Quote: Smiffy27 "Before the League game I was happy with Sam's decision to rest players as I thought they would lack commitment & possibly get injured or banned. I don't like trying to be clever after the event. I don't see how you can suddenly become disjointed by not playing one match. My reason for being disjointed is the extra pressure that a motivated Wigan cause. Few sides have played well v. Wigan recently. Having said that, of course, we can play miles better than that. Was it the opposition or the occasion ... I'd sway towards the opposition having watched Wigan in action so many times'"
I'm referencing what Matt Peet said here when he mentioned that he rested players according to their individual needs. Basically he said that some can come in and out of the side without missing a beat (he mentioned Farrell and Cooper by name but you could also add players like Havard in that group) and others needed to keep playing to be at their best. I feel it's unlikely that everyone Wire rested would fall into the first group and you only need a couple key players to be off on the day for things to become ragged.
Obviously, I don't know all the Wire players well enough individually but I do remember certain players needing time to get up to speed in the past. Wasn't Dufty one who took time to get up to his best? He certainly had moments on Saturday where he looked slightly off it. Keighran, for us, would be an example of a player who's played himself into form so would probably have played the week before had he not been banned.
You'd know better than me, of course, which players fit into which category but it seemed, given the disjointed nature of the performance after playing so well for several weeks leading up to the final that it could be a factor.
I do get your point regarding Wigan's performance being a bigger factor and I would totally agree. That defensive intensity would disrupt most teams as it did Penrith back in February.