Bulls/Wigan match report

[ian.birchall]

Grim watching tonight. Lam patently not fit enough to start the match and I thought that last week against Hull neither Terry Newton or Brett Dallas were at anything like their best and tonight Terry was largely anonymous when it came to runs from acting half back and Dallas had a complete nightmare but you have to wonder what injuries they are carrying.
We cannot blame the ref for the stream of silly penalties that we gave away in the first half, to my mind he only made one mistake with his touchjudge when Pratt ripped the ball out of Craig Smiths? hands and from the resulting knock on scrum Bulls scored.
Two men who did not deserve to be on the end of a beating like that were O'Loughlin and Tickle, particularly the former who I think would have been a prime candidate for man of the match if Wigan had kept the score down to manageable levels.
Never mind Adrian Lam, with one point out of six whilst she has been away we need Mrs Lam back from holiday.
Still the stains result takes some of the pain away but 2nd place is now out of the question I'm afraid and with our injury toll it will need more than a minor miracle to get through to Old Trafford.

[the grinch]

old trafford is not going to happen and after going there year after year and seeing us get beat time after time im not botherd!we can't seem to beat teams when it matters!we can all see wigan are on the brink of being a very good team.but again this season we have won nothing!

[Alex the Warrior]

We played more poor rugby tonight than in the rest of the season put together. The first disappointment was that we never looked like scoring in the first minute after gaining possession on their 20. After the two tries, thought we played all the good footy in the first half and i felt at half time we should win it. However, the lack of discipline in the second half was shambolic.

They'll get whipped for that performance, and one conslolation is knowing who is going to be made to pay for it.

We might yet still get third, because Bradford still didn't convince me tonight, but knowing Sculthorpe won't be returning this season deprives us of the beef needed to go for the title.

[DaveO]

the grinch posted:
we can all see wigan are on the brink of being a very good team.but again this season we have won nothing!

We have been on the bink for several years but never quite make it. Apart from the 2002 Cup final Wigan have delivered little over recent seasons.

This one has been poor with a loss to Saints in the cup final and some dire performances leading up to that.
Farrell coming back inspired the team to a winning run but we have only picked up one point from the last three games and you don't get to OT with form like that at this end of the season.

Dave

[robjoenz]

I mostly agree with what Ian said... Lam is definately not fully fit, nor Carney and he's lacking confidence. Wild didn't have much of a game really, he left a few gaps in defence at times. Brett and Terry Newton didn't play well at all and I can't understand why Betts waits until ten minutes are left with no chance of salvaging the game to try Mark Smith and Luke Robinson, they can't work miracles, with the time they get to play all they can do is go out for a jog on the pitch because there is no way they can change the game.

I thought for us tonight there was only Farrell, O'Louglin and Aspinwall that really played. Connolly is obviously at the end of his career from the way he moves, a bit slower to react. Cassidy doesn't seem to want to tackle the legs anymore and his hands aren't very reliable lately. I think tonight will put to bed any grand ideas of Lammy staying another season, he was rushed back obviosuly not ready, but we need players that can stay fit.

I've not seen the game on SKY yet but I thought Russell Smith had his usual rubbish game, continuous offsides and inconsistency. Punishing us for not standing square and holding down and allowed Bradford to do it on every play. Fair play to Bradford, they closed down quickly but how many times did they jump the gun?

The worst thing I thought was the video referees decision to give a Goal Line Dropout when Connolly and Withers (?) were in the corner of our in-goal area. It appeared to me that Connolly kicked the ball which hit Withers hand and then went forwards thus being knocked on and off the pitch... surely that is a 20 m restart?!

Grinch, stop being your namesack mate, it's not over until Kieron Cunningham's singing. We have potential nine games to go, all is not lost, we have another recognised prop back next week!

[wolftown warrior]

come on grinch man... don`t give up yet.. ok we sucked big time last night.. we SHOULD have beat hull.. our injuies are killing us, we are playing un fully fit players & it showed last night. thought tickle was BRILLIANT..

but we will win the GF.. u mark my words.. it is our year this year..i don`t care where we finish in the top 6.. good to see lam back, but i would have let him rest till next week.. unless betts wanted him to get some real game time, take the hits etc..

have faith in the boys.. like rob said.. it ain`t over till it`s over...

[ian.birchall]

Robjoenz, yes clearly on the video replays Connolly casually kicked the ball some 0.0001 secs before Withers touched down but just like when the ball goes into touch if the ball plays the man, not the other way round, its a dropout.
This will inflame Mrs Carney, I see she voted last night promptly for man of the match, what were these two voters watching?, but Carney is so far off the pace of the game as to be a passenger. It probably is confidence, in the second half of last season he was unstoppable but before that he had gone 11/12 games without even looking like scoring.
I think last seasons last dozen matches were as typical of Brians usual play as was Leroy Rivetts 4 tries and Lance Todd award at Wembley.
You cannot blame Russell Smith for that daft 5th tackle penalty that Dallas gave away or the two on the trot we gave to move Bradford 70 yards up the pitch.
All the players who have recently signed new extended contracts were poor last night apart from Tickle and O'Loughlin, perhaps the answer is to only give players 3 match contracts rather than 3 years!! :conf:

[robjoenz]

ian.birchall posted:
Robjoenz, yes clearly on the video replays Connolly casually kicked the ball some 0.0001 secs before Withers touched down but just like when the ball goes into touch if the ball plays the man, not the other way round, its a dropout

I didn't think Withers touched it down, didn't he touch it with his fingers as the ball travelled upwards.

When a player dives for the ball in the corner in an attempt to score a try he is obviously playing the ball. Therefore, he went for the ball and touched it, it should have been a restart!

[MrsLam]

Gotta agree with rob on that one, we were shouting restart at the screen. From what i saw withers touched it down after connolly had tried to kick it out so i didnt think it was a dropout. But i havent given up hope on a grand final win yet. Keep supporting and we´ll be rewarded

[GeoffN]

I agree with Ian, a lot of the players were only half fit - especially Carney, Lam, Smith and Connolly, but this was always going to be our toughest game of the last 6. Friday will give them all a chance to get some practice against a Skints side who are clearly "on a roll"

Russell Smith set the tone early, penalising Dallas for a very minor infringement while ignoring a lot worse PTB messing from his own team. Followed this by penalising Faz for trying to explain the rules of the game to him (without success), while ignoring Pratt, Paul and Deacon doing the same. At 18-10 he was obviously getting a bit worried so chose to ignore Pratt's blatant steal on Smith, which led to Vainikolo's try..
Still think we can win our last 5 though.