Don't know how anyone who loves RL could not enjoy that game, some fantastic attacking combinations and you've got to consider that's each teams 4th game in 2 weeks so you can understand a few missed tackles.

Speaking of which burgess looks like a dreadful defensive winger to me. He was at least partly at fault for all 3 of wires 1st half tries

He should've done better for the first two tries, but then again you can also partly lay blame on his centre.

Although i have an issue with his actions in the grand final, i don't have a problem with Ben Flower, he served his time and obviously has learnt some hard lessons and just wants to get his head down.
The standing ovation he got from the wigan fans and the way the sky team announced his return to the field made me uncomfortable however, this isn't a returning hero or a new marquee signing. not very classy at all.

"A few missed tackles" doesn't begin to describe BOTH sides' almost non-existent defence. At times I felt like I was watching the Rugby League equivalent of the French army capitulating en masse before Guderian's Panzer armies in 1940.

Tiredness after an intensive Easter schedule can only go so far in explanation. After all, busy Easters are nothing new. Yet compare with the bone-crunching defence that was a regular feature of Wigan-Warrington games not two or three seasons hence.

Far too many sides have seemingly given up on expansive play [ibased on a solid forward foundation[/i. Instead of setting up a platform teams are now skipping that stage entirely and pinging the ball left and right as though it were radioactive and prolonged exposure might result in instant death. Consider the absolutely diabolical stats posted by the entire Wigan front row at Leeds where players such as Tony Clubb managed no more than three of four drives in EIGHTY MINUTES.

I mean, sure - it makes for an entertaining game - especially when neither side seems capable of defence. But what happens when you suddenly meet a side that doesn't miss tackles - as was the case in the WCC? Or - more importantly - the Grand Final, where Wigan couldn't make so much as a yard down the centre channel against Saints' big pack and even though their backs providing forward momentum they very rarely looked like scoring against a committed defence which didn't leave yawning gaps for players to romp through with nary a finger laid on them.

In any case, for a side committed to giving their backs every opportunity Wigan have blown a remarkably large number of chances already this season. Consider the early game against Widnes in which they blew countless opportunities whilst seemingly cruising - only to then go on and lose the game. It's all well and good celebrating "thrilling back play" - providing the backs are dotting the Is and crossing the Ts. After all, eighty yard breaks which result in the linesman's flag being raised don't put any more points on the board.

It's ironic that precisely at the time when we really do look like we've turned the corner in terms of junior development - pragmatic, tactically sound rugby seems to have gone completely out of the window. I really do fear just how many bad habits these kids are picking up currently.

If anything we seem to be reverting to the very same kind of "unprofessional" rugby which landed us in our current and interminable predicament against Australia.



I couldn't agree more. How many mistakes does this kid make? And we're not just talking mundane errors. He really does seem to be taking a leaf out of the Francis Meli school of spectacularly cataclysmic blunders. I fear he is getting way ahead of himself joining the NRL at such a young and inexperienced age. The Australian competition really is not the arena you want to be joining if you are defensively suspect. If he makes half the errors he has so far this season they'll bust him down to the lower leagues so fast his head will spin. And once you pick up the kind of tag that Francis Meli was saddled with it's practically impossible to shake off.

I suggest that Burgess will become a better player than he is when the Roosters get hold of him.

I enjoyed the Warriors/Wolves game. The unpredictability made it exciting, you never quite knew who was going to do what.

It was excellent entertainment IMO and light years ahead of other sports at all levels on the field.

We need more games like that, not predictable games where it's usually possible to predict the winners which is why the bookies odds are damned awful.

Or you could have predictable, programmed defence orientated, one man out Rugby which what most teams appear to play. I prefer open rugby as , I suggest, do most other followers of the game.

I know, totally Wane's fault that Lance's elbow to Flower's face happened to get the heat of the moment reaction from Flower. Lucky that Lance didn't pickup a ban or anything.

Lucky that in the last couple of weeks we have only seen Chase in a controlled malicious attack on another player and get less of a ban, this for a player who chose to break a lower divisions player's jaw in the CC.

The Sky documentary... shows what a changing room is like. If you think this is much different in other teams you need your bumps read. Going even further back, Long and Gleason in a betting scandal bringing St Helens into disrepute but it's OK for Long to be given a leadership role at the same club after that pretty big error in judgement isn't it?

Rubbish. Wigan-Warrington games from two or three years ago were neither boring nor "predictable". Both sides balanced the need for exciting play in the backs against sound forward pragmatism and rock solid defence.

If Rugby League has evolved beyond the need of yard-making props and defensively robust back row forwards then why isn't the NRL currently pre-occupied with fielding two teams made up exclusively of backs?

I mean, you'd think experienced watchers of SL would know only too well the folly of mobility over all else. It wasn't that long ago when Ian Millward (coming off the back of a SL title) all but declared hard yards to be an anachronistic obsession best thrown away like yesterday's trash.

To be fair, the decision appeared sound enough when Saints blew away all comers early in the campaign. But come the season mid-point, when players are picking up injuries, tiredness is an increasing factor and intermittent bouts of changeable summer weather wreak havoc with handling, Saints' form collapsed entirely. Millward's mobile forwards counted for absolutely naught when bigger sides were smashing them for a handful of yards per carry. And with no forward momentum the backs very quickly found it impossible to hit the ball running. Instead they often received the ball whilst rooted to the spot and thus were easy meat for the defensive wolves.

There's a reason teams don't win Grand Finals (in either hemisphere) with props who can't manage five carries in a game despite being on the field for the same amount of time as their opposite numbers.

And if we think the Aussies are lambs to the slaughter in the face of this new brand of "miracle rugby" a very, very painful lesson awaits.

Shocking defense on show last night. Wigans pack is so weak. I suppose the signing of Sam Tomkins will help them next season but they need some quality in their pack. if they can get this in the off season they would walk SL next season

Regard

King james

Hampshire has full back covered and Sam is joining as 10 to help the pack.

If Wire had had any brains they would have constantly targeted the Pies left edge. Bridge was walking through Sarginson as though he wasn't there.

That can't be the same incident that many Wigan fans at the time described as a deliberate forearm smash of such savagery, that it warranted the retaliation meted out by Flower? Shurely some mishtake...

Are Wigan fans still carrying on with this 'Hohaia started it' nonsense

Although I agree with much of your post, Flower fully deserved a long suspension. Not for the first punch, but for punching the head of a defenceless man already prone on the ground. Had it happened in the street and caught on CCTV, he would have expected a custodial sentence.

Yep.
First punch = a bit of biff. A warning to those pesky halves to sit down and shut up ya girl. A sin bin from the ref and a commendation from the PFU.

Second punch = Total no no. It's not tough to do that. Definite red card & definite very long ban. He was lucky to get only 10 games for it. I'd have added another 3 or 4 on.


However, he's done his time. Good luck to him except when he plays Leeds.