This x100. He decides to go with red, even tho the VR says yellow. Same for the tip tackle on Wardle. I saw Isa get a red for less last year & a few games on top too. Throw in the 2 points we should have had for the obvious ball steal and everyone really needs to ask themselves - What reason could there be for his obviously one sided approach to yesterday. I know my answer and I truly believe that he's dodgy.

It's gone past him being incompetent, just ask the majority of teams that have had to suffer a game Vs Saints under him. No one, who's a supposed pro, can be that bad for that long.

Btw, I don't want to be talking about this. I want to be talking about how it didn't click for us. We weren't direct enough. Both French and Field did too much lateral running. Not using a bench spot, especially when we'd been down to 12 and defended for much of the game was a crazy decision.

I'm not talking about that tho and refuse to criticise the team, especially when there was a far more serious issue on the day. Nothing will change if people keep defending these incompetent pr!cks, no matter how much they are laughing at us.

Watching Saints is rinse and repeat, so I don’t really see where any massive improvements would come from, that’s my point. It’s been defend for your lives and try and trample teams in the forwards for years now. I don’t see signs that anything will change in that regard. The attack was getting pelters last season from Saints fans and I see no improvement in it tbh.

What they will be is hard to break down and they'll try and get you in a scrap. Wigan’s attack also isn’t firing but the difference is we know it can and what it can do when it does. To me it feels like Saints have one way of playing, whereas Wigan can match it in a grind, as they did (with 12 men for parts) yesterday but when conditions allow it, they can also open up and score from anywhere on the field.

I think you have some very good points there. Four things you haven’t factored in are injuries, home advantage, suspensions and pitches firming up. They will have a huge bearing on where the silverware end up. To some extent we can dismiss the second element as most of our games are likely to be played at neutral venues. The hard pitches are likely to suit us more as we have more pace in our team, conversely as the season continues the wet pitches are likely to suit you. Suspensions and injuries, whilst being unknown quantities, are guaranteed and will ultimately determine the destiny of the CC, LLS and SL trophies. I am convinced that we have a better squad and, all other things being equal, I am convinced that will give us an advantage. Havard, Cooper and Walters will all make our 17 and had they played yesterday I am convinced that we would have seen a different result. Saints deserved their victory and now it is up to Wigan to find a way to turn that result around.

I'm surprised no one is talking about this. I said the same at the game. Isa got banned for far less last season and it didn't look dissimilar to the Harry Smith one in the Cas game (apart from Wardle didn't dive to try to make it look worse). I'll qualify any comments with acknowledgement that I only saw it at the game but it was definitely hands between the legs with a lifting motion.

What's the consensus on this? I'd be interested in hearing the opinion of those who's seen it on replay.

No disagreement from me that you have a much superior strength in depth which will be hard to overcome. Fortunately we don’t need a whole lot of strength in depth to get into the top 2/4 and get into the big games, and then we can compete in a one off game. but we will need a slice of luck on the injury front no doubt, something you’d be able to deal with much better. I’d back our first 17 against anyone, but the chances of that making the field for any one game are pretty slim

Vaughn just got 10 mins for a similar looking tackle...

Didn’t think either team looked like scoring, next one will probably be 30-30

Dupree one match but not for the yellow card incident, Byrne and I'm going to use capital letters here GRADE E REFER TO TRIBUNAL

The game is absolutely fcccked...

2 matches for Lees for his shot on Thompson

But didn't even get a card at the match. I think we should start an anti-Wigan conspiracy thread!

Grade E for Byrne is outrageous! It’s getting really boring all this.

It's ridiculous NK. No issue with a ban but Grade E?!?

The MRP are a joke really

Grade E is preposterous considering there was clearly no intent in it. Also 2 games for an accidental head clash? Ridiculous. 1 game for the elbow is fair (although did someone say it’s not even for that?)

It’s just dumb, and it’s crazy how conditioned to players getting banned we have become that people are just accepting bans in general. Realistically the only ban we should see from this game is Byrne, only as an automatic ban for a straight red and not even because I think it deserves a ban in isolation

I’d much rather just scrap the MRP entirely and use a similar system to football with cards triggering an automatic ban rather than this nonsense every week. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be achieving? Have high tackles reduced since the MRP started banning people for it last year? Certainly doesn’t seem so to me, so not exactly the deterrent they’re saying it is. All it’s doing is killing the sport and effecting match results needlessly. RL is a tough sport and teams have loads of injuries to deal with in a season without all these suspensions as well