Wigan V Leeds 12/05/23

[Suzieb]

Saints are playing a 19year old at interchange prop and he’s playing well time to play players in their true positions

[Suzieb]

O by the way these comments are from suzies husband who has told me she does not enjoy going to the match anymore very sad as she used to love going to watch wigan

[PJC]

Interceptions. I can’t be certain where the players were looking. I have noticed that many teams have the passing player looking at their tackler head on , almost eyeballing him and then throwing a pass out and seemingly not looking at their teammate.
Last night’s interceptions may not have been the result of this. It could well have been.

[Suzieb]

Mago was on for 12 minutes first spell come on am I paying 50 pound to watch this disgracefull

[Suzieb]

It’s like the coaches don’t know what to do with Mago well I do get shut

[Suzieb]

Whoever is putting question marks on my comments stop it and be more honest and contribute towards discussions

[Suzieb]

We need to get eckersley hill and forber into this team and quick

[Firestarter]

Whoever is putting question marks on my comments stop it and be more honest and contribute towards discussions

Theres some serious questions need answering next Saturday.Only a win is acceptable in my book.Leeds were beaten last night and we gave them hope.We really miss field as it gives us more width and pace( especially with french and marshy on the wings).Last night leeds defence didnt get stretched after our first two tries.The passing from acting half was poor last night and i still dont think cust is fit.We had the chance to rest and blood a few players versus wakey and missed the opportunity imo.Fingers will be pointed if we lose next week and losing the two backrowers and partington has totally destroyed our pack

[EagleEyePie]

We'll see how much we can read into last night's game by how we perform in the next couple of matches. We've got an immediate chance to try to put things right next week, but my concern is that we really seem to struggle against Leeds for some reason, even when we can beat more consistent teams comfortably.

We shouldn't be surprised by how Leeds performed with 12 men, they did something similar at Catalans and probably on a few more occasions that I can't quite recall (though in fairness they've probably had more practice than most given their discipline over the last couple of years). I understand that it can really motivate a team when they lose a man and face adversity, but I was really disappointed by how little we reacted to that. Leeds were looking set to embarrass us and very few of the players showed much urgency.

Interestingly I came away from the game thinking the forwards had underperformed but if you look at the stats from last night most of our pack posted good numbers:

Byrne - 73m / 12 carries
Isa - 107m / 14 carries
Farrell - 110m / 12 carries
Smithies - 60m / 14 carries
Havard - 118m / 14 carries
Pearce-Paul - 68m / 9 carries
Mago - 69m / 7 carries

It's actually our outside backs whose metres were below what we come to expect:

King - 51m / 8 carries
Wardle - 61m / 8 carries
Thornley - 85m / 9 carries
Miski - 95m / 14 carries

Now obviously stats don't tell the whole story. When your main threat comes from getting the ball to the fullback in space there's a lot of work the forwards need to do off the ball and I didn't think we did much of that last night. When we were 20-30 metres from the Leeds line I thought we were a bit static around the middle, a bit one dimensional. Of our 6 offloads last night only 2 came from forwards, 1 from KPP and 1 from Farrell.

I feel like one of our biggest issues this year is one we've seen from Wigan countless times over the years, this desire to shift the ball wide but not causing enough of a threat down the middle to keep the defenders interested when we do it. Sometimes if you're in a good position you just need a prop to run a good line with a late change of direction to pull one or two defenders away from where they want to be. I didn't really see anything like that last night though maybe that's a result of spending a large part of the game with only one recognised prop on the field.

There's a lot of criticism of Shorrocks as a stand off but I thought last night he was the only one of our playmakers to make mostly good decisions, and the pass for Miski's try was O'Loughlin-esque. Smith had a real shocker aside from a decent first 20 minutes or so. You have to give Newman some credit for taking a risk and reading the passes but it just seemed a bit too predictable. Definitely one of Smith's worst ever performances for Wigan when you also consider his bizarre non-attempt at a high ball that was coming straight at him. His form has been good this year though so hopefully he'll react well.

[ian.birchall]

I love the man but when did Faz last run front on into a tackle seems like a season ..... as a side tonight just too slow the exploit the extra man . Defense awful like we gave it up which is inexcusable as a fan

I have been shouting abuse for what seems most of the season against Farrell turning his back on the opposition as he goes into a tackle, whatever has happened to his head up looking for the gap in the opposition after he has broken that tackle.
My youngest son, who has always had a fine turn of phrase in him and who has watched Wigan for more than 40 years with me sent a WhatsApp message last night which summed last night up perfectly.


"Heroics over Easter now a waste of time,12 man Leeds win 40 points to 4, what a humiliation"

I had to take a second look at that 40 to 4 comment before I realised he was exactly correct,