Lost to Brisbane with a lot less fight from the team than last year.

McIlorum out for 3 months with a broken ankle.

Players playing with minor knocks and more battered bodies as a result of the game.

Plenty of sore bodies and now a 5 day turnaround for us to play in-form Salford on Thursday.

Was it worth it?

Willie Isa injured as well now, it just gets better!

Yes, always worth testing yourselves against the top teams in the world, even if just to see what standard you are at. I think the result was pretty conclusive.

I agree. There is no good reason to hide from these games least of all risk of injury. We seem to do a good job of injuring our own players in training anyway, they could get knocked down by a bus, whatever.

I think a few eyes where opened as to where Wigan really are at the moment so in that respect it was worth it,injuries can happen at anytime can't they.

Yes. You have to be involved in these games if you have aspirations to reach the level of the Brisbane Broncos, they were awesome and a joy to watch. Wigan will be stronger for this experience. Lets play on the Sunday next year Shaun.

Injuries apart, the gulf between the 2 sides was actually embarrassing. Brisbane looked as though they had another couple of gears if they needed them. Embarrassing for Super League if these are the 3 best teams.(I don't hold out any hope for Leeds tonight!)

I think these games are useful if for no other reason than as a barometer for the standard of the British game.

If anyone in the RFL knew what they were seeing (which is highly doubtful), they would have realised last night that they were watching Brisbane dispose of Wigan with the same ease that Aussie teams in the late 1970s used to dispose of us. Effortlessly, barely breaking sweat.

But Saints were no better on Friday, and unless Leeds work a miracle tonight - which again seems doubtful, given the way they too have started the season - you have to wonder just what has happened to the British game in the last few years. We all know that Wigan were awful for most of last season, but somehow - incredibly - they managed to reach the Grand Final. Well now we know why.

I mean, if these are really the best three teams in the UK, we are in big trouble as a sport.

It makes me wonder if the fact that we're competing well internationally - mainly because we have several key players in the NRL - masks the woeful standards of our domestic competition. We are desperately in need of quality in the UK, but we can no longer seem either to buy it, or on the odd occasion when it does emerge, to keep hold of it.

Last night on the terraces, I heard a chap say he'd happily watch an eight-team Super League if it meant the intensity increased and the talent was concentrated at the top. I can only agree. But once this tournament is over, it will be business as usual, and all the talk will be about bringing Leigh, Halifax and Featherstone back into the top flight.

I have to cut us some slack after calming down from last night. As a club we're allowed to spend less then half on wages that they are so therefore not only can NRL clubs snap up the best talent but they have more depth to their squads. This series would have worked 10 years ago when the financial power and quality of club squads were similar but the gaps that wide now we may as well be playing a different sport. It's typical rugby league to get its backside in gear 10 years too late.

As for us as a club we went in to the game shy of both Tomkins, Charnley and Crosby. They could have coped with that the other way round but we could not. We lost McIlorum, Clubb, Smith and Isa during the game also. Again they'd have coped with that far better but then so they should!

In terms of where we go. It has to continue. We will have to take our medicine until we learn and get better. We won't catch up by hiding away in our own bubble.

Good post as usual Nicky. Personally I think I let the quality of the current England squad (who certainly can compete) blind me into believing our clubs could compete too. What a disappointment so far and I don't think Leeds will have a good night either I'm afraid.

Agree with this, and the salary cap issue is the biggest problem. All the other ball handling competitions can spend more. how you deal with it, i'm not sure, but we still have the old problem of the smaller clubs holding back the game. Not enough coming in, simple as.

I can see a time in the not too distant future where WRLFC, will also be WRUFC...

I worry about that too, but I don't think it's just Wigan.

This country is terrifyingly short of star talent. It's not that we can't buy it anymore; now we can't hang onto it either. What a typical example Budgie was. A new superstar-in-the-making bursts unexpectedly onto the scene, but within one year he's already looking at options elsewhere. When did it happen that Wigan RL was suddenly not among the top players' first choice destinations anymore?

I've never been one to celebrate the departure of our top players to the NRL. Granted, I'd rather they went there than RU, but it doesn't help our domestic game in any way. Exactly the opposite, in fact, and it's a situation that seems to be getting worse, with even those who come home again, from either code, looking like shadows of their former selves - Joel and Mossop being classic examples.

Looking at the Wigan team that lined up last night ... it struck me how they probably wouldn't last five minutes against our own class of 2010, let alone the great teams of earlier decades.

Things are in a bad way at present. But even if we get whitewashed 3-0 in this series, which I expect, the RFL will ignore it.

Part of me thinks we had a good team in 97 but most teams got hammered off the Aussie teams, also the great Saints sides of the early 2000s won against Brisbane but got dispatched against Roosters in 2003.

I do think in years gone by most SL teams were better/stronger and now most teams seem a shadow of their former selves chocked full of average Joes. When I look at the likes of us in the early 2000s we had a team full of legends and internationals, players like Rads, Carney, Dallas, Connolly, Lam, O'Connor, Newton, Smith, Cassidy, Furner and Farrell with a host of young up and coming lads who went on to achieves decent career either here of elsewhere like Hock, Lockers, Wild, Brown, Robinson etc.

When I look at our team now the only players worthy of getting in that team would be Sam, Micky Mac, Flower, Farrell and future stars like Manfredi and Williams.

You look at Saints and they are bang average across the park other than Roby.

The only way RL will reach those standards again is cold hard cash, you can have the best youth set up, coaches, scouts, etc but money talks, once the hard work has been done and it's time to reap the rewards the players are gone.

For me over the next 1 - 2 years I see most of our decent players going to RU or NRL like Sarginson, Bateman and Gelling. If I was an RU scout I'd be after Manfredi all day long as I think he'll be a superstar in years to come but I think he'd be more suited to fullback, he reminds me of Slater in his kick return.

So there it is, we need cash, how do we get it?

Merchandise? Bums on seats? Sponsorship? Rich owner?

Doesn't the money from Sky cover the cap? If so there should t be much of a holdback, if it comes at the expense of smaller clubs then I'm sorry, sport is capitalist and has to be be otherwise it pushes the sport back. The way I see RL at the minute it's run like the public sector and needs to be privatised so to speak.i don't agree with doing that with business but with sport i do.

There you go, thoughts?

My main thought it that I don't disagree with any of this.

My main worry is that the British game overall is in a period of stagnation, but that no one at Red Hall seems to realise this.

Man for man, our top sides are very poor at present.

The question is, will this series highlight that ... or will it be swept under the carpet again because, as you say, it's more important to keep Wakefield in Super League?

I'm not sure who mentioned it, might've been on another thread but I would also be fully behind an 8 club league. 2 games a week on Sky to fulfil their quota and at the end of the season the top team goes to the GF and 2nd and 3rd play each other for the other place. No shield or any of that crap. Less fixtures, a bit more emphasis on the Challenge Cup and a more competitive league with the talent spread across less clubs until we can actually develop some decent players.