Sarginson
Manfredi Gelling Gildart Burgess
Williams Hampshire
Mossop McIlorum Clubb
Tomkins Patrick
Bateman

Powell
Sutton
Tautai
Crosby

Obviously never going to happen but this is what I'd like to see.

was it a different to last years team?

The Hull team are strong defensively but poor in attack, and they've been like that for a season or two now. Look at the first half against Leeds or the whole of the Warrington game. They have the ability to frustrate opponents.

Also two other things - firstly the absence of Lockers is a factor. Take the best player out of ANY Super League team and see how they cope (Roby, Chase, Carney, Carney, Clark).

Secondly the pitch was poor and meant that the score was always going to be low. With a smaller, lighter team than most the hard pitches can't come soon enough for us. (Hopefully a prolonged dry spell before Good Friday like last year IIRC!)

OK I may be clutching at straws here but I'm more positive after Friday. I fancy us at Leeds now. From reading their boards they seem to have more than a few problems themselves, it may be a decent time to play them. A win there - and the season is back on track. A loss - and it's no big deal. Still plenty of time to put it right.

Hull are strong defensively? What?! Did you watch their game against Leeds? They missed 47 tackles. They even missed 35 against us yet we still only scored 13 points.

Saints manage to post plenty of points even with their starting half-backs injured. Roby missed the Widnes game and they still scored 5 tries.

Agree on the state of the pitch though, Sarge in particular seemed to struggle with it. And I also believe we will go well against Leeds.

I posted after the Huddersfield game (I think) that it looks like we don't bother practicing any set-plays or even 5th tackle plays anymore. I think we work so much on defence that it is affecting us offensively.

How many times did Green do that sideways kick from deep to Burgess last year and it worked so well? We haven't tried it once this year. We have literally gone back to basics and that is embarrassing for a team that 2 years ago scored nearly 1000 points.

I watched the U-19s game against London this afternoon, and it struck me that Wigan played very much a 'basic' game. With kids, you might have thought they'd be a bit more adventurous in attack, but I'm sure they were playing to orders. Next to no offloads that I recall (except one, that went to the opposition), no kicking early in the tackle count, nothing very surprising at all. All that said, they worked their plays well enough, and ended comfortable winners, but it did make me think about the ethos at the club.

Yes the Hull defence had a mare against Leeds but the first half showed their capability. If you look at the table from last season you will see what I mean. They conceded only 23 more points than Saints over 27 rounds. They were the only team in the bottom half to have a positive points difference because of their relatively strong defence.