I wonder if Nobby has a personal issue with Goulding?

Wonder if there's more to it? Personally he's not been exactly firing on all cylinders, but none of them really have yet.

P.S

I do prefer to use Hock as impact. Hock and Feka off the bench causes a second wave of attack after the pack has been working hard for the first 25mins or so.

I think it may be more of a case of it is easier to drop a young local lad than an Aussie, even if that Aussie does not deserve to be in the team before the other player.

I dont think Goulding had a bad defensive game against Hull personally, Yeaman hardly had a sniff as i remember, so really hes had 1 bad defensive game vs Castleford and suddenly hes a turnstyle? Ive never seen Goulding run out the line before but did it 2 or 3 times in that game, to me i think hes either been instructed to do it or he did it to try and shut out the Cas attack before Smith and Pryce were called into action. And with Smiths efforts on Ferres for 1 example and Pryce limping like a 3 legged dog anytime he did anything i feel sorry for him and can understand to a certain extent why he did it.

I think its fair to question the coaching of Goulding, told to bulk up so he did and lost some pace and agility, now hes been made to drop all the weight again so he has. If there was a worry about his defence why put Smith at the side of him? Why not swap and put Tommy with him then?

The way Noble has IMO messed him around worries me with the development of Sam Tomkins and others. Unless theyre build like brick $hithouses i dont think the coaches at Wigan have a clue what to do with them.

Sam on the bench and Ainscough starting. These two are the future of our club IMO

looking forward to the match even more now

Calm down sonny. It's only opinions after all. If on Saturday a flood of tries pours through between Bailey and Smith you will have been vindicated.

The problem as - I think - Hogan pointed out is that Smith is virtually undroppable (new word!) at the moment as we don't have a ready replacement. Unless Tomkins shines, of course....

Stick Smith on the left between Hansen and Carmont. Or even better, further in between Hansen and Fielden.

That was as much Yeaman not performing well as Goulding playing well, dont know whats happened with Yeaman, seems to have gone backwards ( we should sign him !! ).

There seems to be a general problem with young centres.

Goulding, Yeaman, Hall and Tyrer, and that's without having to think too hard.

Do we build them up soon and then knock them down?

FB - Richards
LW - Ainscough
LC - Carmont
RC - Bailey
RW - Roberts
SO - Smith
SH - S. Tomkins
OP - Fielden
HK - Leuluai
BP - O'Carroll
SR - Hansen
SR - O'Loughlin
LF - J. Tomkins

SB - Riddell
SB - Coley
SB - Hock
SB - Paleassina

For me Wigan will need to keep Randall and Purdham quiet if they want to win this game, both men can carry the ball effectively and are great at offloading. Karl Temata cannot be allowed to dominate the pack neither as he can offload quite well for a prop and give Randall a decent platform in which to breach our defence.

Hopefully with Bailey put into the centre position is can negate the attacking qualities of Gafa. The other player to watch out for is Dorn, who can create problems with his kicking abilities.

If we can deal with them players Wigan should focus on the getting the ball out to the wings because personally I feel the Quins defence lets them down a bit out side. Danny Ward misses quite a few tackles as well so we could try and penetrate through the middle of the park by focusing on him.

It's not unreasonable to assume we can win this but our side is also suffering with some glaringly obvious problems so we need to have shored them up effectively over the past week and hope we can get the balance of strong defence and dangerous attack more consistent.

You're probably right there because they're English! Looks like NOBle is going back to 9 overseas players!

superleague.co.uk/article.php?id=13213 Hopefully it's accurate

superleague.co.uk/article.php?id=13213 Hopefully it's accurate

like i said on previous post. Ainscough is starting and Sam is on the bench

Weather down here is OK at the moment. Overcast but fairly warm. Lets hope the rain keeps off.

Very well said Neil I have only just joined but have read this board for a long time and some of the posts on this thread make me embarrased to be a Wigan fan.

I can’t believe some of the stick that Goulding seems to get on here week in, week out. It is always by the same 2 or 3 people and no matter how he plays they will always focus on a negative or just make up one if they can’t. With some people it almost seems like it is for personal reasons than rugby ones. The funny thing is that these people will probably do the same thing to Tomkins and Ainscough in a year or two.

Against Hull he was easily amongst the best players and totally outplayed Yeaman but still got stick. I seriously doubt if some that gave him stick on here after that game even went to it. Against Castleford he again was one of the better players and saved Smith on numerous occasions but again the same few posters on here are blaming him for things that weren’t even his fault. Based on his 2 games so far he has been one of the better players and does not deserve to be dropped, or the ridiculous criticism. He has definitely played better than the other centre Carmont, who has been anonymous, but not a mention of that on here. Maybe it is because he is not a Wigan youngster.

Smith was shocking and in all my years watching rugby it was quite possibly the worst performance that I have seen by any player. He was at fault for all the problems down the right side but some seem to ignore that and try and blame Goulding instead. If you saw Cullen’s analysis on Boots N all he got it spot on. An unfit Smith that cant tackle coupled with an unfit Karl Pryce on the same side is just asking for trouble.

Goulding yet again has been made the scapegoat by Noble because he has to be seen to drop someone. It always seems to be the youngsters like Goulding, Prescott, O’Carroll and McIlorum it happens to, maybe they just wont stand up to him like the senior players will.