Good Friday First 15 Minutes Analysis

[cpwigan]

For you Mike and whomever

Wigan kick off.

Maybe we are better kicking off than receiving ? No Waneball just hard defence we score after 53 seconds from a charge down.

6-0
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WIGAN 1ST Set - Exit set
1 - Faz 1 out
2 - Mos 1 out
3 - Clubb 1 out
4 - Bateman - 1 out RUNS across the back of the POTB, makes Walmsley work AGAIn, tackle ineffective
5 - Mossop 1 out
Wigan reach just shy of half way with NO WANE BALL

3 1/2 minutes gone, Wigan controlling the game, making no mistakes using NO WANE BALL

Kick reaches Saints 20 SET COMPLETED, NO ERRORS
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WIGAN 2nd Set - Exit set
1 - Hampshire field kick 1 out
2 - Budgie 1 out
PENALTY - Saints / Greenwood goes high
4:30 No WANE BALL NO MISTAKES NO WIGAN PENALTIES, SAINTS 1 MISTAKE, 1 PENALTY CONCEDED, WIGAN 6-0 UP!
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WIGAN 3rd Set - Halfway from Penalty Tap
1- Faz 1 out
BTW not a good call at that time / stage of the game but Dawson was sucked in and there was an actual break on if Faz passes giving a 2 v 1. No lateral shift / WANE BALL.
Context of game better to complete though.
2 - Clubb, 1 Pass From Williams
3 - Bateman 1 out running back at Saints middles, makes Amor make a 2nd successive tackle that is ineffective, Wigan win the floor/POTB
5 MINUTES WIGAN DOMINANT, NO WANEBALL, NO MISTAKES
4 - Tomkins, 2 Pass NO 2ND MAN / NO OVER PLAY
5 - Gelling 1 OUT, sensible went back in sets up last tackle play
6/Last - Saints 20 Smith has time / space LONG CROSSFIELD KICK
5.56 WIGAN PENALTY -- BONUS -- ? WRONG CALL (Remember peeps Bentham had a good game? )
6 MINUTES
NO WANE BALL NO MISTAKES NO WIGAN PENALTIES, SAINTS 2 MISTAKES or 1 + BENTHAM MISTAKE, 2 PENALTIES CONCEDED BY SAINTS, WIGAN 6-0 UP! WIGAN DOMINANT!!
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WIGAN 4th Set - Tap On Saints 20
1 - Mossop 1 out
2 - FIRST SIGN OF WANE BALL FIRST BIG MISTAKE, 2nd man instead of middle driving 1st, 2nd pass, 3rd pass player all lateral edging towards touchline. No Saints players drawn SUICIDE PASS BY GELLING TO MANFREDI handled into touch. Gelling far better to take the tackle. Wane Ball the wrong play and at the wrong time.
AT LEAST ON SAINTS LINE THOUGH - Waneball has least negative impact, most positive in dry condition on opp try line.

6:50 Wigan have no made a mistake until then and until Wane ball, no penalties conceded, sharing/edging possession and field position DOMINANT!
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Wigan 5th Set Rocky fielded Roby kick on our 20 7:41
1 - Rocky 1 OUT
2 - Manfredi 1 OUT offloads to Gelling WIGAN PENALTY -- BONUS -- ? WRONG CALL (Remember peeps Bentham had a good game? ) Gelling puts the ball down / plays it before getting to his feet. Greenwood still messing around. To me the penalty is justified BUT it shows how messy / how poor our officials are at the POTB Watch umpteen games and try to find a correct POTB.
BUT NO WANE BALL NO MISTAKES, MISTAKES BY OPPOSITION AND REFEREE IN OUR FAVOUR!
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Wigan 6th Set 8:20 Tap Penalty Just In Saints Half
1 - Tomkins 1 out
2 - Clubb 1 out
3 - Mossop 1 out On Saints 20, won the floor
4 - WANE BALL 3 shifts incl 2nd man plasses BUT
WIGAN HARD DONE BY - BENTHAM (REMEMBER GOOD GAME BENTHAM!) MISSES OBVIOUS PENALTY BY DAWSON HIGH ON SARGE.
5 - Smith Pass TO Bateman Offloads wildly Smith nops up loose ball BAD PLAY Bateman should have not offloaded not left Williams as the only free kicker. YARDS should have been the play to get close enough to the Saints line to force repeat set.
6 / LAST - Williams grubber made yards not fantastic BUT Saints on their try line!!
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SOME THOUGHTS - I thought Joel had a good game but he was not MOTM by a long way at this stage. I know sponsors MOTM are worthless etc. BUT somebody gave Joel a 10! and Faz a 10!

FOR ME the stand out thus far has been CLUBB and not too far behind Mossop followed by dogged defence from everybody with a bigger plaudit to Williams because you expect it from Mac, Bateman but this maligned (wrongly IMO / not as good as Green garbage; was Green as good as Williams at the same age?) kid stands tall and is the real deal. Likewise Rocky and Manfredi. Sarge is tough in defence too in this period.

Another thought - Bentham and his TJs are making a mistake every 2 / 3 minutes. If you make mistakes too those official mistakes HURT! So Wane / fans who think a mistake every 2 / 3 minutes is excellent, think again!

- No WANE BALL we are playing well, maybe wet weather suits us better than dry in that it stop us playing WANE BALL. If so I hope it flood up to and incl the GF!

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9.57 My thoughts AGAIN Fantastic set goes pear shaped when Mac tries too hard and the Saints prop bounces off his big hit to free Saints from their own try line.

Re The Roby v Mac. I love having Mac play for us but I cannot for the life of me think why some fans think Mac plays Roby off the park. Truth be told, the pair hardly ever meet h2h on the pitch not even at scrums any more. If Mac is part of Clubb and co getting on top of the Saints front rowers then he has done what is required and we should win but that has nothing to do with Roby. Roby was actually busier and better than Mac in this period ball in hand. He scooted, he kicked and BOTH players worked their backside off in defence.

I love having Mac in Cherry & White but Issac Luke is in a different League and is what Mac should have become / can become.

10:05-10:14 DEFENCE wins matches! Saints are breaking. Rocky does not sell himself, keeps defence side of Saints breaking players and slows them down enough for Manfredi to make a fantastic covering tackle. At this stage the question should be where does Josh play when fit because at the moment Manfredi is earning retention of the right wing spot! Likewise Rocky the FB spot! LMS bombs Saints best chance throwing the ball wayward to nobody on the Wigan 20 and Bateman dives on the ball!

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Wigan 7th set 10:56
1 - Moose 1 out
2 - Clubb 1 out
3 - 3 Direct Passes (No 2nd Man Wane Ball Nonsense) and Saints centre shoots out the line hopelessly leaving Gelling free to break downfield. Gelling decides to kick long despite having Smith on his inside. Right / wrong decision? 50/50 personally. Kick puts Saints in their 20 with possession.
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Saints 'under the cosh' kick early in the set.
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Wigan 8th Set 11.35 start set on half way
1 - Hampshire 1 out
2 - Budgie 2 Pass
3 - Sarge gets battered in a 2nd man play missing out the lead prop runner
4 - Bateman 1 out makes good yards up the guts tight to the POTB
5 - Mossop 1 out 12:24 1st Wigan mistake? Mossop loses the ball hitting it up.
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Wigan concede a penalty Mac goes high looking for a big hit 12:43 Are we losing control?
13:49 Saints in our half Williams pulls off a great textbook tackle
14:08 Saints force a repeat set. ? Do we do this enough with our kicking game?
15:00 Saints have pressure / field position for the first time but Greenwood goes down badly trying to burst through the tackle.

SO, 15 MINUTES little or no Wane Ball, we dominate field position / possession and are up on the scoreline. Poor officiating does not largely hurt us, in fact if you have good field position / possession you tend to benefit from it.

Generally the only time make mistakes is when we overplay / go lateral or Mac tried too hard and ends up high etc. Faz was clean this game.

That 15 minutes, Clubb = our MOM followed by Bateman. Under estimated by many the efforts of Williams and Manfredi.

Ignore WANE BALL and we are a decent team. The biggest minus without Wane Ball is the lack of a clinical approach to forcing repeat sets / keeping the pressure on. We had that under Madge. Now we do not. We do not build for a repeat set or an end play, still too obsessed by wide / lateral 2nd man nonsense.

The Mac v Roby debate is a complete red herring as is the Bentham had a good game stupidity.

[cpwigan]

N.B I think about the game / I analyse what I watch; I did that when I played sport. Some gobshites can watch every game ever played and see nothing to the point they would be better off blind. Unable to comprehend / analyse they are incapable of debate or looking at things objectively so when somebody looks at the good and bad of their team they are lost and harrang the poster because debate is too difficult for those people.

[Blackpool_Pie]

Wane told them to do that = Wane ball

[shaunedwardsfanclub]

CPW is correct, when we play the Aussie way we are far more effective and damned hard to beat. Playing indirect football in the wrong areas of the pitch gives the opposition a far better chance of winning. In the first fifteen minutes on Friday Saints struggled to live with us and we should have been further ahead on the scoreboard.

[thegimble]

On Friday we played the game at times the way NRL sides do due to the conditions. Running rugby in those conditions is not on.

As for the the so called Waneball that can work well if we played NRL style for the first 60 minutes and tire sides out and create space. Problem is with it when you play it from the first minute and it fails we struggle and this season we have really struggled.

We looked fitter than Saints going into the last 15 minutes their props were really struggling.

[shaunedwardsfanclub]

On Friday we played the game at times the way NRL sides do due to the conditions. Running rugby in those conditions is not on.

As for the the so called Waneball that can work well if we played NRL style for the first 60 minutes and tire sides out and create space. Problem is with it when you play it from the first minute and it fails we struggle and this season we have really struggled.

We looked fitter than Saints going into the last 15 minutes their props were really struggling.

We did but we struggled to capitalise. Had we taken our chances then the game would have been up far sooner for Saints.

[cpwigan]

Modern RL is very much eliminate mistakes, heap pressure upon your opponents and they will break. The better they are, the longer it takes for them to break.

Look at that 15 minutes, we hardly made a mistake, the referees mistake work in your favour if you play the game in the right part of the pitch and achieve 50% (ideally more) possession.

Whether you do not believe in Waneball or not, how we approach the end of our sets particularly in the opponents half, how we look at a set as build up of tackles to lead to an end point needs improving drastically. The clinical approach of Madge was why we had games won in the first20 minutes.

One thing to recognise and understand from just those 15 minutes is the value of playing in and around the POTB and making your opposing front row make successive tackles or more than 1 tackle in a set. If you consider such things then you are really looking at the bigger picture at a big section of the game, you are being methodical, patient and clinical.

BTW, odd as it may seem and I would say it depends on how the game is progressing but if you pursue an interchange policy re Mac then sometimes it may be better to do that after 15 minutes or even less then bring him back on at 25 / 30 minutes. He then gets HT as a natural break.

[cpwigan]

On Friday we played the game at times the way NRL sides do due to the conditions. Running rugby in those conditions is not on.

As for the the so called Waneball that can work well if we played NRL style for the first 60 minutes and tire sides out and create space. Problem is with it when you play it from the first minute and it fails we struggle and this season we have really struggled.

We looked fitter than Saints going into the last 15 minutes their props were really struggling.

I haven't analysed the next section of the game in the same depth yet but my impression was we started to make mistakes and lost control.

I have always believed our players are as fit, if not fitter than any in SL but if you play dumb and have to work twice as hard then no matter how much fitter you are at the start of a game you will tire and tired players make mistakes.

[up the junction]

I bet you've got friends queuing up to spend some time with you.

[thegimble]

On Friday we played the game at times the way NRL sides do due to the conditions. Running rugby in those conditions is not on.

As for the the so called Waneball that can work well if we played NRL style for the first 60 minutes and tire sides out and create space. Problem is with it when you play it from the first minute and it fails we struggle and this season we have really struggled.

We looked fitter than Saints going into the last 15 minutes their props were really struggling.

I haven't analysed the next section of the game in the same depth yet but my impression was we started to make mistakes and lost control.

I have always believed our players are as fit, if not fitter than any in SL but if you play dumb and have to work twice as hard then no matter how much fitter you are at the start of a game you will tire and tired players make mistakes.

Just as the Saints player who ran the ball in on the last tackle. Clubb's fitness got him 2 very quick tackles in that set where he stopped Saints on 4 occasions and not just one player from Saints made the error someone passed to him as well.