I did acknowledge this in my opening post....but...think of the very few opportunities our wide men had, ball in hand. If I remember right, Meli had some space in the 1st half were he could have done much better, and Foster had a few on the other. Admittedly, they were only half chances. If they had some pace, they'd have got us much further up that pitch or created a chance for a supporting player to run on to. What happened though, Meli got quickly closed down, tried to go inside & tackled easily-chance gone. Foster, tried to kick past the covering defence. Which is creative play to be fair but he didn't have the speed to chase the ball, despite the defence having to turn.

I'm not slagging them off in terms of quality, but in terms of pace our backline doesn't trouble the opposition like we used too. This might sound a bit daft...but wingers (and centres) are supposed to be very fast! As usual, there seems to be a lack of respect for the wing position in this country. We throw players who are centres, stand off's, scrum halfs etc in the Youth team on the wing in the 1st team???!!! ie. There's a lad who plays stand off in the youth team, they all harp on about him being next big thing. So what do we do, we promote them to the 1st team & throw them on the bloody wing. If they're not good enough to trust them to play in the same position as they do in the youth team then don't pick them!! The winger position is a specialist position & should be treated as such.

Sorry for ranting, but just to add...what if you're signed from an amateur club & you play on the wing. And you watch the lads playing in the halfs being promoted to the 1st team to play in your specialist position. You'd be gutted. No wonder the Aussies always smash us in the backs.

I think he defense was utter shocking on our left along with lomax. They was all over the place and wigan knew it.

He's good with ball ball but the fact he can't catch when in the wing and can't defend in the centre means he is always going to be a target for other teams.

We should get shut, his weakness by far out weigh his positives.

Speed was a massive factor in losing the game last night i thought. We had players giving Wigan the outside and then not being able to get across the cover it, due to not being fast enough. Also, we make breaks and in the past we'd have Sullivan, Newlove, Albert, Lyon etc. flying up in support, but now we just can't finish it off when we make a break. We lack pace, in the outside backs especially, and it needs sorting, but it has done for the last few years.

I agree but next year we will have shenton and prob wheeler in the centre which is more pace than gidley and meli at the moment.

Also, we will have kyle and pryce back and they ain't slow either.

Get shut of both meli and gardner and we will be alot better outwide.

Can Wheeler, Eastmond and Lomax keep fit though? There useless if they can't.

Pryce and Eastmond inject pace into the halfbacks, no doubt about it, but out wide at the minute we have nothing, and i think its harsh to blame Meli for yesterday, defensively they ripped his side apart but Lomax was awful in defence IMO. Meli has had a very good season.

Get a motorbike.

Both meli and lomax was awful in defence and meli has had good season but he's to dodgy.

Wheeler, eastmond and lomax do seem injury prone but next year maybe they will put the injuries behind them and show us what they are capable of.

Only time will tell with those three, lets just hope!

I recall one Easter Monday after we'd just been tonked by a Widnes team containing Tait, Davies and Offiah we were stook in traffic and the local radio were doing a post match interview with Saints coach Alec Murphy, he commented that the three most important things in rugby were Pace, Pace & Pace, Widnes had it and we didn't.

Ok its a bit of an over simplification, but one good break by a fast winger or centre can get a team on a roll

Hopefully thats the case, but i can't see it myself. They've got potential no doubt about it, but they need to toughen up an awful lot.

Watch out for David Hewitt!

David hewitt?

Look out!

Watch out for the name. Lightning fast!

Gaz hocks eyes will light up if he sees the title to this thread.