ahem...MM ..ahem

Hopefully Cats is just one (two or three) of those games every team has in a season. But at this stage in the fixtures our away form is definitely entering the squeaky bum stage, and SW’s mantra of “that performance is just unacceptable” is now becoming unacceptable.

But how does anyone get back in on merit when there are no reserve games for them to play in?

The stats from the game are shocking.

Only 1 player ran for more than 100m - Sarginson, who also missed 5 tackles and made 2 errors.
We conceded 9 penalties to Catalan's 3... sure.
Sam Powell made 0 METRES... what? I know he didn't play massive minutes but that is either wrong or he was a complete waste of a shirt.
Larne Patrick, 4 carries for 21 metres and 3 missed tackles.
O'Loughlin, 4 missed tackles, an error and 3 penalties.
Charnley and Joel didn't run once from dummy half.
Matty Smith kicked 3 times all game.

Just an absolute horror show.

That's not the point. The point was players are only re-selected when a player performs badly, hence why I highlighted it was a big ask of Bowen to put in a strong performance in one of our toughest fixtures after not playing for 9 weeks or so.

Hampshire doesn't have to improve, just wait for Bowen to make a mess and he'll be back in.

Sure, but the option would seem to be dropping players who are not playing badly, based on reputation. Charnley was quite rightly being kept out by the youngsters, for example...would you have advised dropping either of them when they were doing well?

No I don't know what you're getting at. I never even implied we shouldn't drop players on reputation, or bring players back when someone else is playing well in the same position.

I'd just like to say how well Catalan played. They were crash hot and almost everything that they did came off. Yes, Wigan were poor but that shouldn't detract from the Catalan performance. Sometimes you get games like that and have to take it on the chin. What will be interesting is how the players (and coaching staff) react come Saturday.

If I was Wane I would call the senior players (O'Loughlin, Smith, Tomkins, McIlorum etc) into a meeting and just say to them, I'll give you a couple of hours with the rest of the team, then come back and tell me what you thought went wrong, and how you think it can be fixed.

Wane will have watched the video and no doubt have his own ideas, including his own team selection.

Once that's out of the way and they've all had their say, they can start planning for Leeds.

A large part of the fault lies with the senior players, in my view. On the whole they're an uninspiring bunch. Yes, they can all run white-hot on their day, but in potentially very tough fixtures where there isn't the kind of fanfare you get against Saints, Leeds etc - Cas away and Cats away are classic examples - there isn't even a hint of the lead-from-the-front heroics we used to see from the likes of Ellery Hanley, Andy Farrell, etc. I know that's comparing average-to-okay players with world class stars, so it may not be a fair analysis, but it seems to me that the likes of Joel, Mickey Mac, Matty Smith and now even Lockers, who is surely ready to retire, can be as underwhelming as everyone else when the chips are down. It's little wonder the junior players are intimidated in these fixtures when their so-called leaders offer so little.

As for Shaun Wane. He isn't the guy missing tackles and giving stupid penalties away, but the buck still stops with him and he now faces a big test, with three fixtures looming that will either make or break our season. I can't see the man upstairs acting to sack him quickly - realistically, who he does he replace him with at such short notice? But if we find ourselves out of the running for a trophy before the season even ends, I reckon action will be taken sooner rather than later.

And if I read one more post about Sarginson wanting to go to Rugby Union or Hampshire refusing to sign a contract, I'll blow my top. Sarge can go now for all the use he is in the defensive line, and Hampshire - who's shown no more than glimmers of the talent that had folk raving about him at junior level - has so much more to do to prove that he's even worthy of a Wigan shirt. I don't blame him totally - he's young and confidence will be a big issue for him. I wouldn't want to lose Hampshire, but the club can't be held to ransom by a kid whose ego is maybe larger than his ability.

hello wigan fans .now you know how I often feel.the Top and bottom of it was th truly outstanding passing of Carney and Dureau playing together for ,I think only the 4th time this season.This created the space for our centes and wingers to score lots of tries.

I fully agree Catalanglais with what you say Carney and Dureau destroyed us with the quality of their passing to wide positions.
The reason I say this is because I was so impressed with the quality the Cats showed in their warm up, which showed Wigan up for what they have become , Dinosaurs

I got to my position in the stand (after a bit of mountaineering) just as both sets of players came out for what amounted to app 20min warm up.
The Cats in front of me seemed to spend about 15 min on perfecting skills and in this both halfbacks (Carney especially) sent spiralling 20 yard passes on the run to both wingers who interacted with the inside players in what were obviously planned moves. Towards the end of the warm up they spent a few mins running through the tackle bags.

Whilst all this was going on Wigan seemed to spend most of the warm up with the team wrestling on the floor and using the tackle bags (nearly all forwards) and only in the last couple of mins did they run a couple of times inter passing for twenty yards or so as well as a few half hearted up and unders for the full back to gather.

To sum up the wrestling and tackle tactics should be done on the training pitch, and the warm up surely is better to hone ones skills.
This is borne by the amount of passes which have seemed to go astray during the last few weeks.