Wigan squad for Hull KR (R9)

[Charriots Offiah]

I think playing both cooper and havard was a bad move although there is juice in both tanks now.Although it backfired it might benefit next week.I would personally see how we go against cats before the axe comes out and keep everyone on there toes.Im predicting a big win against cats now.One weird thing i read in mattys comments were about players holding there hands up and ( coaching staff).Its as though something hasnt been done right on the training ground.Strange one for sure

If you examine our player stats non of our middles made good yards on Friday. Personally, I think the coaches got the timing of the interchanges wrong. Asking Thompson to play 65 minutes ish each week is crazy in my view, the workload needs to be shared more equally.

Oddly I feel Thompson is better when he’s left out there some players don’t need to keep being subbed and he’s one of them a rarity in the modern game.

The only other one I can think of is Liam watts now I’ll grant you Watts is Skoda and Thompson a Bentley but the point remains just because he’s a prop he doesn’t need to keep being subbed

It all depends on whether the impact he is making is greater than the guy who would be replacing him. His stats weren’t great on Friday. Also, the more fatigued he gets the more likely he is to get injured.

[NICKYKISS]

Re Keighran, it took quite a long time for Toby King to come good last season, so I'd be disinclined to consider leaving him out but I hope he will curb that habit of jumping out of the line. I suspect he will always be more of an attacking centre than a defensive one.
Field still doesn't look right to me. It doesn't matter how many metres you make if you slip over and don't pass the ball at the end of a run. He does seem to feel that he can make the breaks and turn the match which he can do when he is at the top of his game but currently, he tends to simply run into blind alleys and by heading for the left touchline, it means that Wardle and Marshall are blocked out of the attack. Doesn't make him a bad player - just not as effective this season as he was last year.
Despite the loss, I didn't see anything that makes me fear for the future - it certainly didn't give me the same apprehensive feelings I got when Lam was in charge.

I’d like to see Field just keep things really simple this week and sniff around the ball carriers to try and take any offloads or follow up breaks/half breaks. We made a few on Friday and we had guys like Faz backing up but there was no sign of Field. His biggest attribute for me in his time here has been a willingness to keep making runs off the ball, regardless of him getting the pass or not. He rarely seems to be in the picture so far this season and I can only think he’s not 100% fit, which does seem to have been rumoured.

I did think the second half on Friday was just about his most threatening half of rugby this season (with Leigh being his best all round game) but it was a bit frenetic as you say and he just needs to settle down. He seems a really honest lad and I get the feeling he might just be trying a bit too hard to make things happen. If anyone has earned a so so period of form it’s Field to be fair to the guy.

[Mike]

Thompson's not stood out for me in terms of making an impact going forward. I expected more.

[Ipinwigan]

Thompson's not stood out for me in terms of making an impact going forward. I expected more.

His work rate is exceptional, but as you say I also expected more, he doesn't appear to be the block busting forward I remember from his Stains days.

[the pieman]

Just to add

https://www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/4433

There is hope

Look at the live stats tab.

those stats shocked me, although we all know stats are the be all and end all

it doesnt measure who ran the ball in harder, whos defensive line was up quicker and with more intensity, who had 3 men in the tackle with an offload, if your attacking structure is flat as a pancake and with no dummy runners etc and most noticably penalties (we were 5-2 down with penalties at half time but havent seen the stat for the end of the game)

[up the junction]

Can’t believe Leemings being singled out
I personally think he s playing pretty well .

[culinator]

I thought we looked a but lack luster on the whole.
It was one of those games where everything just didnt quite work (in the first half at least)

For me though in the second half it was good to see Field getting more involved again, he has been carrying a knock from what i heard from the start of the season.

Hopefully it was a one off game

[nathan_rugby]

Thompson's not stood out for me in terms of making an impact going forward. I expected more.

His work rate is exceptional, but as you say I also expected more, he doesn't appear to be the block busting forward I remember from his Stains days.

Probably more due to Wigans style of play and strategy.

We favour quick play of the ball rather than leg drive
We do 1 up rugby which makes it easy to defend against
We run at the A and B defenders which is the most compact area
We don't run it wider off a halfback

All of the above mean its difficult to make really obvious barn storming runs. When you look at Thompsons stats, they are very good.

[the pieman]

i've just watched 2nd half on my dinner, a definite improvement on 1st half but still i reckon we only got to somewhere near 65-70% of where we should be

Field looked far more dangerous running with the ball, and looks like thought we'd get some joy out of their right side defence with most of our success (if you call it that) coming down that side.

i think a special play from Ryan Hall closed the game out as 22-4 for the tanginoa try. He was hovering around the full back spot between the posts as we started to move the ball to our right. If you watch in back play he covers the ground to get back out to the left wing and make the effort to knock the ball down. Criminally everyone on the park stopped for a moment and then off he went. If Hall doesnt make that, then at 22-10 and possibly feeling a bit of momentum, there was a small chance, but that closed the game out

Onto the Thompson debate, he's taking the ball in hard attracting 3-4 men every tackle. Defensively sound and a great engine which means he can perform well for the full 80 if needed. A bonus of Havard back in the 2nd half, and we're looking like we can now start to see out best front row, with well timed substitutions to keep the intensity for 80mins

[Mike]

It was notable to me how many problems their offloads caused us, and how little we offload. I'm not sure we had one from the forwards all match this week.