Wigan v Saints - Match Reaction!

[turf]

Firstly, I have to say, what a cracking game of RL. Tough, tense and very very entertaining.

Also a huge well done to the Wigan players for their effort tonight.

Secondly, only a couple of errors from Ben Thaler tonight. The failure to spot the blatant flop under the noses of the South Stand, and the other one was being conned for that oscar nomination for a dive for a penalty.

For a refereeing Wigan v Saints debut though, I thought Thaler was very good.

Bentham wasn't so good in my opinion. Controversially chalked off a try for Hock for a double movement. Also gave their first try considering that there was daylight between the ball and Cunningham's hand.

Also, Bentham gave a try for Ainscough despite appeals that he was in touch. I ain't complaining about that one though.

[eccywarrior]

i couldnt make the game tonight but i watched it on sky and thought we was well better than them but what let us down was the daft mistakes we did when we near the try line.

[GeoffN]

Superb performance from the lads! A bit more luck and some decent officiating and we could have won!

What an atmosphere!

I was worried when I saw Richards wasn't warming up, but I thought Phelps had a pretty decent performance at fullback - just one clumsy knock-on, ran the ball up pretty well from defence, and showed the occasional flashes of a decent kicking game.

Both wingers did well, Gleeson showed a lot of promise for his first game, Carmont perhaps shouldn't have played with his injury. Some lovely touches from both half backs, although TL's kicking game could have been better.

Good work from all the forwards, Hock especially. I thought Fielden was unlucky to have those two drops called against him - haven't seen the video yet but they both looked like steals from where I was.

Yet another indifferent performance from Thaler, particularly regarding their usual tactic of markers not square that they seem to get away with all the time. Our shoulders seem to be a lot higher up than most peoples' too. Lost count of how many high shots went unpunished.

I'd have settled for that result before the game, though - looks like the bookies got it right again (+8)!

If we could only play like that every week, we'd be up there with Leeds & Saints.

Much better performance from Gemma in the bingo box, too, clearly a lot of training has gone into it since the last outing!


And best of all, I scored 35 points in the preds league!

[turf]

Superb performance from the lads! A bit more luck and some decent officiating and we could have won!

What an atmosphere!

I was worried when I saw Richards wasn't warming up, but I thought Phelps had a pretty decent performance at fullback - just one clumsy knock-on, ran the ball up pretty well from defence, and showed the occasional flashes of a decent kicking game.

Both wingers did well, Gleeson showed a lot of promise for his first game, Carmont perhaps shouldn't have played with his injury. Some lovely touches from both half backs, although TL's kicking game could have been better.

Good work from all the forwards, Hock especially. I thought Fielden was unlucky to have those two drops called against him - haven't seen the video yet but they both looked like steals from where I was.

Yet another indifferent performance from Thaler, particularly regarding their usual tactic of markers not square that they seem to get away with all the time. Our shoulders seem to be a lot higher up than most peoples' too. Lost count of how many high shots went unpunished.

I'd have settled for that result before the game, though - looks like the bookies got it right again (+8)!

If we could only play like that every week, we'd be up there with Leeds & Saints.

Much better performance from Gemma in the bingo box, too, clearly a lot of training has gone into it since the last outing!


And best of all, I scored 35 points in the preds league!

I think he judged most of them correctly. :conf:

[GeoffN]

Superb performance from the lads! A bit more luck and some decent officiating and we could have won!

What an atmosphere!

I was worried when I saw Richards wasn't warming up, but I thought Phelps had a pretty decent performance at fullback - just one clumsy knock-on, ran the ball up pretty well from defence, and showed the occasional flashes of a decent kicking game.

Both wingers did well, Gleeson showed a lot of promise for his first game, Carmont perhaps shouldn't have played with his injury. Some lovely touches from both half backs, although TL's kicking game could have been better.

Good work from all the forwards, Hock especially. I thought Fielden was unlucky to have those two drops called against him - haven't seen the video yet but they both looked like steals from where I was.

Yet another indifferent performance from Thaler, particularly regarding their usual tactic of markers not square that they seem to get away with all the time. Our shoulders seem to be a lot higher up than most peoples' too. Lost count of how many high shots went unpunished.

I'd have settled for that result before the game, though - looks like the bookies got it right again (+8)!

If we could only play like that every week, we'd be up there with Leeds & Saints.

Much better performance from Gemma in the bingo box, too, clearly a lot of training has gone into it since the last outing!


And best of all, I scored 35 points in the preds league!

I think he judged most of them correctly. :conf:

Maybe, I haven't watched the video yet (obviously!), but they looked high on the screen.

[turf]

Ok, GeoffN. I'll let you watch the video first then.

[ancientnloyal]

20 points for me... reasonable... i thinik mike binder rolled in the points tonight also - which is gutting.

[Matthew]

I thought Thaler was rubbish. It wasn't one flop; it was about a dozen. As per usual, stains were allowed as long as they liked to clear the ruck. The markers rarely stood square and he missed countless high shots including an elbow to the face from puletua (sic - the new Samoan). He kept a very skinny ten metres when stains were defending. Hock was still moving when he reached forwards - so I don't really see how it could be a double movement (I know that's the video ref's fault).

We were our own worst enemy; we had more than enough chances to score enough points to put the game beyond stains by half time.

That said, there were a load of positives too. Ainscough showed that he really does belong at this level. Phelps played very well for someone who hasn't played first team rugby in nearly two months. Lockers made more yards than I can remember seeing him make in three seasons. Our defence was (for the most part) robust and we put in some nice hits - including the beauty at the end on the slug. It was just nice to see players breaking the line; I thought that Leuleui looked particularly dangerous - just a pity he didn't offload when he broke the line in centre field.

It could be said that stains were fatigued from last weeks efforts against Leeds; however I thought we looked much more dangerous against them than Leeds did.

If we played like that every week we would be winning a lot more games than we are losing.

[ajsefc]

If we consistently get that level of performance along with another prop we will be there. We need a bit more creativity and to be a bit more ruthless BUT delighted with the perfomance and the effort.
We need to turn around the mental edge that stains have on us and quickly. Made up tonight, even thouugh we lost, I'm proud to be a Warrior

[turf]

I thought Thaler was rubbish. It wasn't one flop; it was about a dozen. As per usual, stains were allowed as long as they liked to clear the ruck. The markers rarely stood square and he missed countless high shots including an elbow to the face from puletua (sic - the new Samoan). He kept a very skinny ten metres when stains were defending. Hock was still moving when he reached forwards - so I don't really see how it could be a double movement (I know that's the video ref's fault).

We were our own worst enemy; we had more than enough chances to score enough points to put the game beyond stains by half time.

That said, there were a load of positives too. Ainscough showed that he really does belong at this level. Phelps played very well for someone who hasn't played first team rugby in nearly two months. Lockers made more yards than I can remember seeing him make in three seasons. Our defence was (for the most part) robust and we put in some nice hits - including the beauty at the end on the slug. It was just nice to see players breaking the line; I thought that Leuleui looked particularly dangerous - just a pity he didn't offload when he broke the line in centre field.

It could be said that stains were fatigued from last weeks efforts against Leeds; however I thought we looked much more dangerous against them than Leeds did.

If we played like that every week we would be winning a lot more games than we are losing.

I am just watching the tape back now, and Thaler is repeatedly shouting things like, "stand up", and "play the ball" and "clear the ruck", and "movement" and to be fair, the players are responding to him.

I agree with you on Ainscough. He's developing and learning things with every game he plays in and his confidence is growing and it is good to see.