Quote: jaws1 "What the outcome from the game was that the injuries to Sammut and Greenwood and then Manfredi changed the game completely with no subs on the bench and a young and experienced forward line for Wigan against a Castleford experienced forward line .We were on a hiding to nothing Cas spelled their forwards over and brought fresh legs on whereas Wigan substitutions were non existent I think that it was mentioned that Cas had 14 goal line dropouts .It was men versus boys in the pack and Cas changed their tactics at half time to bring their forwards into the fore .Posters on here were blasting Wigan for losing a 20 points lead but you have to look at the bigger picture if we had no injuries then it could have been a better ball game for us we missed 2 scoring chances in the second half. The point I am making is how can you field a young inexperienced pack against an experienced big pack it was like men from the boys .Having said that I don't think our recruitment is good enough our forwards are too small.'"
Of the 4 forwards on the Cas bench Maher played 10 minutes and O'Neil wasn't used at all. Add to that the fact that Massey never returned after his injury and I think that pretty much evens things out.
Gildart was world class in that fist half hour but then we stopped the ball getting to him and as some have said on here our forwards started to dominate but it was a young Jake Trueman who deservedly took the MOM for his astute kicking game which forced so many repeat sets with the obvious fatigue factor for your players. I was surprised how easy it was for our forwards to march up the field though and I thought some of your players heads went down when under pressure.
At the end of the day if SOL had been playing I think his calming influence would have seen you comfortably home.
Thanks for travelling in numbers again, its much appreciated.
