Which still isn't bad given were all running on half the cap size ... Given certain posters on here and elsewhere have written off the Middle 8s for the exact same reason, maybe this will give them hope...

I cheered Warrington and Wigan on like they were my own team, I can never stomach any Aussie team, and I'm not sure how any other English person could. However, I'm not going to start licking Wigan's sphincter just because they showed heart but came up short. The majority of them wouldn't do the same for any other SL team.

Just watching the game after getting back from the DW. I'm not sure what some people were watching but I certainly didn't see a Wigan team get dominated physically, in fact each side dominated for spells throughout the game with massive hits on both sides. If we were so utterly dominated and terrible surely it's remarkable to hold Brisbane to a draw after 80 minutes, moreso when you consider they only scored their tries off an error and a very dubious penalty.

For me most of the Wigan lads played superbly, but some of our execution in attack was dubious. Our defence was outstanding given the terrible territory we had in the second half, and the couple of clean breaks Brisbane made - great scrambling. Bateman in particular was outstanding. Oddly, our worst player for me was Burgess, who not only conceded us the first try, but also gave away possession several times in our own 20-30, territory that hurt us and resulted in defensive work that led to our tiredness late on when the defensive line became passive. His try was well taken but he cost us dear.

As for the officials, I give up. British refs have been terrified of upsetting the ockers for years and that continues. Given that we were playing SL rules there were plenty of late flops, forward passes and other incidents you'd see pinged in SL - and what does an ocker have to do to get a yellow for a high shot???? And that Bateman 'obstruction'?!! Please. Even the final penalty - given what had been let go you have to wonder. Yet again, question marks over the officials.

Overall Brisbane were probably the better side - more breaks and fewer errors. What's frustrating is Wigan's own errors gifted them the game. And what a terrible, lame (but amusing) way to end such a hard-fought and intense contest. I'd have loved Brisbane to decline the kick and run it, but at the same time I'd have taken the 2 like a shot.

Oh well. Another tough, enjoyable spectacle, a good crowd and good to see a few Cas, Hull, Hull KR, Saints, Leeds and even RU shirts tonight. Not sure I can forgive the Hull FC fan I heard shouting 'Brisbane, Brisbane' though.

Finally, come on Saints, I'll be cheering you on, unlike a few muppets who choose to support the convicts.

Wigan competed well to say they have a 6,7 & both 9s who are completely hopeless in attack.

Agreed. There were any number of obstruction pens that could have been given or lazy grabs round the head, yet the two that decide the game in the Aussies favour were probably the softest of the lot.

Thats all it boiled down to in the end, Bentham picking a couple of soft pens to give to the Aussies.

For those of you who don't follow the NRL let me explain one simple point: the top six NRL teams (South Sydney, Sydney Roosters, Penrith, Manly, North Queensland, Melbourne) are a class above the two NRL teams who have been seen so far. They are a class above because of the quality of their attack. There has been no superstars like Gregory Inglis, Johnathan Thurston, or William Slater, on show so far. Only superstar in the making Anthony Milford, and former superstar Benji Marshall. The top six, by contrast, have numerous sharp and skilful attackers, even if not all superstars.

Take Souths Sydney: they have Gregory Inglis, Dylan Walker, Alexander Johnston, Adam Reynolds, Isaac Luke, and George Burgess all capable of busting holes in opposition defences. But Wigan doesn't even have anyone of their quality in the team. Wigan's two best attacking units -- Daniel Sarginson and Matthew Bowen --- are each before their prime and past their prime respectively. Wigan's halves would not make it into any NRL team. The truth is that the soggy ground played into Wigan's hands in that it kept their opponents from powering through them or running around them.

I could point to the same array of attacking talents in Sydney Roosters: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Michael Jennings, Blake Ferguson, James Maloney, Mitchell Pearce, Boyd Cordner, Aiden Guerra, Jared Wharea-Hargreaves, Jake Friend. Those players would have cut Wigan's defence to ribbons.

The cruel and painful fact is that the top English Super League clubs are only barely equal to mid-table NRL clubs. It has been proven over the past two nights.

Unless it rains or snows on Sunday, thereby making open attacking rugby league difficult, South Sydney will crush St. Helens.

You're up late Jean - 2:30am in France no?

It is not painful. Most reasonable and knowledgeable RL fans in this country realise that this is the case. As another poster has pointed out, the NRL runs with a much bigger cap, and has even started to hoover up the cream of our League so it stands to reason their top few clubs are better.

Not to say we can't compete in one off games which we have proved time and again in this format especially when the games are over here which i guess we need to level it up a bit. I have enjoyed both games so far and look forward to tonight, I wasn't expecting much from the first two games but they have been thoroughly enjoyable and set up the main game nicely.

Good luck to Saints, this is the one that counts

I thought Tautai and Clubb gave Wigan decent go forward in the 1st half when they came on but that went mnissing in the 2nd. When they came back out the Brisbane forwards started to make easier yards dowwn the middle, where Wigan struggled. Did Tautai play the 2nd half because I don't remeber seeing him?

Even though both sets of half backs were pretty poor, Brisbane especially in the 2nd half kicked far better. Smiths kicking especially deep, just about always went straight to a Brisbane player. While the oppo was able to split the fullback and wing on many occasions, leaving Wigan having to start sets from their own 10/20meter line most times, which was a big part of the 2nd half imo.

I enjoyed the game. Was an old fashioned style close encounter. I thought Brisbane won without having to do much. They knew their new half back pairing wasn't gelling so hammered the Wigan team with their forwards. The Wigan team couldn't cope with ferocity of the Brisbane tackling and started going sidewards and getting niggly (usually against the smaller Broncos). As Wigan tired Millford came into the game more and should have won it in normal time. Fair play to Wigan that was hard work, they were being dominated and increasingly struggling to stop the breaks but they defended manfully and, with virtually no territory in the second half, drew in normal time. Superb try to level it up. Thought Brisbane were much smarter and had the mom in Josh McGuire

I thought he ref was fine, let most things go by both teams, got involved when he had to usually cos players reacted. Bateman was an obstruction. Tomkins was high and looked like he landed on Parker's head with his knees (so 3 match ban coming I assume if we're really bothered about consistency). The high shot was nowhere near as bad as Ah Van's. Was similar in appearance but v different in timing and strength. If Bowen had got up it wouldn't even have been given. I'm bored now of every high shot being compared to the Ah Van one and people believing that refs have ever and could ever make every single decision in the same way

Overall, very enjoyable

For me the best parts of the game was the defence for both sides. Proper bone crushing never say die stuff. There were several times when you thought either side would score and then a defender came out of nowhere to shut them down. Really was good to see the determination for a so called 'warm up game' to the WCC. I know the pitch and weather didn't lend itself for fast free flowing rugby but it was a shame for all that the attacking play didn't meet the standards of the defence on show. Still enjoyable anyway.

Normally during a normal SL game I try to stay away from ref bashing but these 2 games have been worth a mention even though my own team isn't involved.

IMO Bateman didn't do much wrong, the kick came in, he turned to face his own line, then the Brisbane player ran into him & went over like he'd just been shot in the head. I don't thinik Bateman changed his line to purposely obstruct the Brisbane player, he just seem to run into him. I defy anyone to turn 180 degrees without a slight change of line, unless you can Pirouette. Like what's been mentioned before, it was the consistency of reffing and unfortunately it just so happend that those 2 incidents most are talking about, lead to a try and then the winning points. I bet if we watched the game again we could find equal or worse head shots than the Tompkins one, that went unpunished but I suppose that's the same every game.

Anyway it is what is and I'll look forward to tomorrrows game, which I hope will be a great spectacle and show the best of both teams.

You're quite idiotic at simple points though aren't you. You just keep harping on repeatadly that any Aussie or French player is the dog go-nads on several threads without illustrating any real basic RL knowledge other than nationality of the players.

The idiotic one is the poster who has missed my frequent big noting of Kiwi sensation Shaun Johnson, or of Englishmen George Burgess, Sam Burgess, and James Graham. In fact George Burgess was, along with Kiwis Isaac Luke, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Jared Wharea-Hargreaves, one of the class attacking players I cited in the quote you excerpted from. What a pity that you are so incapable of reading or understanding what I write.