I think Martyn was really positive about Wigan in the interview. He praises the way Michael Maguire has got the team playing and says in the podcast that they are very entertaining. Check it out for yourself rather than just relying on the lifted quotes - itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... =207178087

I think Martyn was really positive about Wigan in the interview. He praises the way Michael Maguire has got the team playing and says in the podcast that they are very entertaining. Check it out for yourself rather than just relying on the lifted quotes - itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... =207178087

It seems my signature might get pretty long by the end of the season.

At least spell our coach's name correctly.

How about:

The Official "I've been shown up by Michael Maguire and I'm going to whinge about it" list:

He's missed the point entirely if you ask me. The "tactics" we deploy don't refer to how long it takes our defenders to leave the player being tackled. We're no quicker or slower than anyone else in that respect. What we do is win the contact and before the tackle is complete, put the attacking player into a position where it takes him longer to get up and play the ball. What we're actually doing is making the actual tackle itself take longer, which the referee has no control over whatsoever.

It frustrates these coaches becase they can't do anything about it and, with the scoot from dummy half pretty much neutralised, they're stumped because their team has nothing else. It says a lot about our competition that when faced with a set defensive line that's moving forward, teams are generally clueless as to how to get through it. Bet the Aussies would be laughing their heads off because in the NRL, that's all they face

We were out on our feet because we defended what seemed like ten consecutive sets on our line.

Plus, we seemed to be doing our thing that has plagued us for a number of years now: not being able to see out games. At times we don't know what to do when we're ahead. Despite the new regime, this is one faucet of our game that still remains. Tbf I think that problem could be that we don't have that many big game players, although that is hopefully changing with time.

Utter rubbish.

Congratulations to MM imo.

He has looked at the rules, and exploited them, fairly and to the letter.

Imo that is a sign of professionalism and attention to detail.


Boring rugby? Are you sure? Maybe I have dreamed about the tries we scored this season?

Hit the nail on the head. The concern I have is the notion that Wigan are exploiting the rules as they are and given we are being successful that will become a reason to change the rules!

I find it amazing it takes Wigan to play like this for it to become a talking point. We are not the first to do this but the first team doing it that causes it to become such an issue.

Dave

I think you'll find TAPping up is not allowed.

As for the 'tactics' as has been said, it's all up to the ref on the day. Childs and Thaler lost the plot, Ganson called held early and penalised us.
As long as we release when the ref calls it, I can't see there being any problems.

To be honest I'm getting sick & tired of opposition coaches (who have usually just lost) moaning about Wigans tactics, to the point where for periods of the game I'm counting how long from impact with the floor to full release and pretty much invariably I'm getting a count of between 4 and 5 when Wigan tackle.

When the opposition tackle........... I also get a count of between 4 and 5. I've even done it when watching other teams on Sky and there's no real appreciable difference in count. The only thing which is apparent is that Wigan & Huddersfield have turtled the tackled player so he takes longer in recovering his feet.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this, and it's up to the opposition coaches to train their players to resist the attempts to turn them over during the tackle, and also to train them to turn their opposition on their backs when defending. If they are incabable of teaching their players to do this or their players are incapable of putting into practice............ they can always whine about it in the press.

So Kear, Agar et al stfu and get on with what you are supposed to be doing - next they will be moaning that we run faster, pass better, and kick better than them.

If you can't beat them, then whine about them - cries of "miss miss ! not fair, not fair" are becoming a bit boring now - it's rugby, adapt and get on with it.

But let's remember, inferior coaches bleating that life isn't fair have found an audience with the RFL in the past.

One classic falsehood now taken as gospel is that of the 'non-level playing field'. This was the main justification given for the introduction of the salary cap. But in fact the playing field back then was perfectly level. Wigan only did what anyone else could have done. Now, it's not level at all. Clubs who've generated a healthy income aren't allowed to spend it because it's unfair on those who haven't. And it's the RFL you can thank for that, who willingly listened to the same sort of sheep-like whingeing and calls for rule changing that is going on now.

The thing that baffles me is that Wigan are doing absolutely nothing different to other teams, they are genrally doing it better than most.

Out of the three teams that have improved their defences in the last two years (Hudds, Wire and Wigan) only two of them are getting stick. Huddersfield's improvement was put down to bringing in an NRL coach, so people jumped on that, blaming the wrestling style.

Obviously once Wigan announced an NRL coach and their defence improved then it was a chance to continue this NRL bashing theme.

All the time, they are ignoring the team with the best defence in the league (Wire) who are actually the team that have made the biggest improevement to their defence. The reason this is being ignored, is because our coach is not from the NRL and doesn'tnow fit in to their argument. It is nonsense.

These good defensive teams make sure that they get players on their backs, and whilst average defences may do this 1 or 2 times per set, the top teams are doing this 3 or 4 times a set. Not rocket science, just bloody hard work that is effective.

The main thing that baffles me about this, and I may have quoted it here before is look at the Wire v Wigan game this year. Here is two teams with great defence, and big forwards who get each other on their backs and control the ptb. Surely that would lead to a dull game? No, everybody was raving that it was worthy of a GF and one of the best games of the past few years! Doesn't quite add up.

And Tony Smith is the only coach so far this year not to go bleating on about Wigans tackling style - and I would agree it was a fantastic game, and would have still been so even if Solomona hadn't dropped the ball, a true spectacle