Lower opposition ? oh dear you big boys don't like it up you

I'm not sure it will going off last night. Widnes got a red card and whilst we were heavily penalised in the second half, much of it was deserved so we can't start throwing 'harsh treatment' about as an excuse.

It's all a bit OTT about Wigan anyway IMO. Last night was petulance a lot of the time not foul play. The moaning from the Widnes crowd about the late hits on kickers got them a penalty in the end but in truth none of them looked like foul play to me. We got suckered in to a couple of handbag sessions but in the main it was aggressive and legal rugby league.

The players need to stop getting conned by the opposition though and wound up. It's an issue that even goes down to the u19's who in the GF last year did exactly what the first team did last night (blow a convincing lead and got sucked in to handbags).

We need to learn to walk away.

Matty Smith had two or three instances like that in back play last night. There was one early on when he'd been knocked down when kicking on the last (not late) and Smith tried to trip the defender up as he retreated by reaching/ taking a swipe for his ankle.
Don't know what his problem was last night.

This

Plus we dont know what was said to him to wind him up but im guessing it was nothing. and it was never a sending off offence.....

You didn't see Lockers purposely twist Chris Bridge's ankle when in the tackle v Wire in the GF semi play off then I presume!?

Don’t forget to clean your rosy coloured specs for tonight will you!

Didn't you see what Chris Bridge did earlier that game?

Some of the team started to look like hot heads and idiots at times last night.
Players like Smith, Clubb and Joel, the 26/27 somethings should show leadership, keep things calm and give direction. Shaun W needs to re-establish his leadership group.

Early days yet and seeing another of their team mates knocked unconcious couldn't have done their calming nerves much good. Thankfully Ah Van got sent off. I do hope this is a new standard for the refs. It will be interesting to see how the Match Review Panel sees the incident.

The whole squad needs to look at the review and it will be awful viewing especially for the coaching staff. They simply have to do better than last night and by a very long way.
The only positive I can find is that we got one more League point from Widnes last night than we did last season. If we're looking for improvement, then that's one way I suppose!

Effectively though Smith was sent off for the remainder of the game and It'll get looked at by the review panel.

I don't like having a go at referees but Childs was hopeless last night.

I can go either way with the sending off, I don't THINK it was deliberate but he did hit Charnley around the head with I think a clenched fist. As I always say let the review committee decide. But the real poor decisions were Gelling tackling the Widnes player in the air no penalty given. The penalty given for pushing the Widnes player over the touchline when a) he's already in touch and b) Joel Tomkins is committed to the tackle, there was no second effort. Then O'Carroll runs 20 yards to attack a Wigan player and the referee doesn't caution him but speaks to Joe Mellor and gives Wigan the penalty. There are probably others I'll notice when I watch the game again but those three were from memory at the game.

An excellent summing up RG

Hanbury wasn't in his face. He was, understandably, celebrating Dean's try. The whole Wigan act is getting a bit old now really. Not saying Saints players are angels by any means, Wellens loves gobbing off at the referee, Travis Burns is probably the niggliest player in the league. The way Wigan play though isn't surprising when you've got players like Joel Tomkins, who couldn't deciede who to kick off with when Dean scored, coupled with the fact that Wane's lost the plot. It's rubbing off on the whole team, that kick out wasn't like Matty Smith and like people have said, Liam Farrell seems to have become braindead recently with his lying on in the tackle. It's been coached into the team and it's sad to see really.

Aggression is a great thing when channelled properly, but some players have it and some don't. O'Loughlin, Ellis, Westwood, Peacock etc. They have always played hard probably since they were 13 years old. But they do it the right way.

If you try to coach it into guys like Farrell, to whom it just doesn't come naturally, the result it what we are seeing now. Needless penalties and petulance.

It's clear that they have tried to coach aggression into Faz as if you remember a couple of seasons ago, Wane made a comment said that Faz was playing well but wasn't aggressive enough in the tackle. Now we see the results of him becoming more aggressive as more penalties are given away.

Quote: Mr. Zucchini Head "Aggression is a great thing when channelled properly, but some players have it and some don't. O'Loughlin, Ellis, Westwood, Peacock etc. They have always played hard probably since they were 13 years old. But they do it the right way. If you try to coach it into guys like Farrell, to whom it just doesn't come naturally, the result it what we are seeing now. Needless penalties and petulance.'" Not disagreeing with you entirely but Farrell only gave away 1 penalty last night, and he should be fined for stupidity for doing it. www.superleague.co.uk/report/10950

Quote: Mr. Zucchini Head "Aggression is a great thing when channelled properly, but some players have it and some don't. O'Loughlin, Ellis, Westwood, Peacock etc. They have always played hard probably since they were 13 years old. But they do it the right way. If you try to coach it into guys like Farrell, to whom it just doesn't come naturally, the result it what we are seeing now. Needless penalties and petulance.'" Not disagreeing with you entirely but Farrell only gave away 1 penalty last night, and he should be fined for stupidity for doing it. www.superleague.co.uk/report/10950

I never thought I would say this but I agree with all of that.