Your right they were brilliant last week, and I'm betting again this week that are backrow walk all over there saints opposites. This is why next year when we have O'Loughlin back I dont buy into the theory that we need to keep Bailey for experience, both Tomkins and Hansen are 23 or over and now experienced enough with guidance from Lockers to handle anything thrown at them. I'd imagine there also capable of helping the other guys such as Mossop, Farrel and Flanagan progress and develop.

Woah Woah Woah

This is a thread where players are meant to get slated remember?

Hansen may have played well but he was positive when talking to the media!

Disgraceful

You have all quite clearly missed the point I was trying to make.

hmm, clearly i have too..

H is a quality player stepping up and taking his opportunity, yes he had a bit of a whinge at some of the support after the Hudds home game 08 but hey, give him his dues, he's taking his chance now that Hock's out of the fray.

An all round quality guy really.. (and as for that opportunist try on friday gone)

glynola, wot point are you trying to make? the point in his thread is that the team are confident and united, no more, he aint blowing his own trumpet as you seem to think, he,s talkin on behalf of OUR TEAM.

What was the point you trying to make then, I found nothing in that article to take umbridge at or anything in there that I could even envisage someone else having issues with.

Hansens mistake last time was it was after we had just battered Hull, who were in challenge cup mode, we then lost after this and he looked utterly stupid after trying to stick it to the fans who hammered them after the Huddersfield embarrassment.

This time we and Hansen are both in good form, its not really the same thing at all.

Well said hansen, and i know some think not, but I rate him as a top player.

Hopefully Rouges is right and he is going to bulk up to prop next season.

Put a stone or 2 on this guy and he will be a menace to the other sides next year.

Perhaps we don't need to buy a prop!!

OK yes we do, but he will be useful.

My point is that I have no issues with Hansen as a player

But I do have an issue with his comments he makes to the media. To say we are now 'dark horses' after five wins (3 of which were against teams towards the bottom of the table) is very premature.

We need to show we can beat the big teams (especially away from home) before we can be considered as such.

Are you serious?

H will have had a standard interview. At some point in the interview it will have gone something like this:

WEP: So having won 5 games on the bounce and beaten the champions do you think some people could consider Wigan to be the dark horses this year?
H: Errrr....yeah.

No interview is ever presented as per the transcript. Each sentence is a sound bite, nothing more. These are often presented in short, unstructured sentences, as per the quote you are chastising H for.

Purely from a performances perspective;

He's doing fine but I'd just like to see an extra dimension to his game.

I'd like to see more awareness when it comes to taking on the defence opposed to receiving the ball and just running direct & straight. I'd like to see more footwork, offloads and an overall more threatening approach to his attacking game.

His defence is fantastic and his ability to hit a gap near the oppositions tryline is too, but I'm not sure it's enough to hold his place when there is a queue of some very good back rowers snapping at his heels.

Agree with that but considering the Hock situation I can see that being a bit a lifeline for him and probably see him here for a good while longer.

Is there a proper time to declare a team "dark horses" ? We're hitting a bit of form, getting into the better league positions. We've beaten Leeds and, given the injuries they've incurred in the last few weeks, there will rarely be a better time to play Saints at KR (though beating them is easier said than done). Dark Horses is all we are at this stage, as HH said.

If we were any better placed, surely we'd be contenders rather than dark horses. I really can't see what you're getting at, all he's said is that we are still in with a chance, something you wouldn't necessarily have said six weeks ago.