Dreadful turnout from Wigan. Nothing more to be said.

I thought it was Hull vs Hudds, plus several hundred neutrals in the Hudds end to bump up their numbers obviously.

Whilst i understand the logistics of travelling to Doncaster from Wigan on a friday night, and do share some of the frustration no clubs should have to travel across the pennines on a friday night, especially for a big game like this.
But this is the so called biggest club in the world, the club that flew the flag for RL for many years, the biggest name in the game with fans all over the place, who very rarely fail to pull less than 5 figure crowds at home and take a good following away. and it was a pitiful turnout, if that had been Huddersfield, Salford, Catalans,London,Wakefield et al, they would have been absolutely slated for embarrassing the sport etc.

I think the BBC/RFL just presumed with it being Wigan, the ground would automatically sell out.

The ironic thing is, Wigan would probably take that number or more to a grand final decider in Hull on a friday night, so using that solely as an excuse is poor.

See what i mean And you may mock, but we would have probably more than matched Wigan's turnout despite our home crowds being around 9 or 10,000 less than Wigan.

To be fair to Wane, his post match interview was spot on.

Is there one with subtitles on somewhere as I can't understand his wiganeese?

100% agree. He took it on the chin and gave Hull credit.

I think what told a more telling story was just how somber the Wigan changing room was after the game.

Come on meast - you know the drill - only Salford and hudds are allowed to have digs at their crowd. You can't have a go at the biggest ever RL club if they can't be bothered to trek down the M62 on a Thursday night- but just wait till hudds have to do it and the jibes will come thick and fast.

The point being, that Wigan have 3x as many regular match going fans as Huddersfield, so naturally you'd expect Wigan fans to turn up regardless of how far they have to travel, there is enough of them around the country to be able to muster more than 2,000 for a semi final surely?

Which was my point, had that been Huddersfield, Salford or Wakefield fans that had to travel on a friday night and only had 2,000 there, regardless of circumstances, the RL forums would be in meltdown by now, yet it's seemingly justified when it's fans of a big club who can't be bothered.

FWIW, in my post i also agreed that it's ludicrous to expect fans of any club to have to cross the pennines for a friday night semi final.

Quote: wrencat1873 "Very poor turn out from the Wigan "faithful". Hull appeared to have half the stadium but, there only looked to be 1500 Wigan fans. Where were they ?'" The fake letter from Lockers to let the fans leave work early obviously didn't work then. www.dailystar.co.uk/rugby-league ... per-League

Quote: wrencat1873 "Very poor turn out from the Wigan "faithful". Hull appeared to have half the stadium but, there only looked to be 1500 Wigan fans. Where were they ?'" The fake letter from Lockers to let the fans leave work early obviously didn't work then. www.dailystar.co.uk/rugby-league ... per-League

on witnessing Sean O'Loughlin's stiff arm takle that felled Wildcats forward Chris Annakin


Oh dear Shaun It looks like that treble has gone for this year pal...............Could be your job gone next as the locals are getting a bit miffed with you too

After watching the semi-final back, I can see why Wigan fans are staying away. That awful, negative style of play they are promoting is bad to watch, constantly moving off the mark, niggles in the tackle, backchatting the referee and badgering for penalties is an embarrassment to the sport.
The sooner he fecks off with his coaching manual, the better for the game all round.

niggles, backchatting, moving off the mark, all teams do these things. The issue is wigan's attack has gone completely stale. The structure that reaped such good rewards 2010 to 2013 is now, not easy to defend but very manageable for most teams in the league - they are the second lowest scorers. They have failed to adapt and evolve. They do have very committed hardworking youngsters and an excellent defence which is what has kept them in contention for the grand final, but had some of the cose games gone the other way they could just as easily be near mid table.

They have pace and skill within the team so if someone like Tony smith got hold of them they'd transform, but they stick rigidly to the systems since Maguire came.