Although Leeds were hungrier and certainly more ruthless with ball in hand I dont think the win was as emphatic or comfortable as being made out. Two of the tries were blatent knock ons, possible a third but it was a 50/50 one. In the first ten minutes there were three particularly harsh calls that didnt lead directly to a try but mounted huge pressure, something you expect at Headingley. Add to that the 5 missing key players and it was always a big ask for Wigan. Looking forward to the magic return and hopefully a stronger ref.

Wigan fans moaning at the ref... Glass houses and all that

It was an excellent win, given we were missing Aiton and burrow, we as expected were a bit disjointed at times, but our hunger in defence is the biggest pleasing factor so far this season.

I know a lot of people have been saying hardaker has really improved this year, but for me he has always been top class, he is just maturing as a player. He is by a mile the best full back in SL, and fully deserved his motm award last night.

Hall outstanding again, and was imo, the other closest contender to hardaker as motm.

Clarkson had his best game in ages for us, and peacock and Kylie again led from the front. Delaney wasn't as good as he was last week, which I thought was his best game this year, but the effort he puts in week in week out Ill let him off

The kindest thing I can say about that opinion is that it highlights your somewhat niave view of the game of RL.

Watch our tackle game down the middle rucks and its first man flying in then lots of bodies following up some times 4 and 5. Yes on a couple of occassions a Leeds defender might get bumped off in the melee but thats not a "missed" tackle in my book. FAR TO OVER A SIMPLIFICATION.

I take it thats Delaney playing to instructions tackle wise and I repeat over 30 tackles and 13 carries is a great contribution playing in the middle of the park.



Thats your opinion but I reserve the right to contradict it on an open forum. My apologies if your such a sensitive soul that this upsets you.

Blatant knock on's????? I must have watched a different game to you

We also had Aiton, Burrow and Jones-Buchanan missing

There was no evidence of a knock on in either incident (i assume you mean hall 1st half, peacock 2nd). If hall did touch it, which isn't clear, at worst it went backwards because the wigan player kicked it out of his hands. With the peacock incident there was no seperation between his hands and the ball whilst it was on the floor, so why would it be a knock on?

I'm not sure what the 3 harsh calls were?

Apart from that, I agree with your point about the allaged emphatic nature of the victory. For periods in that game wigan were on top. But that just highlights the quality of leeds in defence and attack that they turn out a comfortable win on the scoreboard despite that.

I suspect they are including a tackler getting bumped off but if the attempt stops the ball carrier progressing and also allows the follow up defenders to halt the attack then thats harsh IMHO but I guess that allows some to grind out their negative / jaundiced views.

It's Phil Clarke, hi Phil !!

The one for Zak Hardaker try Ryan Hall knocked on before gelling and the Peacock one on any other day is given a knock on but didn't see any more. Also i thought Leeds got a few calls last night, but don't think it would have changed the result anyway. Who would Jones Buchanan replace at the moment?

Take Peacock, Luelaui and Ablett out of the team and it might even it up on the injury front but its just part and parcel of the game.

Problem we had before during this season is playing too cautious against the top teams in attack. We've gotten the balance better in these last two games in terms of doing the basics & hard stuff yet coming up with the kind of play to score past the better sides.

We could've scored more points in both games but fortunately one of this teams strengths for a few years now is not panicking if the scoreboard isn't reflective of the game. That's to do with the amount of leaders we have in our team and something that is quite telling with how the season is panning out so far.....

Wigan - Don't look the same without O'Loughlin
Saints - Got the quality but don't have many leaders
Wire - Lost most of theirs last year and don't have many left
Hudds - Brough is too busy spitting his dummy out this year.

Forgive my juvenile use of the smilies but its just so nice to read the occassional great insight on a great game.

i agree with every word too

It was clear watching the warm up Clarkson was going to play 9, surely Wigan had somebody watching the warm up?

but of course the game stats prove we are just plain wrong.

Lies, damn lies and statistics?