I just don't get the comparisons being made between now and 1998.

In 1998, that was an ageing Wigan team jaded by the numbers of Cup Finals it had appeared in. The opposition were utterly hopeless, as Wigan proved a week later when they suddenly got serious; it was all too easy to take the Eagles with a big and fatal pinch of salt.

In 2011, Wigan are a young side desperate to win silverware and hungry for the glory and fame that they've seen their rivals enjoying for the last 15 years. The opposition meanwhile are one of the other best teams in the competition who, while they may have had a shaky season by their own standards, have not exactly struggled against us.

There is simply no way that Wigan, even without Michael Maguire's skilled motivational techniques, will go out at Wembley and be as complacent about facing Leeds Rhinos as they were Sheffield Eagles.

A more worrying comparison could be drawn with 2002, when Saints were the slight favourites but an unfancied and yet still (on paper at least) pretty impressive Wigan team played out of their skins to secure a close victory.

Wigan have been improving all season, NRL coaches pride themselves on getting their team ready for crunch games. The two previous games against the Rhinos were close affairs, but more to do with poor Wigan form in game one and as a previous poster noted a run of games against top teams before the second Rhinos game.

The Rhinos will turn up and make the game a battle for as long as they can and they do have some very quick young players who could go the length of the pitch; a reproduction of the form against Wire and Saints will see Wigan winning.

It wont be as easy as some think, Leeds still have class players who have the ability to inflict damage, but as a team, they struggle.
Forget Sheffield, that had more to do with money and the betting odds than a shock win.

We all know that Leeds will cause us some troubles, we have played them twice this season and have an aggregate score of 46-44 in our favour. Shows who close they can be to us. They will no doubt try and slow us down, try and use the famous bully tactics to try and throw us of our fluent game.

Madge knows what to expect, he will have us technically spot on to face Leeds and Wane will have the lads fired up.

It wont be a big win, but i think we'll take it by 10 points.

Course madge knows! What I can't believe is that Wigan fans can't see knobody spoils, niggles, slows the play down and trys to bully more than Wigan. Don't pretend your some pretty rugby team. You are the baby of bellamy. That's not a bad thing it's just true.

leeds are still a top 8 team and as such they demand respect wigan will be fully focused on the job in hand come the weekend. i think it will be a close game but wigan will just edge it i hope.