They were poor because we made them look poor imo tvoc.
I honestly don't see what the problem is with gibson mate he's still coming back from a long time out and imo put a good effort in tonight!!

I thought we were much better tonight. best we've been in all the circumstances. Still a way off our best and that can only be good.

I thought Gibson was solid in the right centre. One particular piece of clever centre play should have had a better Finish from Donald as Gibson drew the centre and Ainscough and put Donald away with a peach of a pass. Donald let Ainscough turn and tackle him into touch.

Couple of sloppy handling errors from Watkins but over-all none of our threequarters were outmatched by the threequarters Wigan have signed from the NRL.

Possibly because they play for a semi competent Wigan team on that showing.

Perhaps it's time for Noble to add a ball to some of their training sessions.

Don't get me wrong I love it when Leeds smash Wigan but I also like Wigan to show up, where were they tonight.

I agree mate. You give me faith in Leeds fans.

We had a team choc full of forwards, JJB did not play hooker, and they were soft cock down the middle. They hardly graced our half let alone our red zone for most of the 1st half. We did play a very composed game with killer instinct without the need for recognised 9.

We were good up the middle they were poor. Our tries came from Sinny to Kylie, Burrow kick to Hall, Ali offloaded to someone well too. Hardly say it was Gibson and Watkins who unlocked them and won us the game. Watkins still looks a prospect and Gibson still seems short of fitness, I was watching him between play.

Not trying to be harsh but the way they played up the middle and the way we did I think we would have won with Allan and ratu in the centre tbh.

That is a good point, not every try finished by a winger is necessarily the result of good centre play. All four winger's tries tonight owed nothing to their centre's service out wide.

You really don't like Gaz Hock you blokes do you ?

Cos he stood up to JP perchance ?

Well done on the win tonight you guys deserved it. Your tactics were spot on, you took Gareth Hock out of the game, kept Sam Tomkins quiet and stopped us playing like we did against Bradford.

Also good luck next week

'Coventry warrior' stop being so patronising to them.

Credit where its due

That's the best I've seen us play all season. We were unstoppable for the first 20 minutes. Even when we were in our own 20 I got the feeling we could score off that set.

For me, Ablett was immense. Mcguire, Burrow and Smith pushed him close but he really stood out for me. He broke the line several times and showed Hock (brilliant last week, poor last night) what it's all about. Top performance.

Gibson looks a bit small but was very busy in defence. He threw himself around quite a bit actually, but I think he needs to get a bit bigger. Carmont didn't show up either.

Ainscough was by far Wigan's most dangerous player. Every time he cut back in he looked pretty useful. He looks very strong - did you see him swat Donald?

Good too see Webby back. I'm a bit concerned about Kirke (another standout before he went off) and Ali.

No... it's because he's a knob.

My overview (for what it's worth):

Best opening 30 minutes all season. Blew Wigan away. Great tempo and desire to play with the ball. If we stick to playing rugby rather than getting sucked in to slugging, we make our job much easier.

Nobbie trys to win the ruck and slow us down, that's been the key to his success over Leeds. So Leeds had to win the ruck and PTB as quick as they could. Slotting Burrow there for the opening quarter helped achieve this. And Ryan Bailey PTB quicker than anyone out there. You could see Bluey has been working on this through the week.

Dodgy end to the first half and the start of the second. Wigan had 2 scores rightfully chalked off, but Leeds were also lucky, with Donald letting the ball bounce. Never let it bounce!!! Donald had a intersting dual with young Ainscough, with the Wiganer probably winning it on points. But his mis-kick allowed Donald to score a, technically, quality finish.

After these moments of panic, we just needed to show composure and complete a set, on the last play, at half way, Sinfield shifted the ball to Burrow, he shifted it futher left, which resulted in a panic kick. We were playing as if we were chasing the game. The message must have got out, the following set saw Burrow put a lovely touch finder into the South-West corner on the 10m line and composure and the game was restored.

Personal mentions:

Kylie - world class finish for the opener. Great line of run and was an impossible task to stop from there.

Hall - Great finishes. Very powerful runner.

Gibson/Watkins - handling errors from both, part of the learning curve. Gibson looks the more solid at this stage.

McGuire/Burrow/Ali - always a handful.

Sinfield - star of the show. World class. Definitley got a yard of pace extra. Superb leader of men.

Kirke/JJB/Ablett - all equally as good tonight. Kirke another huge break. Really running with purpose. Runs like JP, vastly improving week after weak. I've always championed the benefit of Kirke, and I've yet to be proved wrong....because it won't happen.

Bailey/Burgees - both solid, made the yards.

JP - awesome. Always carting the ball forward, no more than the last play of the first half, we were well under the cosh, and with the last drive he made a hefty 10m drive. More than we had made in the previous 3 plays. Always there when needed.

Finally.....Superman - great to see him back, having a run out. It was nothing more than that. Obvious weight loss, as expected. But deserved the reception.

Other than that, twp 40-20's and Leeds killed the game before Nobbie could make 100 chews of his chuddie.

As for Wigan, simply poor. Leeds blew them away, but the resistance was minor. Another wake up call for the pie-eaters. Individually, young Ainscough looks a prospect. Was Fielden playing?? They need to get shot of that soft lump, useless. Hock littered with mistakes, he had his once in a blue moon game last week, failed last night. But was willing to keep trying, when many Wigan players weren't. Amos Roberts looked pathetic. Hall's gamebreaker barely saw Roberts lift one foot off the ground. If he didn't think he'd make the catch he should have swatted the ball to safety. Lazy effort.

5 out of 5. Better performance, good run out. Sets up nicely to the fixture next week.

Nice summary BB.

I was impressed by the energy, especially in first 20-30 mins, and how they rose to the challenge of playing without a hooker. Young players seem to be improving week on week. Discipline seemed to be pretty good this week too and we look better for not getting drawn into a brawl. We need to come out for the start of the second half wide awake and switched on.
I just feel so proud of our academy products.