Not being negative but given their injuries and home advantage this was a game i would have expected us to win.

I was pleased with our ability to keep composed until the final ten minutes, especially with Briers going off.

Hill was great, Morley fairly ineffectual (but coming back from injury.) Westwood seems to have found some of his Mojo. Higham - wow. Myler the usual quality.

I'd agree that Wigan can take a lot from that performance especially for thirty minutes of the second half.

Talk about a game of inches. If Charnley had come out of the line a half second quicker.......

Great game but the LLS is still theirs to lose which I'm not particularly bothered about.

That's brilliant, good side story to the game. Cheers

Anybody else a bit concerned about Hodgson? Been great for us, but really starting to look old on the field.

Ready made replacement in Ratchford, far more effective from Full-back.....and can now kick!

Really impressed by the way both teams approached/played the game last night. Must've scared the Bejeebus out of the rest of the league ....

Just watched the match replay (to dilute the obvious bias you get on the terraces), and after getting to half time just 10-0 down, Wigan desperately needed a lift .... and they got it with the two 50-50 decisions going their way right at the start of the second half. The 'forward pass' against Myler, and the non 'obstruction' to make the hole for Tomkins to go over for the try. On the night, I thought both were the right call - watching the replay, both could've gone Wires way (nearly fell off my chair when I heard Clarkey saying as much) ....... that would've been Myler through on the breakaway for a 16-0 lead .... now this isn't a 'we never get anything?' rant .... 50-50's are exactly that, and the timing of them as well which way they go is vitally important to how a match plays out. Turns out, for the neutral, those two made the match near perfect!

Had those decisions gone Wires way, would that have quashed any thoughts of a Wigan fightback? Would their heads have gone down? We'll never know ...... instead they got fired up and played some brilliant stuff to force the 2nd breakthrough ........ which was cue for a 30 minute Wire onslaught, that Wigan nearly survived.

Top class rugby .......

First of all as a rhinos fan well done on last nights game, Myler is turning out to be a good buy for you, felt a bit sorry for briers one of my favorite players, it looked like he had just gone ten rounds with mike Tyson .
Anyway my point is a ball boy tale, many years ago when Anderson was coach at a very successful Halifax side, my pals son was a very young ball boy, no coach had ever bothered to speak to the ball boys. To my pals sons delight Anderson had a few training sessions with the ball boys. They were instructed to make certain to get the ball on quickly to Halifax for a quick tap. He also provided them with a number of dodges to delay quick ball to the opposition .
I am not certain any of this had any influence on any match result, but it made a young boy feel part of the team.
With a bit of luck we may meet again at old trafford.

Not concerned about him, concerned he's possibly going on one year too far. But he has been and still is an exceptional talent

Two totally opposite full backs on show last night. Hodgson will rarely break the line when returning kicks, Tomkins seems to do it at will against most other teams.

But if you want a full back to wrap around the from the play the ball and chime into the line and creat tries for his team mates then Hodgson is still the best in the league at that.... Tomkins more often than not joins that line and Throws the Dummy like Leon Pryce only a bit better...!! he gets rewards from that again against most other teams, but last night he was quite easily dealt with except for one occasion.

Its great that Ratchford can drop in to cover if Hoggy is out but then you get to see the missing creativity. Ratchford has that individual Skill but lacks the composure and reading of the game that Hodgson has.

I still prefer to have Hodgson at Full back, yes I tut and sigh when he returns a kick and almost accepts the tackle, but Stuart Reardon was a great kick returner but not in the same league as a fullback as Hodgson which is why he's at north Walse somthing or other and Hoggys at the Wire.

Hodgson's coming to the end of his career, so no surprises he's playing at about 80% of what he used to be .... but it's in the same way that a youngster like Currie is only 80% of the player he will become. That's how a squad develops.... the youngsters come up to speed as the experienced ones fade out, and I think Wire are doing a good job of managing that squad position right now.

Big difference between Tomkins & Hodgson is Tomkins bursts headlong into a play to take the ball, then runs & jinks about to try and find the space - Hodgson steps back, thinks about where the space is likely to develop, and manouvres himself AND the players around him to best use that impending space.

As Tomkins has found out in the last couple of years, better sides (Leeds, Wire, even Saints) can shut down a runner; thinking full backs however are a nightmare to defend .... and if he goes to the NRL he'll face 7-8 sides with that level of play. The lads got to learn how to think himself into space, or he's going to get hurt - a lot!

No.

He saved a certain Wigan try, and very nearly got the ball over for a try himself. Yes he doesn't have the pace that he had, but he makes up for it with his positional nous, running into the line, and reading of the game. I was very surprised when he was offered a two year extension, but I am happy to admit I was wrong - I think he definitely deserves another year.

He's always looked 'old' that's just Hodgson, it's the same as Westwood and Harrison looking knackered after 5 minutes yet probably being the fittest two on a field.

Can anybody provide the posession stats for the first and second half?

What a corker of a game, each team giving 110%.

Briers shoulder charge why did they ban that, understand if it contacts with the head should be a ban but not that.

Shudder to think what you and wigan will do to bradford in the next couple of weeks, boat without an engine atm.

I'd be more concerned why Wigan couldn't post more points in the second half, having the lion's share of posession for the first twenty minutes. We didn't touch the ball between the 40th and 52nd minute. It took until the 60th minute, before we completed consecutive sets of six.

It's ridiculous that the shoulder charge was banned. Dangerous tackles were banned anyway and that included dangerous shoulder charges but good clean shoulder charges are a great part of the game. Plus every time a player with the ball goes on a run into a tackle, he shoulder charges the tacklers and if he raises his arms dangerously it's a penalty, so what's the difference between attack and defence?

Stupid rule!

Wouldn't go mentioning that to the Ben's

Hodgson comments are OTT in my view. There are many still learning from him and he certainly helps organize the defence. I thought he had a very good game.
In fact most players did.

I agree with an earlier poster commenting on Woody and Hill being on top form.
They needed to be.

Wigans 'youngsters' played very very well.