Westwood (probably back this week)
Russell (possibly back this week)
and Grix

There is also Ben Evans although he has been a long term injury, but the club are trying to recruit the healthcare management team that have recently been working for the DWP, if the club are successful in getting them on-board in time for Friday then all will be found fit.

Took me a min to figure out DWP.....









Department of Work and Pensions for those who struggled

Wigan do play structured but not in the way you suggest. In defence it's 3 men in the tackle, two to stop the man and 3rd comes in around the legs, here they can control the speed the man is grounded enabling the def line to reset. Of course there is a disadvantage this technique, if a player can attract 3 players and offload the ball Wigan will be disadvantaged around the ruck/tackle area. Nothing dirty, with pros and cons.

In attach they use arrow heads and dummy runners, offering each ball carrier 3 options per carry, pass short, pass long or run at the line, through practice we can play this at great speed with the FB sweeping round the back as a deep lying receiver it acts as a great threat to attacks. Again, predictable movement and structure which is a disadvantage yet fluent, difficult to stop at pace and allows players to fill in effortlessly if a man is injured, again nothing dirty or illegal.

A good read that. Put better than I did.

Bentham is the ref.

Oh f***

It will be Bentham again as Silverwood has just been confirmed as the St's v Cats ref.

Bentham is worth 6 points to the Pies already.
We need to get vocal on Friday to address the balance.

I fear this will be yet another game dominated by Bentham being inept again!!!

Well we are screwed unless we can negate the current Wigan tactics, he is simply the worst ref policing the ruck by a very long way.

My thoughts exactly,feel like going on their forum and congratulating them already.

I can't believe how much whining is going on in this thread. Summed up by'those big mean Wigan players are going to try an control the game and won't let us stroll through their defence playing champagne training ground rugby'

It's a semifinal! It should be tough, rough, hard. Have you all started watching a different game?

Worry about how you're going to Wigan off their ge plan rather than crying about it being too tough.

As already pointed out lots of times. Wigan are doing nothing illegal in trying to control the tackle.

I think Wire are a real threat for Wigan, due to their strengths as a team.
To beat Wigan firstly I'd arch the defence having the winger and centre push up, giving the FB as a second receiver no where to go, not being able to find the winger/centre on the overlap. I've seen teams push up on the edges v Wigan and it's caused all sorts of issues for the Wigan attack, it forces Wigan to play down the middle halting their structures in attack.

To attack Wigan play the offload and mount attacks on second phase plays, attract 3 men into the tackle (as we know that's how wigan like to defend) then move the ball off the offload catching Wigan on the hop. Additionally with 3 men in the tackle use scoots from the 9 to attack centrally around the ruck catching the defenders who haven't joined the line, 3 men to retreat leaves the defensive line less organised via a quick PTB.

Use Ratchford at FB, but not to attack as a second deep lying receiver but to support the runs from the forwards down the middle. use his as the link picking up the offload off the forwards to break into the open back field.

We just need to start like we started a few weeks ago and finish not like we finished a few weeks ago. Simple.