THE GAME TONIGHT!

[turf]

Did anyone at the Leigh game hear the smack of Brett Dallas's head meeting the advertising hoarding in the first half? He must have had either concussion, blared vision or a headache. How did he stay on for the full 80 minutes having taken a very bad knock to the head?

Also, why did he have a try disallowed in the second half, because the looked absolutely nothing wrong with it? Then why did Ganson give Wigan head and feed at the scrum instead of Leigh? Rather confusing I thought.

[Fraggle]

turf posted:
Also, why did he have a try disallowed in the second half, because the looked absolutely nothing wrong with it? Then why did Ganson give Wigan head and feed at the scrum instead of Leigh? Rather confusing I thought.

I was happily asleep whilst the match was going on so wasn't there, but I'd hazard a guess at perhaps he was held up over the line, but with tackles still in the bag, which means we would get head and feed at the scrum. IIRC had it been the last tackle then it would have been the turnover, but when there are tackles remaining then the attacking team retain the advantage.

[Mike]

The leigh guy knocked the ball forwards trying an intercpet, then we knocked on before the ball got to dallas, then dallas put it over the line.

We got head and feed because of the first knock on.

The best decision was back to 6 after dennis moran had booted the ball striaght at a leigh player from about 2 feet! Good descision.

Some dodgy refereeing was going on, but then some of out descisions in attach were a bit suspect as well. Can't expect too much from the first friendly of the year though. COuldn't judge too much else because of the terrible conditions - the ball must have been like a bar of soap - but the two forwards Logan and Iafeta are going to be brilliant this season (injuries permitting) based on this match. They will give us the go forward we just didn't have last year.

Just get us a new half back pairing and we could be taking the Grand Final winners rings again.

[GeoffN]

I couldn't get to the game, but all the match reports make good reading, and I was listening to bits of commentary on WishFM.

Can those of you who went put up some player ratings for those of us who couldn't? I'M rates O'Loughlin as MoM here ...
http://www.wiganwarriors.com/news_full.asp?newsid=1728

My biggest fear was injuries, particularly given the conditions, so I was glad on that score!

[the pieman]

Logan and palesena both had good strong games

Higham and Godwin both looked sharp and made good yards from half back

The difference imo from last season however was Sean o'Loughlin. God we missed him

He looks very sharp and his handling, distribution and breaks were the bright point on a dismal evening

All in all a good run out for the team, a very competitive game and thank god the season is almost upon us

[the pieman]

was difficult to tell how they combined last night

The conditions were not good for open rugby and plenty of substitutions stemmed the flow of the play

They seemed to combine ok but did make some mistakes - dropped ball and 2 kicks charged down

Both defended well but we do need more go forward from them

As in my previous quote - o'loughlin seemed our creative link

[the pieman]

i would say that we will be more than able to match it with the big boys

We had hargreaves and seu seu on the bench with hansen

Hock and fletcher to return

IMO it looks like a strong pack with the ability to make good hard yards

Defensively they put some good hits in as well - bu to give the Leigh pack credit they put some in as well

[the pieman]

i would guess somewhere in the region 4500 - 5000 (know thats quite a tolerance)

I stood on the half way line as my uncle is a lobby gobbler

The away end looked full and very wet, but a good turn out from our fans

[the pieman]

This is an unbiased view from a lobby gobbler who i work with

OK – Unbiased(ish) report

This was the worst/most boring match I have watched for ages.

Crowd was good, Wigan brought loads (but they would, because most of them probably come from Leigh)

Weather Crap
Pitch Crap
Ball handling Crap
Ganson Crap/Inconistent

The crowd were silent for most of the match
Wigan put a strong team out (we didn’t – probably due to injuries which worries me)

The most exciting bit was whether we could get our chips at half time or not (luckily we could)

We started off with a kicking game (hence the try we scored) then we forgot all about kicking/moves and just tried barging through (which didn’t work)

There is no way that anybody could tell anything from last nights match as the conditions etc were awful, and I know we played a lot better against Widnes. The score line probably flattered Wigan a little, but they did play better and kept hold of more ball and took there chances.

I don’t normally praise them, but one thing I did notice is that when Wigan scored, or forced us into errors, they all ran over and congratulated each other whereas we just strolled about.

This could be classed as motivational or it could be that they just like group hugs

[Nine]

the pieman posted:
Logan and palesena both had good strong games

Higham and Godwin both looked sharp and made good yards from half back

The difference imo from last season however was Sean o'Loughlin. God we missed him

He looks very sharp and his handling, distribution and breaks were the bright point on a dismal evening

All in all a good run out for the team, a very competitive game and thank god the season is almost upon us

Spot on. The two startign props were awesome, and Seuseu & Hatrghreaves were solid. Lockers was astonishing for someone who had suhc a bad injury & has been out so long - very sharp, very fast, superb dip of the shoulder & dummy for the break that led to one try, and has obviously spent his time in the gym well judging by the size of his upper body.

Very, very good from the pack and solid from everyone else - which is what you'd expect on a night like that playing in such a slag heap.

If this is the team on day one, the club better get the Brasso in (injury luck permitting).