Well, everyone knows Wigan is the birth place of the cannon ball tackle and head hunting. The YouTube of Cassidy v Morley, still dont know how Morley avoided being decapitated.

I'm going to assume your's and Saddened's responses are to what you perceive as trolling. If not, you both need to go and give your head a shake.

Fair question from the original poster though. Without falling into the troll/countertroll it would be interesting to know why practically every criticism against Wigan, as posted by you on here the other day, was duplicated by a very effective Saints team last night without murmur. Not having a go at you JM. We all suffer from being a little 'one eyed' at times but your criticisms and how you felt about such tactics the other day were pretty specific.

I personally don't like to see it as it slows the game down and makes for a pretty boring game if everyone adopts it. It really is spoiling the game as a spectacle. However, its within the laws of the game (as long as it's not a cannon ball or high hit) so all teams can do it if they want to. To be honest, if you watch Wigan, they try to get even more in the tackle, often 4 or 5. They are able to get off and back in the line of defence as it takes so long for them all to get off.

The laws need to change to make it quicker, so if a team puts so many in a tackle, they should still have to clear the ruck in the same time as if it was 1 or 2 in the tackle. Less teams would want to risk men not getting back the 10 so would be less inclined to do it.

Or alternatively pass the ball closer to the defensive line, use offloads or move the ball more quickly to the fringes. There are many ways to counteract more bodies in the tackle without legislating against it. It could even create an advantage for the attacking team if done well. Evolution, rather than luddism should be the order of the day here. The challenge has been set. It's up to coaches and teams to rise to it.

I watched the Wigan game and literally every tackle was a 3 man wrestle. Good for the goose , good for the gander

People need to remember Saints were the first to bring in a wrestling coach into training, to help slow the game down in the tackle! All teams for me Wrongly slow the game down too much at times, and many players at all clubs drop down as the third man! which can hurt, it's like offside, but if the referee pulled up every incident the game would be stopping all the time.

I think saints technique then was slightly different to what is now, they would put the opposition on there backs pretty quickly and just gain a few seconds peeling off. These days some tackles and PTB's can take about 20 seconds when the third man come in, I don't like it all, it knocks the intensity and entertainment out of games. It also is damaging to players joints as the wrestle is more prolonged, something that Wilkin picked up on last season in the media.

I remember Scully saying they would train and try to get PTB's to 4 seconds and when defending twice that amount. Today if it goes any slower and the PTB is played without standing then its going towards Rugby Union into something similar to a loose ruck.

It's the angle the third man comes in at. Too many times Wigan's third man comes in side on to the knee bending the defender's knee out of the natural joint bend. This is very dangerous.

There are certain players that care less about the welfare of other players BUT all teams are trying to play this wrestling game.

It's the refs and the rfl that need to step in, players and coaches will play to the edge of the rules, move the boundaries and they have to move theirs.

Can't you find anything else to whinge about?

I was up Cowley last night watching the kids train and they spent a good 3 mins on wrestling and a good 30 mins on 3 in the tackle and this was at u13s level.

If this 3 man slowing down the tackle and play the ball becomes the norm then that for me might mean jacking it in watching rugby league.
We'll just end up with boring rugby with lots of players injured watching the game from the stands.
If teenage kids are being coached this way then I can't see enough players coming through and physically developing the right way. At 13 years of age bones, tendons and ligaments are not fully developed, wrestling one on one is OK but when you get 3 players on 1 player at whatever age.....something is going to go wrong.

It's bringing a system in that runs thru the kids up to 19s and then into first grade.

There's an argument that getting kids playing against set defences where the tackle has been controlled can help develop better halfbacks and ball players because they can't really on quick plays and must be more skillful to break down the opposition. So it could have benefits as well as drawbacks.

The biggest problem is the flat attacks and quick defensive line speeds meaning its a forward battle up to the 5th tackle for most teams then a tactical kick by the half backs, you can get quick ball out wide when defences tire but that doesn,t happen frequent enough.
Quicker play the balls means you,ve got more open play for half backs to work with in support play and direction options instead of facing a long line of set defence with little gaps to target.
For the last 5 years with flat attacks and quick defences to slow the game down we have not produced any half backs at all.

The current half backs are getting hammered this season, sometimes the defence gets a 20 sec rest with the wrestle tackle giving them a short period to recovery, if this was only a 5 sec recovery period then by the 3rd tackle there are going to be some tired legs out there for the half backs to exploit.