I look at that bench and it gives me some hope as a Wigan fan. Not as strong as Leeds benches in previous years.

That said I think it will be very close on Friday, can't see any team running away with it.

Least we are played for repeat sets.

We do look more comfortable attacking from further out, where the likes of Moon and Watkins have more space.

"It weren't pretty, but it didn't have to be. We just had to win."

Familiar?

I thought Wilkin had a real Jekyll and Hyde performance. When Saints had the ball he had a very good game. When we had it he was dreadful.

I also think the missed tackle stats overall are probably not a fair indication of the quality of the defence. They're more an indication of the at times outrageously frenetic tempo of the game and, as someone said above, of how good the scrambling defence was. If the score had been 25-24 with 4 tries apiece it would have better reflected the missed tackles. Only the desperation and commitment of the defences prevented that sort of scoreline.

I still think both teams played pretty well for the most part. When people depend at that intensity for that period of time there will always be misses.

It could be that. Then again it could be down to poor execution from both sides. Certainly that was the way Saints read it after the game, and I would hope Leeds would do the same.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'll be keen to get the number down this week - they'll have to I think. But I do think you have to read stats like that in the context of the game. And we'll also need to see more of that desperation and commitment in last-ditch cover defence at Wigan if we're going to go through. That's play-off rugby.

For Wigan i think we'll go with..
Hardaker
Hall
Moon
Watkins
Bjb
Mcguire
Burrow
JP
Sinfield
Kylie
Jjb/Clarkson
Ablett
Singleton

Kirke
Achurch
Bailey
Sutcliffe

Wigan will come at us hard in the first 10-20 minutes. I'd like to have Bailey out there ahead of Singleton for that.

first 20 are crucial.wigan try to blow you off the park.if that doesn't happen they struggle

They may also be a bit rusty having had a week off (hopefully)
So I agree we need to get at them straight away as we might tire towards the end of the game.

Bentham ref. Smith VR.

Bailey and Kirke are interchange props imo for this one Singleton can handle himself i've no doubts about that.

Normally i'd agree with that but vs Huddersfield it was reversed, The soaked up all the early pressure in the opening 20ish then won convincingly in the end.

true they did. makes you wonder what would have happened if giants had gone 10 up?

It was big game rainy weather 101 from wigan.

Completing sets, good kicks, mean defence, forcing numerous drop outs and building pressure at the other end. Never panicked or deviated from their gameplan even after going down, just kept grinding away.

Sinfield would have been proud.

You know it's a big game when you have 2 excellent pre-match threads for the same game!