very obvious exception early on when Bousquet scored.

We had far more to offer with ball in hand though. I thought in general Catalans put more sustained pressure on our line than we did on theirs, but that was because we didn't need to put them under sustained pressure to break through. Some of our tries were really classy. The Field step and floated pass, the Smith chip and collect when he saw Mourgue in the defensive line. The Wardle inside pass to Farrell. That was the kind of creativity and ball movement we sorely missed against Rovers. Even the chip ahead for Field from the drop out that led to the Miski try. With the pace in our side that's the sort of thing we can do to get us out of a sticky situation or make defenders second guess.

One of our issues early on was just our predictability I think. Catalans were putting good kick pressure on Smith and he was struggling with some of his last tackle kicking so we weren't ending our sets well. I said at the game we just needed to let French kick because they wouldn't be as prepared for it and we'd have better results. Sure enough, French puts in a great long kick that they run into touch, we get a positive outcome. Sometimes when we're under pressure we go to our default setting of just give it to Smith so he can kick us out of trouble.

It was a mixed night for our hookers. I thought defensively O'Neill was strong and he made some really effective carries as usual but also two really silly identical errors. Leeming came on and immediately had an impact which is great to see. Catalans didn't know how to handle him for that initial period. The only negatives would be that impact dies down very quickly, and defensively he can be a bit shaky. It's all about making improvements game on game though.

After a shocker last week Farrell was one of our best players. Defensively sound and good going forward. Not that I expected anything less from such an experienced player. Nsemba continues to impress. His carries are so strong which is unusual for such a young player. In defence, we know there are some weaknesses in terms of reading the game but there aren't many (if any) 19 year old forwards who don't have those issues. You learn to read the game with experience. The frightening thing is how dominant he is when he makes tackles. If he gets hold of you you're staying down.

Our middle players stood up well against a tough pack. Metres were harder to come by than usual but I was impressed with Havard. He seemed to play good minutes despite only just returning and he made some good carries and smart tackles. The only negative was probably Byrne. I was hoping for a bit of a reaction after his suspension but I thought he was ineffective going forward and his most notable contributions were a silly error as soon as he came on and conceding a daft penalty. We've got competition for places and I think he was the weakest of our middles last night. Walters looks to be on the way back and I'd like to see him included soon but with Nsemba playing so well I think it's a prop that would have to make way to accommodate him.

Excellent summary - you should be a journalist, EEP!

[Caboosegg]

I am not sure that Byrne should keep his place in the team with the current virtually fully fit squad, still the potential for stupid penalties from him.
I would think that once Walters is in the team and Cooper is fit, then Byrne should be left out. I also think Harvie Hill offers more than Byrne.
One thing with a fit squad, players should have to play very well to keep thier places.
The work rate from Thompson and Havard is outstanding and Mago is a great impact player.
Nsemba goes from strength to strength and still only 19, what potential he has to become a true great.

Interesting view I though Bryne caused Cats problems last night when he came on I'd put him above Walters and Cooper in a squad as he van do long minutes and is having an impact. The problem for Bryne now is that off form Dupree, Thompson, Ellis, Mago are guaranteed spots and we all know a fully fit Harvard is as well.

[Wintergreen]

Sky MOTM went to Wardle, fair enough but the 80 minute effort from Nsemba topped up by that juggling finger tip interception 10 yards from our line made him my MOTM.

But balanced up by errors.

[Wintergreen]

I am not sure that Byrne should keep his place in the team with the current virtually fully fit squad, still the potential for stupid penalties from him.
I would think that once Walters is in the team and Cooper is fit, then Byrne should be left out. I also think Harvie Hill offers more than Byrne.
One thing with a fit squad, players should have to play very well to keep thier places.
The work rate from Thompson and Havard is outstanding and Mago is a great impact player.
Nsemba goes from strength to strength and still only 19, what potential he has to become a true great.

I think he is at a crossroads. His game seemed to kick on after the Cats game last season, I had high hopes after that.

Then he's out and not come back with the same intensity. I hope he can turn it around for his and Wigan's sake.

You are right though. Atm there are a few players ahead of him. Havard, Thompson, Dupree, Cooper, Mago all get in the team before him and Hill is chomping on the bit.

[the pieman]

I am not sure that Byrne should keep his place in the team with the current virtually fully fit squad, still the potential for stupid penalties from him.
I would think that once Walters is in the team and Cooper is fit, then Byrne should be left out. I also think Harvie Hill offers more than Byrne.
One thing with a fit squad, players should have to play very well to keep thier places.
The work rate from Thompson and Havard is outstanding and Mago is a great impact player.
Nsemba goes from strength to strength and still only 19, what potential he has to become a true great.

I think he is at a crossroads. His game seemed to kick on after the Cats game last season, I had high hopes after that.

Then he's out and not come back with the same intensity. I hope he can turn it around for his and Wigan's sake.

You are right though. Atm there are a few players ahead of him. Havard, Thompson, Dupree, Cooper, Mago all get in the team before him and Hill is chomping on the bit.

i personally wouldnt have played him last night as it meant we have Havard (1 game) and Byrne (1st game) returning after injury, so Hill IMO would have been a better option to prevent the risk of 2props pulling up post injury. I know players need game time to get match fit, and with the sporadic nature of the reserves only playing every 2-3 weeks its difficult to get guys game time when they are returning from injury

however, the coaching staff know far better than i ever will

[Southern Softy]

Bit of a grim first half, although, to be fair, apart from that one lapse neither side looked like scoring. After that, it was like tightening a screw and Cats simply seemed to run out of ideas. Losing Garcia did help us there.
Leeming was excellent going forward but O'Neill is terrific in defence - quite a nice set of choices to have. Thought Keighran was outstanding and Miski was impressive all night and deserved his try. Just why Cats decided to attack our right side in the second half was puzzling.
Havard looks to be back to his best and that makes him out best forward. Still not convinced by Byrne, I'm afraid but our defence on the wings was immense. It nullified Johnstone because he was forced to cut inside and the pushing of McMeekin into touch was the defensive play of the season.
That was a pretty useful display and if we carry that on to Huddersfield and beyond, another big season might just await.

[Jonathon Kerr (JK)]

I thought Keighran had his best game for us last night. He looked strong and aggressive in both his anttack and defence and put a very good hit on Sims during the second half.

[widdenoldboy]

Sky MOTM went to Wardle, fair enough but the 80 minute effort from Nsemba topped up by that juggling finger tip interception 10 yards from our line made him my MOTM.

Wardle for MoM was deserved, Nsemba wasn't far off and a good performance taking the ball up the middle much more than he ever did for the Academy/Reserves. Just waiting to see one of his wide running bursts to split a defence! Also pleasantly suprised with his tackling strength but, as been said, a few times caught out of position.

Attack clunky at times but generally improved during the game, so good signs.