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1st Half 10-10

Weather is awful and both sides are struggling to get any continuity in the heavy rain.

Positives, when we do get some go forward we look good. TL is effective at 9 with some probing runs when needed and direct play at the line before passing to the halves.

Powell & Williams started at 7 and 6 and so far its hard to judge due to the conditions but what I would say is TL is a better hooker than Powell.

When TL went off Powell pushed up with Sam moving to 7 Escare at 1, this also looked effective with Sam guiding the team around with some good end of set kicks, again though hard to judge due to the conditions.

Hamlin come on for last 10 of the half, he looks quick! Great foot speed and leg drive but only had a few touches so looking forward to seeing what he can do in the 2nd half.

2 kicks from out wide, Sam took both hitting 1 out of 2

Sarge looks quicker than Gells and so far has slotted straight in making his hard yards.

Both of Leighs tries quite soft patch that up and well be hard to beat.

Ill summarise the 2nd half later.

Only seen the first half-hour due to Wigan TV dying.

Agree we looked better in attack with TL at 9.

FT 22-14 Wigan

Ok so in the second half there was a lot more rotation but all the lads did a job.

Sam Powell was good at 7 he runs direct and controls well. Shorrocks had a good stint at 9. Sam T carried on at 7 for 20mins before Powell replaced him, he is definitely a half now and the sooner he relishes that the better, he sees things in slow motion almost, he controls the game better than anyone else who played there today he kicks well runs when needed and has a good pass selection.

Escare chimed in well and has lost none of his speed.

Our forwards did well, Flower mixed it with Acton and looked good, Farrell put in an 80 min stint and was solid all game.

Gildart was solid but still needs to improve on his pass selection and timing, he bombed a certain try passing too late maybe due to a touch of try line fever.

Considering the weather both sides did well but the stand out for me today was Hamlin he has a heck of a shoulder in D and is excellent going forward, very fast and a great leg drive, it was taking 4 to put him down and he got his 1st try off a deft sam t kick through close to the line.

Soft defence again for their only try of the second half.

Sarge went off injured in the first half, as did Clubb with a clash of heads and budgie.

I think our squad is well balanced and if they start the season with some confidence will take some stopping.

Cheers Wes, sounds like a promising start to the season.

Sounds positive- what was Hamlin like for size he looks small on photos

Was sarge injury serious or do you think it was just precautionary

Imo Hamlin was the only forward that stood out, a couple of decent runs by Tautai & FPN but nothing special. Flower his usual which isn't a positive.
Defence-wise nothing has changed.

Hopefully they are saving themselves for Australia

Wigan_forever19​85​ wrote:Sounds positive- what was Hamlin like for size he looks small on photos

Was sarge injury serious or do you think it was just precautionary

Sarge went straight down the tunnel so not sure, Hamlin’s size is funny, he’s not big but he looks like a barrel sort of like Gallen short but willing to play.

He plays well above his weight, very fast for a forward, always looked hungry for the ball and when he got it they struggled to control him it took 3 or 4 every time to put him down which shocked me for the size of him and Leigh look to have recruited well they have a big pack.

Wes sums it up well, completely agree on all points.

All I would add is that our right with sam operating on that edge looks a lot more effective than it ever did last season! We should finally see some proper plays going to the right rather than one off plays by gels being the only threat.

Positive friendly that.

Well done.

Josie's friend wrote:Imo Hamlin was the only forward that stood out, a couple of decent runs by Tautai & FPN but nothing special. Flower his usual which isn't a positive.
Defence-wise nothing has changed.

Hopefully they are saving themselves for Australia

Funny how people see things different, I though flower had a good game. Made the hard yards when needed and was strong in defence, also when Acton started shithousing and bullying it was Flower who put him in his box and started mixing it with him.

Flower can offer the aggression lost by MM IMO.

Thanks, Wes. Much appreciated