Quote: Fantastic Mr Catpiss "nah, he's got the opportunity to inject himself into the game, the one occasion he did he got a penalty from ganson for us not being square. He limited his own involvement yesterday, barely did any kick returns, barely got in at dummy half on the first tackle which is a common tactic for him.
The only time you really saw him, was when he was getting himself involved needlessly, gobbing off following the hill mossop handbags and when wood got penalised for pushing farrell off him.'"
There was hardly any opportunity for him to inject himself into the game. Wigan struggled to get the ball wide throughout the game because the forwards had an absolute mare. The Wire pack was just completely dominant down the middle.
Shaun Wane did make a massive mistake in selecting Prescott who couldn't possibly be match fit (and showed that he definitely wasn't) and also playing Hansen who wasn't fit enough. If he thought Wigan could afford to carry two unfit players in the pack against the strongest pack in the league then he's very naive. Wire were always more likely to win the forward battle but Wane made it basically a certainty with his team selection.
Tomkins has little chance of getting involved when the team just can't get the ball wide and put together attacking moves. Hock was also starved of the ball because Finch was completely misfiring and the team just couldn't dominate enough to put any moves together. Both Tomkins and Hock had little opportunity to get involved because the team was trying to keep its shape but completely failing to do what was necessary to put any sort of move together.
He could have run from dummy half more but why would he? He would have hit a brick wall. Only strong runs would have made any difference.
One criticism certainly is fair though, and that's criticising his unwillingness to return kicks. The fact that he catches and then passes to Charnley just does exactly what defences want him to do. It completes removes any sort of threat that Wigan might have from returning kicks and it's about time Tomkins took the line on himself.