Whether you like Wane or not, agree with his comments or not you have to give him credit for that.

England look we’ll drilled and prepared to bust a fit for each other. He’s clearly got into the minds of Tonga and Woolf who’ve been out coached and out played.

I’ve seen a few comments saying Tonga are poor and we’d expect to beat them comfortably. That’s utter nonsense, they’re a team of primarily top class NRL talent. Commentary got it spot on today, they have not looked like a team, just a bunch of individuals. To a certain extent England didn’t let them but really there’s only one person to blame for that & he’s the coach.

Going forward for us we can add in Young, Farnworth, Wardle, KPP, Havard & Oledski along with the potential of too many to mention the future looks promising.

Think he has proved he is defensively capable aswell, not put afoot wrong in defence that i can recall again and fronted up against a very big tonga team chocked with NRL talent.

Is becoming a big worry of mine and hope for an announcement of a contract extension before the season starts

Got worried when I saw on Instagram Toby Kings foot was in a boot…. Then I remembered

I'm not sure we'll be able to keep all three of French, Field and Smith. How we use the marquee player rule is never made public although it seems pretty clear that Bevan takes up one of the slots. In an ideal world we would use the other two on Field and Smith but that would depend on whether or not they've been used on any other player in the squad. If we've offered Luke Thompson anything close to the figures that were reported in the media then we may have snookered ourselves.

Maybe we can make it work and it obviously depends on the career ambitions of the players but we may end up in a scenario where we can only choose two out of the three. That's a tough dilemma but I'd imagine the majority of Wigan fans would want Harry Smith to be one of the two if it came to that.

Just to add to this, they know Welsby is the jewel in SL crown and clubs will be queuing up for. But nothing from Welsby wanting to go.

Newman and Dodd it sounds like they want to go and their agents are shopping them to clubs.

With Smith his name has been mentioned as an option recently just because the journalists have noticed how well he’s playing (particularly GF). Given there is a half back crisis soon coming in the NRL they are paying attention to potential options.

Nothing from clubs wanting Smith or Smith wanting to go yet.

Very true mate, although I thought Harry's was a level above even that. To be fair Bevan's kicking game came on leaps and bounds over the course of his tenure at 6. I also think we have barely scratched the surface with his progression in the position.

Next year could be something special if they both keep improving as they have.

I said in the last few games of the season that he's becoming one of those players that seems unrushed and to have that extra fraction of a second on the ball. Much was made of his game management and kicking game but I thought that the way he constantly played at the defensive line was just as impressive.

Just reading through this thread - there's so many points to comment on:

Wane -

1) How people still refer to him as one dimensional 'just get out there and bash 'em up' motivator staggers me. Everyone who's involved in him talk about attention to detail, culture, preparation. It may be possibly due to a few minutes of the behind the scenes program and now people think that's all he does.........?

2) In the last world cup we played some of the best attacking rugby i've seen in an England team - certainly since the days of Offiah playing. Yes, really disappointing semi final but it went to golden point and we lost following two consecutive mistakes in a format that makes winning very much a lucky dip.

Bringing a team together straight after the SL, players not played together, new half back pairing, playing against the biggest set of quality NRL proven forwards, in the wet with soft ground (unlike the NRL grounds when it rains hard) we're hardly likely to say 'just throw it around boys you'll be reet'. Smith has a great kicking game, takes the sting out of the forwards , play the game in their half etc, we used his strengths. SImple game plan for a bunch of players who only got together a week ago. In the 3rd, when we've had more time together, better conditions, we saw a much more dynamic and attacking attitude mixed with control when needed.

Seems to contradict the one- dimensional coach view.........

Newman comments:

Wane had mentioned Newman's poor discipline a few months ago and said he's not getting into the squad with that - he now gives credit to Leeds - which I take as they worked on his attitude and Wane seeing the improvement picked him for the squad. He's now had experience with NRL players and other top players - and like most people when you come into a higher performing group you learn from it and go back a better player. I can't see anything controversial in that ?

Squad Selection:

Injuries ruled many 1st choice out.
Mixture of experience and new - the stupid approach would be to play a team of international novices against a very good NRL based Tonga side, get thrashed, scar the new boys, they learn nothing and then they get dropped .....
He used the mid season game to introduce many more new faces - seems pretty smart to me?
Mixture of old heads who've been there, the younger players who came in learn from them in a winning , high performing envt - again sounds like a good approach. Debuts to a number of players. Only selection and decision making i would query was Faz.

Really don't understand the criticism over this series - sure we all want to see more of the 3rd game style, but surely people can see why that's not always possible especially when you come up against quality opposition that don't just sit back and watch you throw the ball around and admire.

Somewhere in this topic somebody raised the issue regarding the dearth of fullbacks, another possibility is Farnworth.

What I will give Wane immense credit for is the fact he’s built a squad that is tight knit. Looking at the social media posts, all of them refer to the last 3 weeks as being with a “special group”

I’ve just looked at some more pics of a night out where the whole squad are out. There doesn’t appear to be any “cliques” or lads only being mates with their own clubs players.

It’s a huge contrast from the likes of 2008 where Peacock and Wellens have both subsequently admitted that there was a huge divide between the Saints and Leeds players, something which they wish they’d have sorted at the time.

All those Wigan fans quick to criticise Woolf for anything and everything would do well to read this article, in particular his comments on helping the English game. Excuse the pun but maybe he’s not the big bad Woolf after all…. https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/23 ... onga-game/

All those Wigan fans quick to criticise Woolf for anything and everything would do well to read this article, in particular his comments on helping the English game. Excuse the pun but maybe he’s not the big bad Woolf after all…. https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/23 ... onga-game/

Looks like he was right - Samoa pulled out of the test series next year. Not ideal

Far from it. I’m pretty much at a loss with the international game. We’re being cast aside so the NRL can control its players and keep them based on that side of the world, with as little travel and as much rest as possible.

Wane must be fuming.