Well said old chap !

And as for Paul Wood ...there are times when he's been slagged off on here for silly passes at times but the effort he has put into the team season after season has been immense & he must be one of the cleanest players in the game. You would expect his name to one of the first on the team sheet every week .

I honestly think the missing players wouldn't have been able to play that game at that pace ..... it was clear from the way Wigan warmed up (fast run-ons, crossfield kicks etc) that having to use younger players who weren't going to be able to 'arm wrestle' Wire directly, forced Wigan to go for a Plan B of best using the attributes those incoming players had, namely faster play of the ball and pace out wider ..... and it nearly worked!

Had to laugh at Briers winding Sam up when he was trying to complain to the ref. Ended up laughing himself. Briers has been a thorn in other teams sides for a long time but the game will lose one hell of a character when he finally hangs up his boots!

Wigan approached the game the way they always should, relying on good hands and good moves to put players in space rather than offloads or quick play the balls from busting up forwards (crosby break aside). Its when they deviate from that plan, or that game plan is cut off that we really struggle, but the kids managed to get the execution right for most of the game.

That incident was really funny. Despite the intensity the two of them atill had time for a laugh. the other incident that really summed up the game of RL for me was when Woody timed his hit on Sam perfectly and absolutely cleaned him out. sam simply got up and played the ball. Tremendous.

Remember thinking he was walking like he'd been bummed at the end. Didn't look too major though.

Well that's one way of putting it ha ha

Well done the Wire! Nice to see that a decent team can put the brakes on the Wiggin jugernaut at last. Typical patronising comments from the Pies on this thread. They wouldn't have been so generous if your league positions were reversed. Their comments are akin to patting a small child on the head.
Hopefully when the big games come at the business end of the season they will choke, again.

The juggernaut was being serviced on Monday. We had to make do with the works van!

Quote: pies-r-us "It’s a long time that I was so cheerful about losing a game. Both sides were up for it big time, and I would have been even more chuffed with a draw, which would have been a fair result IMO. With who we had missing I thought we showed great guts. Just think if this game had been one from the dark-side, a Lions game (as if) it would have gone down in RU history, and parts shown over and over again for years to come. Our great game is so maligned by the old school ties at the BBC and others, that it is forced into looking unfashionable and lower class with the mass of people who would love it as we all do, if only it had a fair roll of the dice.'" Spot on. Why don't we all e-mail Brian Robertson, Chief Executive of HSBC, to ask him when the 'world's local bank' will be announcing their sponsorship of the 'local' rugby world cup right here this autumn? His e-mail address is : managingdirectoruk@hsbc.com . After all, they seem keen on rugby. I've already done it. No reply to date ( surprise, surprise ).

Quote: pies-r-us "It’s a long time that I was so cheerful about losing a game. Both sides were up for it big time, and I would have been even more chuffed with a draw, which would have been a fair result IMO. With who we had missing I thought we showed great guts. Just think if this game had been one from the dark-side, a Lions game (as if) it would have gone down in RU history, and parts shown over and over again for years to come. Our great game is so maligned by the old school ties at the BBC and others, that it is forced into looking unfashionable and lower class with the mass of people who would love it as we all do, if only it had a fair roll of the dice.'" Spot on. Why don't we all e-mail Brian Robertson, Chief Executive of HSBC, to ask him when the 'world's local bank' will be announcing their sponsorship of the 'local' rugby world cup right here this autumn? His e-mail address is : managingdirectoruk@hsbc.com . After all, they seem keen on rugby. I've already done it. No reply to date ( surprise, surprise ).

I can safely say that even if the Wires had lost I could've walked away from that game and say WOW!

Exactly, that game would have graced the NRL at the very top level. It was the best game of the year by a long, long way.

It was so tense at the game I didn't realise how quick and brutal the game actually was. Having watched it back a few times, I have to say that that second half was one of the most brutal halves of Rugby League I have ever seen. Shame that one team had to win, I personally think a draw would have been perfect, again.

It's the closest we have to Origin. The fans felt it, there was enough respect while a deep underlying hatred, and the game was first class! Collisions were bigger than 'a league game' and the pace was electric!

Still, I'm left scratching my head whether it was genius or stupidity from Sky putting it on a Monday. Any new viewers would be foaming at the mouth for more, but how many tuned in?

Having watched the game back again it was brutal stuff.... the intensity was at max for pretty much the whole game.

Due to errors, decisions and kick charge downs we gave up a ridiculous amount of possession.

Wigan had pretty much all their strike players there and they scored 2 trys, one of those questionable.... we soaked up all that pressure then came through last 10 minutes when we had more in the tank.

Thats one of the most high impact games of rugby ive seen in a while.. there wasn't a poor player on the pitch.

Great stuff