Wigan v wakey

[moto748]

I don't want to be too harsh on the first game back, but Bibby's try never looked a try for all money, so we were fortunate there. Hoped we would really crack on after being much the better side in the first half, but it didn't turn out like that at all. Those two late tries down Marshall's wing were a bit of a worry. Manfredi looked a million miles away being a centre. Is Hank considered that bad?

[nathan_rugby]

Very relieved to get the win. I thought Wakey were unlucky (Bibby's 'try' wasn't) and we looked totally shot at the end. You can forgive some rustiness but we looked disjointed and perhaps only won because Tommy got injured and Harry played for longer than he would have done. Is Bevan not fully fit after his journey back to oz? We all know that Zak is a great fullback (and played really well) but we also know that we've looked better with Bevan at 1. Dom may have the physique of a centre but will take some time to adjust to that specialist position if he ever does so it seemed a strange move to play him there. There must have been a reason. I think Lammy got it right with the props and it looks like we may as well get used to playing without Lockers most of the time and just use him as a bonus player when he is fit. Let's hope next week shows a big improvement but the season will seem to pass by very quickly now.

Does Manfredi have the physique of a centre?

What physique is that? What are the boundries?

Looks like a typical winger physique to me.

[ian.birchall]

Liam Farrell MOTM, for Wakey not at Wakey and yes I know it was at Headingley

[fozzieskem]

"The most important stat in rugby league is 'held up in goal'"

No, it's not. They don't half talk some kak.

I was just thinking that. Absolute twoddle. Wish we had Wilkin commentating he was great on the commentary yesterday.

Said it for a good while Wilkin is an excellent commentator,they need to get Dave Woods then fecking sack the lot of them at sky,Carney included they are bloody woeful the lot of them

[The booze hound]

Zak was my M.O.M.
I thought we were clunky and at times idea-less and if the game was 10 minutes longer we'd have lost, for sure.
It's good to have some room for improvement at this stage of the season, but worrying how much we need to improve to trouble the trophy engravers.

[Lazy J]

Where to start with that, poor game management is the first issue, thank the lord Powell had the brains to tell them to set up for the drop goal, even if they ignored him first time. The attack was clunky to say the least, yet agin the team looked like 13 blokes who’ve decided to have a game rather than a well drilled team, the fitness was the worrying thing, as someone else posted if that had been 5 mins longer we’d have lost,

The forwards were ineffective, George Burgess looks to be from the Tony clubb School of forwards, he spent most of the 20 mins carrying rolls of carpet around.

Depressingly I’m watching saints at the moment, thank god we don’t play them for a few weeks, they look fit well organised and quick across the park it’s heart breaking to compare them to us at the moment, but nothing is won in august, there’s lots of time for us to come good before the business end of the season, after all we were crap last year and got to the semi final, then met a well coached team.

[ian.birchall]

Lenagan must be rueing splashing the cash on Burgess.
His first game v Wire back in January showed just how far off the fitness required to start at prop and after today he needs to be embarrassed when he is 4th choice to get on the field at prop.

Shame on you George Burgess!

[pedro]

A lot of questions need to be asked about the conditioning team

[EagleEyePie]

My opinions at half time had very much changed by the end of the game. The first 40 minutes were a decent effort. We failed to take advantage of the pressure and possession that we had early on but still managed to reach the break with a decent lead.

The second half was a disaster. Far too many errors and some absolutely awful game management when we finally did get to the end of our sets. It just looked like Wakefield were always going to get back into it. It's not like our fitness was an issue - we just made it easy for them to get on a roll.

Perhaps we can look on the bright side - their tries down our left may have just been down to poor decision making from players lacking match practice, while Manfredi would have dumped Johnstone into touch had he been on the right wing instead of French. We got a bit of luck too though, particularly with Bibby's try as that was shocking defence.

I doubt our attack was massively disadvantaged by French moving from fullback. A lot of the good stuff he does is spontaneous and sometimes individual brilliance. It doesn't account for countless dropped balls.

Smith creating Hardaker's try was nice to see, as was the drop goal, but some of his decision making let him down. Not that we can pin all that on Smith because Hastings was the senior half but didn't show any signs of taking charge in that game. it was all completely disjointed. The backs, the forwards, the halves - they all looked like they were playing their own game and not the same one.

I'd love to know the wage disparity between Burgess and Havard. One is currently playing as you'd expect for a marquee prop, the other looks like he'd be struggling in the Championship. I could understand Burgess having a slow start to the year when he was lacking match fitness, but after the covid break everyone is in the same boat and yet he still looked ineffective. We're going to lose Havard very soon, while being lumbered with Burgess for years.

Some things stay the same. Isa is a liability in defence and not skillful enough to be a threat in attack. Bibby (try aside) just doesn't offer much of a threat and spurned a great attacking chance. If it was just an observation from this game I'd be less concerned, but it was the case pre-lockdown too.

Farrell is an absolute machine, Smithies was impressive again. Powell's defence was outstanding. Byrne and Clark drop off too many tackles.

I just hope this is a case of rustiness and getting caught up in bad habits that can be ironed out as the season goes on. Viewing this year as a whole we must be the least convincing league leaders I've seen for many a season.

[Barney841]

I know I said we were coasting in the first half but let’s be honest wakey were woeful, loads of errors. Could of been a very different score if they turned up for the first half.
Thought the two young lads out shown the experienced burgess and Clark. Clark looks a stone or so over weight. Burgess even though he looks like he’s lost weight needs to be fitter.