RHINOS ROBBED OF GLORY - By Garry Schofield!!!!

[josie andrews]

LUCKY, lucky Wigan – that’s my reaction after Leeds gave them a huge fright at Wembley.

The Warriors are admired for their composure and refusal to panic.

But the Rhinos had them on the ropes in the second half and Michael Maguire’s men looked out on their feet at times as they came up with a lot of dropped ball.

I just wish Leeds young winger Ben Jones-Bishop had backed himself to go all the way to the corner instead of kicking inside when the game was still in the balance.

Leeds deserve great credit for coming back from 16-0 down and on that performance they could have a big say in the play-offs.

Kevin Sinfi eld’s three missed kicks let the Warriors off the hook but in the end, Wigan just did enough to win.

And as well as Leeds were playing, you always felt that the Warriors could turn the tap back on when they needed to and Thomas Leuluai’s late try underlined that.

I was impressed with their young prop Lee Mossop who gets better with every game and Brett Finch has been Wigan’s quiet achiever over the last ten to 12 weeks.

He must have run Jeff Lima close for the Lance Todd Trophy.

The Rhinos showed a lot of their old power.

Winger Ryan Hall was on song and Danny McGuire looked a lot like his old self and I would love to see Jones Bishop and Kallum Watkins playing in the NRL – we need our top youngsters to better themselves in the Australian game.

But Wigan’s golden boy Sam Tomkins needs to cut out all the niggly rubbish that marred his game yesterday.

It was ugly to watch and someone needs to get hold of him and tell him to show the opposition a lot more respect.

Congratulations to the Warriors, though.

They got the job done but they will have to up their game if they want to complete the double by going all the way to Grand Final glory on October 8 at Old Trafford.


http://www.dailystar.co.uk/rugby/view/2 ... -of-glory/

[Kittwazzer]

They got the job done but they will have to up their game if they want to complete the double by going all the way to Grand Final glory on October 8 at Old Trafford.

Gee Gary. Ya think??

[Alex the Warrior]

To be fair, that's a lot better than I expected from Faz's old mate!
He hasn't regurgitated all the BBC stuff that's been posted.

Take out the bit about Sam and replace it with a comment about how Leeds always start a mass brawl when we beat them and he's not far off.

I thought we were done for when Jones-Bishop broke away there and we had made so many silly errors we really couldn't have complained if we'd lost it then.

[Wandering Warrior]

I'll never forget the Wigan fan's cartoon banner of GS hangin out of the back end of a sheep at one CC final. What really topped it off was they'd done him with his specs on!

[gpartin]

Funny isn't it that Leeds fans have forgotten how they got to the final in the first place isn't it. Wonder who they beat on the way to the final compared to who we beat?

[OJ]

Quite a fairly well balanced view compared to what I was expecting

[Kiwiseddon]

I'll never forget the Wigan fan's cartoon banner of GS hangin out of the back end of a sheep at one CC final. What really topped it off was they'd done him with his specs on!

I saw that too!! Stevethegas and I were discussing it on the way down to Wembley. One of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[Warrriors]

Big fat Garry Schofield? I read thew byline and then moved onb. Not worth reading the rest.

[josie andrews]

Wigan's warrior spirit shades controversy in emphatic win over Leeds Rhinos

The pep talk from Sir Alex Ferguson in the build-up plainly worked. Who better, after all, to exhort Wigan to an 18th Challenge Cup triumph than the man who has rendered dynastic dominance in his own sport an art form?

While head coach Michael Maguire might possess a touch too much Aussie bluffness to be defined as Ferguson-esque, he drew upon the Manchester United formula in girding his men to reclaim Wigan’s place in the pantheon with a 28-18 win.
The Warriors tore into Leeds Rhinos with a zeal to confirm their conviction that they were, indeed, the greatest club in the history of this fabled competition.

The rejoicing red-and-white brigade from Lancashire dared to imagine that they had, for a second, been transported back to 1988, when Wigan lifted the first of eight straight trophies.

That sunlit memory of Martin Offiah streaking past Leeds’ Alan Tait in the 1994 final for his length-of-the-field try was evoked when Sam and Joel Tomkins, brothers who had grown up in the town, combined for a similarly stirring score.

It had taken the younger Sam’s courage to dart across the Rhinos defence, and his elder sibling’s pace to outsprint Danny McGuire for the points that propelled Wigan into a 16-0 lead from which they never looked back.

“I know that in Wigan, rugby league is a religion,” said 24 year-old Joel, who displayed a stunning turn of foot for a back-rower. “For the family to have sacrificed so much for us to win at Wembley is an incredible feeling.”
The fact that the vanquished were Leeds, losers in six of their last seven Challenge Cup appearances, sweetened the victory.

Old enmities of the Roses entwine themselves around this fixture: Sam Tomkins, indeed, invited censure when he flicked a ‘v’-sign towards his barrackers in the Yorkshire contingent of the crowd. The incident could leave the full-back facing a charge of disrepute.

But Wigan owed their restoration to the Wembley steps to the sheer ferocity of their application. For half an hour the Warriors mounted a rousing charge, as Josh Charnley, Jeff Lima and the senior Tomkins laid down a triple salvo of early tries.

Their stranglehold on possession was one they were keen to protect, as those three-quarter units of Pat Richards and Brett Finch proved by bundling Ben Jones-Bishop into touch the moment he had the temerity to approach their line.

Can Wigan possibly begin another age of supremacy? The answer must be affirmative in light of their blood-and-thunder dedication to the cause here. Lee Mossop endured agonies but played on after having a dislocated shoulder popped back into place.

Charnley’s contribution, too, assumes a heroic aspect when you consider that his first touch led to a broken bone pointing out of his finger. “Our spirit paid off,” admitted coach Maguire, with no exaggeration.

His saturnine opposing number had reason to look deflated. Brian McDermott raged against the media for writing off his players’ chances when, against all odds, they rallied with two silkily-worked tries before half-time to reduce their deficit to only four.

Leeds were justifiably aggrieved, too, when Wigan snatched the win in a chaotic final 15 minutes through two moments of controversy: first when Lima crossed the line for his second try from a pass that appeared forward, then when video referee Steve Ganson — asked to decide if Thomas Leuluai had grounded the ball with enough downward pressure — gave the attacking side the benefit of the doubt.

McDermott, admirably, dwelt upon the Rhinos’ concession of “easy tries” as opposed to the dubious officiating.
Likewise, he refused to attach any blame to Kevin Sinfield, whose misses in three of four conversion attempts meant Leeds were always in a trailing position, as Wigan held the psychological advantage.
“If he wants advice from me, he should be standing 15 feet tall,” he said of his captain, defeated in a fourth cup final.

The contrast with the body language of Lima, winner of the Lance Todd Trophy for his brace of tries, could scarcely have been starker.
“I don’t score many tries, but happened to be in the right place at the right time,” said this Auckland native, who had already savoured Grand Final glory twice in Australia. “I just went out there to do my job. It was a team effort.”

Match details
Leeds Rhinos: Webb, Jones-Bishop, Ablett, Watkins, Hall, Sinfield, McGuire, Leuluai, Buderus, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Delaney, Hauraki.
Replacements: Bailey for Leuluai (24), Burrow for Buderus (24), Kirke for Peacock (29), Clarkson for Hauraki (21).

Wigan Warriors: S Tomkins, Charnley, J Tomkins, Carmont, Richards, Deacon, Finch, Lima, Leuluai, Coley, Hansen, Hoffman, O’Loughlin, Mossop.
Replacements: Farrell for Lima (36), McIlorum for Leuluai (33), Mossop for Coley (17), Prescott for Mossop (21).
Referee: Phil Bentham (Warrington).
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... inos.html?

[cpwigan]

Schofield is a dickhead

For 30 minutes we looked excellent and Leeds looked awful, then we stopped playing and going wide before going forward first, we overplayed when the tries were there had we wanted them by playing simple and running hard, Bentham started turning a blind eye, giving high tackles on a ducking Burrow PLEASE, I guess Fat Gary did not see the illegal play of the ball that led to Leeds breaking down field and then scoring.

Wigan are a far better team than Leeds and could afford to play poorly, even the first 30 we should have put more points on the board, had we played to our best we could have put 60+ on Leeds and helped the Leeds fans by getting their coach the sack.