Wigan v Lobby gobblers

[josie andrews]

Well done to Leigh.

Intense game of players and speccies. We'll get over it.

Do we have an attendance?

21,748

[moto748]

No complaints with the disallowed try, then?

[Blackpool_Pie]

No complaints with the disallowed try, then?

Nope. I saw at the time Marshy seemed to have a bit of a grasp at the ball which he may or may not have got away with, but then had a little flick at it after which completely dislodged it.

I remember thinking at the time, I hope we don't score off this because it'll come back. I was hoping we would actually go through a phase or two and score. As soon as Field went in, I didn't celebrate as I knew it would get chalked off.

[Blackpool_Pie]

One thing I'll point out that may have happened for both sides but I only really noticed it in Leighs favour, but that could definitely be with my Wigan glasses on, is that the referee was allowing them to slow the ruck down time and time and time again. We were poor in attack but we weren't allowed quick ptbs resulting in their defence being set by the time we got the ball away. The penalty count was low and I have a feeling referees have been told to let the game flow in relation to ptbs, but this has resulted in attacks being stifled. I don't remember a set reset either.

[Blackpool_Pie]

Despite the above post, I think we handled the game very very poorly. At no point did we deviate from the game plan which has served us pretty well in the past. We stuck to trying to keep in the arm wrestle. Play it safe most of the time, defend well, keep high completion rates and kick well. We're so used to doing that and getting a score from doing this relentlessly and eventually forcing other teams to play a little more risky, but leigh matched us and started to get on top of the arm wrestle in the second half. We didn't see any urgency ball in hand. Defence was very good (from both sides) and we didn't do enough to break them down. We didn't have a plan B for when French didn't bail us out or when Wardle couldn't power over. Leigh were brilliant defensively it must be said, but we didn't really test them enough.

[fozzie58]

Despite the above post, I think we handled the game very very poorly. At no point did we deviate from the game plan which has served us pretty well in the past. We stuck to trying to keep in the arm wrestle. Play it safe most of the time, defend well, keep high completion rates and kick well. We're so used to doing that and getting a score from doing this relentlessly and eventually forcing other teams to play a little more risky, but leigh matched us and started to get on top of the arm wrestle in the second half. We didn't see any urgency ball in hand. Defence was very good (from both sides) and we didn't do enough to break them down. We didn't have a plan B for when French didn't bail us out or when Wardle couldn't power over. Leigh were brilliant defensively it must be said, but we didn't really test them enough.

A fair assessment

[adiddy]

Despite us losing the game I thoroughly enjoyed that!! First game of the season and what a full blooded affair it was!! Can't win them all but happy if I'm entertained when we do lose and last night I was entertained.

[Ipinwigan]

I just felt Wigan were playing the percentages too much.

Very little creativity, just playing field position.

Then again what do I know?

Exactly my thoughts, when we needed to do something different, other than just set plays, nothing changed.

We should have been offloading and trying to force gaps for Bevan and Jai to exploit, but it was one man up, followed by set plays.

[Caboosegg]

Despite the above post, I think we handled the game very very poorly. At no point did we deviate from the game plan which has served us pretty well in the past. We stuck to trying to keep in the arm wrestle. Play it safe most of the time, defend well, keep high completion rates and kick well. We're so used to doing that and getting a score from doing this relentlessly and eventually forcing other teams to play a little more risky, but leigh matched us and started to get on top of the arm wrestle in the second half. We didn't see any urgency ball in hand. Defence was very good (from both sides) and we didn't do enough to break them down. We didn't have a plan B for when French didn't bail us out or when Wardle couldn't power over. Leigh were brilliant defensively it must be said, but we didn't really test them enough.

Leigh where on top due to us being down to 12 men twice, despite that only poor execution lost us the game, we had 4 missed tries, thompson,Wardle, field and one where their fullback managed to literally grab the ball on the line.

I don't remember leigh crossing our line with the closest begin when Marshall then Eckersly took the leigh players out of play.

End of day first game of the season both teams rusty and our poor execution cost us but I don't remember seeing any supposed pass.it to French plan

[Big Steve]

Good effort from Leigh, they defended really well for 80 mins and their new signings look pretty strong.

We were a bit undercooked in attack, which is what you'd expect at this time of year but we usually pull away in those tight games. If we look at chances we did create 3-4 good chances as opposed to maybe one fronm Leigh, and Lam saved a winning try by his fingernails right at the end.

The ref probably had the most influence on the 0-0 score though, they PTB's were the worst I've seen in years for 2nd efforts in the tackle. It wasn't even due to getting 3 in the tackle and peeling off, it was 2nd efforts from a single defender. Last season there would have been plenty of 6 agains - none last night.