After getting to the point this year of thinking that noble has had his time at wigan and wanting him out... if he gets us to the final of the CC and a good run in the play-offs... maybe I would be inclined to give him another year, if we obviously make good moves in the transfer market for a great enforcer type prop and a great attacking second row now hock is going to be banned and Sam and LuLU showing that their combination may work therefore not needing another half back..

Am I overeacting to three wins on the trot!!! I don't know... Maybe my memory ain't too good???

Yes you are. He played Pryce at 6 and in effect went with 5 props tonight. If he had any more fit players I dread to think what concoction of a selection he would have dreamt up.

But lets not turn this into a Noble in/out thread.

Best three?

Sam T - never stopped trying things, great kicking game and though they run at him, Tim Smith in defence he is not.

Coley. Top class.

Goulding for getting really stuck in. Carmont was probably better over the 80 but Golding deserves a rap IMO.

Must try harder:

Richards - goal kicking
Phepls - you are supposed to catch bombs
Riddell - passes into the bread basket not around the ankles please, still I guess he was a bit tired



Dave

Thanks for the reality check DaveO... off to bed now... its getting late!!! ;O)

1. Sam tomkins (what an unbelievable all round game he posseses)

2. Tommy (were a classier side with him on the pitch)

3. O'Loughlin (some superb autographs he dished out in the ss bar) [size=75phelps[/size



Nobody mentioned Fielden, he put himself about a bit, credit to him

Bailey
Phelps
Coley

Phelps?

he let at least 3 balls bounce on the full. did ok attacking wise but a full back who lets the ball bounce shouldnt be there

I thought last night the team showed real character and patience to win the game. They went two scores down without reply early in the second half and instead of panicking and going for the match winning play, we instead built pressure and just waited for an opportunity and for once we took them.

I thought Sam Tomkins and Thomas Leuluai's kicking game was absolutely superb. It was very good throughout the night. Clint Greenshields is one of the best fullbacks in super league and I don't think he had many easy kicks to deal with tonight. I thought both our halfbacks were superb and Thomas Leuluai in particular had another brilliant game.

I thought our forwards stood up quite well. Stuart Fielden although he did make that early error in the second half I thought had one of his better games against a tough Catalans pack. Coley and Prescott were strong as well.

But big praise for me to Lee Mossop. Catalans are a formidable outfit to face as second rower playing at prop and I thought Lee Mossop played admirably. Very impressive. I hear whispers that the club fancy him as a prop forward and I think he would make a good prop forward but I believe he would be devastating at second row.

I thought Nobles tactics to move Karl Pryce at stand off was unfair. A halfback has to be confident to take on the line and organise the attack and Karl Pryce does not have that confidence. I thought some of the stick he got from fans before he had even touched the ball was really out of order.

I thought we did lose a lot of shape when Pryce came to stand off which was demonstrated as Catalans posted two tries without reply. But when Mark Riddell came on we looked to have found our structure again and battled hard and came away with the win.

Full credit to Mark Riddell. A lot of questions were asked of him tonight to lead us from dummy half and he did. He has kicked on these last few weeks and I thought that was another good performance from Riddell.

Also a quick mention for Cameron Phelps. He has brilliant inter-linking in attack and I think he had a hand in most of our tries.

My top three would be:

Mark Riddell
Thomas Leuluai
Cameron Phelps.

I agree, although I think our forwards as a "Unit" were very good for large parts last night and they ALL played a part!

Coley
S. Tomkins
Goulding

P.S Can someone please tell Joel to start passing when we have an overlap.

And that is where we miss O'Loughlin

Agreed, we now have two second rows (Bailey and Hansen) and a loose forward (Joel) that all prefer to drive the ball into the wide channels rather than feeding the centres on the overlap. Hurry back Lockers, we will need variation for the semi finals.

in no part order

tommy (setup the first 2 tries and excellent kicking game)
coley (form prop)
sam (tackled like a dog. kicked well. didnt try and do it all himself)

hon mention - piggy (another solid game) and mossop looks a beast (need more time to assess him and defence was weaker than go forward but generally looks the business)

generally - halves good until riddell went off (that need sorting. i would rather play the reserves 9 on the bench than a 'part time' half and have to shuffle the players around). front row outperformed back row. back 3 out played centres.
most pleasing aspect was control and lack of panic when 8 down.
that is certainly something i havent see for a while.