We definitely need more game breaking players and that is undoubted where the significant cap we should have available needs to be spent. It's to Harry's credit that he is our biggest threat in broken field, but if he wants to be great player he needs to address this now. 23 (regardless of injuries) is plenty old enough. Anyway - gutted that we lost and just realised that when I watch it on TV, Wilkin will be summarising. Peacock should rip his ridiculous tash off.

As a neutral (but someone who dislikes Wigan) it was a good game to watch and it was close enough such that I couldn't complain if either team won.
Newman was good and bad, and whilst I subscribe to the view that he's your most dangerous back, I also agree that his greediness cost you the game.
There were other key moments, but with 5 minutes to go Newman messed up big time and in my view deserves to give his apologies to each and every one of his team mates.
He got lucky with his first try - his strength and athleticism got him through when the far easier play would have been to pass the ball to one of the two supporting players, but French learnt based on Newmans first half score and decided to nail Newman thinking he would hog the ball again.
Let's see if he learns this lesson.
RL is a team sport Harry - remember that, and don't believe most of the hype that's talked about you in the media.
The BBC and JP nailed it with their comments pre match and at half time.

Excellent post and totally accurate.

Good to hear Smith backing Newman in his post match press conference. It was a bad mistake and they will both be well aware of that, but Smith had nothing but praise for the players after the game.

If thats the case Smith needs a rethink.
14 nil up at home against a very average Wigan side missing a few of their players and we lose at home in a Cup match.
Like I said great break by Newman but he bombed it plain and simple almost like he did for the first try that he got lucky with.
Olpherts a waste of space and Gannon since Smith and the coaching team have worked on his tackling technique seems to have lost impact.
MacDonald played far better when he was fasting!

The approach with Newman should be back him in public and work on fixing it in private. Smith calling him out post game would have done nothing but make the situation worse imo.

I'm sure what was said privately are much different than in public

It's ironic that the player who was spouting off about his team mates the other week is the one who has cost them a place in the next round and no bonus pay in their wages so yeah i imagine Smith will be really happy having a talent like that in his squad.

It was the final non-pass that contributed to the loss - Newman was out of position for two of the tries also. When a small FB can push you clean off your feet something is wrong. The second try in the second half he completely misread the play. He is a massive talent but he is far from the finish article and perhaps he need to stop believing the hype and get his head down and work on improving the obvious flaws in his game.

He isn't helped when he plays in a team with no other attacking threat and a coach who is using the team as a coaching improvement tool. Gannon at 6 is plain bonkers. Martin in centre - Stevie Wonder can see this doesn't work. Olpherts is a guaranteed to make a key mistake - and did. Sezer isn't interested. Macdonald once again offered nothing showing the big gap between the Championship and SL.

Holroyd was a stand out player for me - non of the others had anything but average games and that must be a concern - are these players really up for a fight when the chips are down and does the squad has the depth of quality required to compete with the better teams and is it coached properly to achieve that

That's all a bit over board.
We've gone toe to toe with one of the top teams and just lost out.
Some key mistakes cost us, but it often does.
We fell away in the second half and that's the main concern that we need to work on.
But I was impressed with the first half.

I agree regarding Gannon.
And we all know that Awfultrts isn't up to this level.
Unfortunately, neither is Tindall.
But we were hampered with Austin and Handley out. We didn't have many options.
FWIW, I would have given Hooley another go at FB and played Myler in the halves.

It's all been said about Harry and he needs to learn.
But slightly in his defence, Myler had over-run the chance at the end.

Any decent player could have made that pass including Newman - Myler was still behind him at the crucial point. Making that pass never entered his head. Its all about personal glory for Newman.

He should have played Sinfield or Myler in the halves - for me Sezer offers very little and doesn't seem someone you would want in the trenches.

Martin in the centre has been shown to be in effective. We bought Macdonald as a centre play him there - if you have to play Olpharts put him on the wing. Agree re. Tindall.

Oldeski isn't allowed to be criticised on here but at the moment he is offering very little especially when compared to Holroyd.

That game was there for the winning but as soon as Wigan upped the anti - Leeds couldn't handle it and that must be a concern.

Just to put some perspective on this since Smith has taken over the scores against Wigan total. 116 v 58

Wigan haven’t been able to handle Leeds but it was their turn this time it happens.

We lost a tight game which we could have win if harry had made a better decision.

Yet last week the reverse was true, to an even greater degree if we're looking solely at the final scoreboard. The game yesterday could have gone either way but the better team on the day won. There's plenty to work on of course, as there always is, but we're nowhere near as bad as some would make out.

We’re out of the cup at the first time of asking for the third year on the bounce and we’re 8th in the league with a 50/50 win/loss record.

How would you say it’s going at the moment?