I don't think Farrell was able to slide across because Lima had been too slow to get back into the defensive line. Farrell still had his man covered so Deacon shouldn't have moved up to take the man. If he had held his position the try could have been avoided. As usual the sliding defence wasn't effective because of something in the middle of the field rather than poor defending out wide. On this occasion it was Lima being slow to get back which caused the problems.

Correct. Farrel is flatfooted & static & Deacon shoots in for a big hit & misses, easy try. HH is a far better defender than LF and it shows.

Good point this but I reckon it's Joel who is commiting himself too soon. He doesn't seem to trust the cover coming across. Until we get the centre thing sorted, we could go back to using a second fullback on the righthand side, playing behind Joel but in front of Sam.

a few of my friends have had the same debates of late...

for me, and my friends would reiterate, i don't solely blame Josh at all and i think for the majority of the "easy" tries we have leaked on that side i feel it is the players inside him who have not been in the right positions they should be which in turn has left josh with a lot to do and very little time to do it in. i think he's done pretty well considering and i don't think its fair to say he's no good in defence.

joel still is not a centre if you ask me and as soon as the hoff disappears next year he'll be back in the forwards. think about it, last year we had gleeson and goulding on that side, now we have a covering centre and another young lad who for me isn't doing too badly considering.

don't get me wrong, in attack the partnership between joel and josh can work quite well when joel decides to pass to him instead of running outside him. josh is doing the only other thing he can do when he is in the team and that is score tries or contribute to them.

as for the defence of the team in general, i think they are all as equally to blame of late for some of the tries that really the wigan side we know won the league last year wouldn't normally concede. but again, i blame fatigue quite a bit too. hopefully some of our regulars will get at least a week off over the next few league games - maybe not the wire one!

Considering their inexperience, I think they've actually done pretty well recently against some of the best left side pairings in SL. King & Atkins, Yeaman & Briscoe, Cudjoe & Hodgson are all pretty good, and they've scored a combined 4 tries in three games against Charnley & Tomkins.

It's obviously the weaker side. We can all see it and no doubt so can all the other teams coaches. But as we aren't getting hammered every game, they are doing a good enough job for me.

The problem is Joel at centre. He can't pass like a centre, can't read the game like a centre, can't defend like a centre - put it blunty he is sh*t and wasted at centre. This then leaves Charnley exposed who isn't the greatest defender in the world anyway.

A centre to replace Joel is needed for 2012. Joel back into the second row, where he bloody belongs.

It has long been noted that, in general, teams score more often on their left wing than their right. I suspect that this has some bearing, although I agree that our right-side defence does not match up to our left-side.

There are too many examples of Charnley coming in off his wing when he doesn't need to, rather than being forced to do so by a defender further in-field. Coming in to double up on a centre with Joel whilst the winger walks in for a try is unacceptable. Seems like he needs to work on holding his nerve on that touchline.