Big gulf in class, bridged to a good extent by Herculean effort and ambition from Wigan. With that amount of lung-busting effort and throwing the ball around comes mistakes, nothing you can do about it. Great effort, never had a better than 10% chance in the first place - a lot of things have to go your way to win in a game like that. Heads never dropped.

Bowen was v. poor and looks like a waste of money so far.

He may turn out to be alright, but he's a very experienced player and needs to do better. You expect him to take a while to start getting involved in attacking plays and offering a threat, but being new to the side doesn't excuse basic errors at key times.

he was a 1 club man, its a new experience for him to come to a club and not be calling the shots. Long off season and he has put to much weight on he really needs to lose some of it to become as effective as he was last season. He dropped one ball for christ sake what basic errors? he tackled SBW on his on when he burst through don't see anybody mentioning that?
Some fans of other clubs love to exaggerate don't they jesus.

I probably am being a bit over critical, that one he dropped just stuck out like a sore thumb because it should have been simple and it came at a time when Wigan had just got themselves in the game and effectively ended their chances. The other two when Minichello out jumped him, whilst not errors as such, were really half hearted efforts.

I agree with you on that, that mistake with dudson's put an end to any chance of a comeback. And he was poor but not as bad as some fans are trying to make out, maybe they are just used to see tomkins rip them apart and bowen just isn't doing that.

i thought wigan tried hard and at times played well, but roosters were a different class, as someone said they hardly got out of 3rd gear, too many errors which sydney were happy to capitalise on.

I'd seen enough of Bowen against Hudds to make my mind up on him. Crap! Was hoping Hampshire would be picked even though I knew that was futile.

Didn't jump for a high ball and got made to look a prat.
Jumped for one but just turned his back and didn't actually go for the ball.
Shocking amount of fumbles.
Poor positional play

But more worrying for me is:

Doesn't look like he wants the ball or to run with it
Zero passion

I thought that was a very good effort from our lads. The gulf in class between the NRL and SL is pretty big and we where on a hiding to nothing today.
The problem with our first half performance was too much lateral play and not enough go forward. When we went back to basics in the 2nd half we made yards and caused them problems.
For me all of Wigans attacking structures are based around Tomkins. Bowen is no Tomkins and looks lost in our attacking structures. Either Bowen needs to adapt to our structures or we need to take a good look at Hampshire. I'm not going to write Bowen off yet as he is a class player but the pressure will quickly build on him.
For me Wigan are still the team to beat this year. A young pack with plenty of potential a lot of squad depth and a wing centre partnership of Burgess and Sarginson which seems to be flourishing. Don't write us off yet!

they certainly are so far

that was just our annual home loss to Huddersfield. Always happens

I thought Wigan put in a gritty performance, especially after a nightmare start. Roosters looked a bit sloppy after going so far ahead, especially SBW.

I’d still prefer this game at the end of the season though.

I just wish we'd have played our best rugby but it wasn't to be. That probably wouldn't have been enough but we could have come away with no regrets.

As for the individuals, Bowen needs to improve but to write him off so soon would be ridiculous. We're lucky we have such a good back up waiting to come in with Hampshire though just in case. I thought Sarginson and Burgess looked potentially a really good pairing and good prospects for the English game. Overall our best player though was a one legged Sean O'Loughlin! That was an immense effort from him and he proved just how good he really is today. I just hope we can get him fit now for some other games then just finals.

I am right though, even though I posted just after half time and they did improve.

I have watched the roosters plenty of times and they have played a lot worse than that before.

In summary the Roosters were in a league of their own without being that clinical. Wigan got themselves out of getting hammered. And on Bowen Wigan fans should not worry IMO because he is a class player. I have been watching the NRL for a couple of years now and he has really impressed me.