hilarious.

Wigan fan here
Very proud of Fielden last night
He had the tough job of taking on the Wire pack as 'the prop' given Prescott's inexperience
Sure he got took a few hits and made some errors as a result but his tireless defence and attitude was fantastic

well he did ok when Paul Wood & Ben Harrison let him out of their pocket...

Agreed.

It's been incredibly hard for Fielden in recent seasons due to an overall lack of front row depth at Wigan.
If he was playing in the same XVII as Morley, Carvell and Wood then his effectiveness would be far greater.

Fielden in recent years has failed to make his mark on games in the way he did when at Bradford - I put this down to 2 things; in Bradford he was a part of one of the most formidable prop quartets & indeed packs SL has seen, he was used alongside McDermott, Vagana & Anderson as the free running prop and anyone who saw his try at the JJB v Australia in 04 will testify to his class in that position at the time - the move to Wigan was a bizarre one and one which has exposed he is not cut out for a pack leader (no shame in that, not all are, Paul Wood being another) and he goes missing for long periods in matches when the rest of his pack are looking to him to inspire as Morley, Graham or Peacock are able to. The second reason is that since Willie Mason laid him out he has lost his bottle for the fight with the big boys - he's quite happy to bully the half-backs but is scared of facing another punch like the one Mason caught him with...

Fielden's biggest problem is that he bottled out of the move to Aus in favour of the JJB. He will never be able to back up the reputation he had in the mid 2000's as the world's best forward as he didn't prove his worth on the biggest stage as Morley did, as Burgess is doing and as Graham surely will.

I hope wigan give him another contract.

Wigan would never give a 30 odd year odd prop a contract, that would be stupid, just look at the mistake we made with Morley.

The best hit was Anderson on Hansen. That changed the game completely.

Good post.

I heard it was written in his new contract,that he could take the day off whenever Wigan played Wire.

I think hansen will also be asking for a similar type of contract.

beat me too it haha

I thought Hansen was on about getting Moz back, didn't happen.

to be fair to fielden,he did alright considering the bashing he took last night and nobodys bravery should be called into question in what was a fierce match with plenty of big defence involved.

Great post.