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Quote: Winslade's Offload "Yes, we just lost this one at the death. For those that didn't come - you missed a real treat, well, in the second half at least, when Wire really got stuck in and took the game to Wigan. And there was a big crowd to watch the game in the sun with over 1100 people. Most of the forwards played really well and Joe Philbin returned to form with some very strong tackling and good quality tries. Tom Walker also was immense and looked a bit like Chris Hill does for the senior team. For the first 30 minutes or so it was a very tame Wire that turned up and promptly conceded a substantial lead to the visitors. But then we saw a bit of passion as our senior players suddenly started to take on the Wigan forwards and even started to rough them up, in fact I was convinced it was going to end in a street fight. Although the side didn't reduce the points arrears much by the end of the first half, the match seemed to change at that point and the second half was a real contest, with Wigan just managing to hang on and take the win.

I have watched a lot of U9's this year and have come to a couple of conclusions. Firstly, Wire, Wigan, Saints and Leeds academies are well ahead of the rest of the league. That may sound like good news, unfortunately I think it detracts from the preparation of the youngsters for SL. There are too many games where the offence and defence can take it easy, where teams can play at low intensity, and making errors does not get sufficiently punished. Second, and a bit more controversial I am afraid, I am not convinced our U19's are being prepared in the right manner. We lack mongrel. We give far too much space to opposition forwards and backs, thus handing them the initiative and yardage. We don't force forwards backwards in the tackle very often - tackles invariably look like those that are practiced by the team during the warm up. In short, the team looks more like an U16 side where practice at accomplishing the correct moves, field position, and body positioning in tackles is still being perfected in preparation for the next level of football. If you compare Wigan to Warrington U19, you see a side that mirrors the senior team - they look far more professional - even down to the tricks to gain that extra bit of yardage in the tackle, and conning the ref that you are being held down. Yes Wigan have far more talent to choose from than we do, but to give ourselves a chance perhaps we need to have a seamless coaching regime from the first team down through the U19's. Having said all that, I know nothing about coaching, this is simply how I see it.'"

We were saying the same thing at the game, the Wigan U19s played in a very similar style to the senior side but our U19s did not have the DNA of the first team. In fact we barely saw a single offload particularly from the forwards.

Terrific high quality game though, both sets of players should take great credit and good luck to any of them moving on to other clubs or to new opportunities.