Wigan squad for Hull KR (R9)

[Johnone]

No team wins every game we were very poor on all fronts against KR and they were very good. Even our team in the nineties lost games always losing 3-4 games per season but they always won the ones that mattered just now hope that the current team are the same we will soon find out.

[Charriots Offiah]

the 1st half is as poor as i've seen for a while

HKR ran harder, tackled harder and seemed to want it more. We just didnt seem to have anything effort wise

I dont recall Faz being run over like the 1st try last night in the last 14 years and again when they broke for the 3rd try. Too many easy offloads given when we had 3 men in the tackle kept the KR momentum going and we were flat as a pancake in attack

i'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and its one of those games where 1-17 were below par

for the upcoming semi, i'm expecting us firing on all cyclinders and maintaining that intensity from minute 1-80 with our prop rotation setting the bar for the rest to follow

+1

We need to use our middles far more than we do especially in the first 20 minutes. Rugby League is a bit like boxing if you pummel the body then the arms will drop, likewise if you win the battle in the forwards the backs become less effective or even ineffective.


I would add, for a bit of perspective, does anyone expect Wigan to play so badly when we next meet and can HKR play as well as they did last night?

[No straw damn us]

My concern is that when we were looking for points we just did t look very creative. We just switched the ball from side to side. There was no penetration for the backs to play off, they tried to create things just by throwing the ball.

I'm concerned at our lack of metre making in the forwards and the backs. We're often big losers in the territory battle and I think that has to change. French and field can't make clean breaks against a set defense that's on the front foot, not many anyway.

There wasn't much in the metres made between the teams
https://www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/4433

The big thing that stands out is the lack of metres from Bevan French, HKR really closed him down. On the plus side Field had his best running game of the season.

[Charriots Offiah]

I believe the new kit to be trialled will be sackcloth and ashes.

Despite the sluggish display (could there be a virus in the camp? everyone seemed affected) there was the odd positive.
At about the 55 minute mark, it became clear that HKR's pack were completely blown and the backs were having to do all the main work. Problem was that we weren't good enough to do too much about it.

It does seem that French and Field are both a bit out of form and have been nullified by good coaches, of which Peters is one.
Also, I'm not sure that the coaching staff have found what to do with Leeming. He's always been a bit of a wild card and tends to drift out of matches if they don't revolve around him. Other clubs have used him as a change during the match at 13 but I wouldn't want to lose Ellis, who is having a great season.
I'll stick my neck out and say that Matty Peet will learn from last night and we will win the semi-final.
Gulp - now I've said it!

Just seen Matty Peet's comments and it was something I noticed during the game that, all too often we would end up the wrong side of the tackle and on the ground, meaning that we were short in defence at the PTB. That happened a lot under Lam and I thought we'd cleared it up but it seems to have reappeared.

We were so poor last night that I didn’t want to single out any particular player. However, given that you have raised the issue of Leeming I thought that I would answer your question. The only place he should be at the moment is sat in the stands as he adds nothing to our game. In his defence he is a broken field runner, not great defensively and certainly not a great passer of the ball, but he has had little opportunity to play to his potential because our forwards are not winning the ruck. I think it’s time for O’Neill to play 80 minutes.

Regarding Field, I thought he was our only real threat out wide last night he made two or three telling runs which, on other occasions we would have scored from.

[No straw damn us]

Just to add

https://www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/4433

There is hope

Look at the live stats tab.

[PF Warrior]

An acquaintance of mine, who likes to watch Rugby League, but doesn't support any Super League club, actually prefers the NRL, phoned me today. He'd watch the HKR game last night saying HKR Played like an NRL side with quick play the ball and off loads. He thought that Wigan played like a second rate team and not Champions.

We need to improve for Thursday, with Catalans loss to Leigh they will be out to prove that it was just a blip. We need to step up to prove we are Champions and get back on the right track.

[Mike]

My concern is that when we were looking for points we just did t look very creative. We just switched the ball from side to side. There was no penetration for the backs to play off, they tried to create things just by throwing the ball.

I'm concerned at our lack of metre making in the forwards and the backs. We're often big losers in the territory battle and I think that has to change. French and field can't make clean breaks against a set defense that's on the front foot, not many anyway.

There wasn't much in the metres made between the teams
https://www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/4433


The big thing that stands out is the lack of metres from Bevan French, HKR really closed him down. On the plus side Field had his best running game of the season.

I've got to say that if you looked at those stats you'd believe we likely won. Were only second best in one category - errors. However, we saw the game and we were far from winning. In the first half especially I felt we weren't capable of getting into an attacking position without help from the ref.

[josie andrews]

The curse of the black third away shirt continues.Stick to blue from now on boys

I said the same before the game if we lose again wearing the black shirt it gets binned!!

[moto748]

We were so poor last night that I didn’t want to single out any particular player. However, given that you have raised the issue of Leeming I thought that I would answer your question. The only place he should be at the moment is sat in the stands as he adds nothing to our game. In his defence he is a broken field runner, not great defensively and certainly not a great passer of the ball, but he has had little opportunity to play to his potential because our forwards are not winning the ruck. I think it’s time for O’Neill to play 80 minutes.

Regarding Field, I thought he was our only real threat out wide last night he made two or three telling runs which, on other occasions we would have scored from.

I share your doubts about Leeming, but also, I'm not convinced he's ever been fully fit since he's been here. Of course, in this game, things weren't helped by O'Neill having had a rare stinker.

[Fan4Fifty]

We were so poor last night that I didn’t want to single out any particular player. However, given that you have raised the issue of Leeming I thought that I would answer your question. The only place he should be at the moment is sat in the stands as he adds nothing to our game. In his defence he is a broken field runner, not great defensively and certainly not a great passer of the ball, but he has had little opportunity to play to his potential because our forwards are not winning the ruck. I think it’s time for O’Neill to play 80 minutes.

Regarding Field, I thought he was our only real threat out wide last night he made two or three telling runs which, on other occasions we would have scored from.

I share your doubts about Leeming, but also, I'm not convinced he's ever been fully fit since he's been here. Of course, in this game, things weren't helped by O'Neill having had a rare stinker.

I think the hope was that Leeming would make us a bit less predictable and give us a bit of off-the-cuff momentum but of course everyone has to be alert to that. We are certainly more 'structured' than some other teams and rarely launch an attack from deep. Against KR, other than Field, we only seemed to want to move the ball when we were within 30 metres of their line. Much as I admire Harry Smith, he doesn't provide much of a running threat so we get little attack variation from one of our halves (though he does provide some lovely attacking kicks at times) - if Leeming can provide the running threat then he can be effective, but the rest of the team has to be alert to some 'unstructured' play.