Yep, just seen his post match interview, straight up answer about Powell and realises exactly where we are in the scheme of things, reckon Lam would've "Arsene Wenger'd" the Powell question and then just given some "proud of the effort" platitude about the game itself

I was also dreading Walmsley tearing us apart but I thought we kept him pretty quiet too. I think just one decent run and PTB that led up to one of their tries.

Let's not forget when Leuluai went off the score was only 12-4 and should've been 12-10. After that we had to do a complete reshuffle and Saints took control.

What I found odd was that we moved French into the halves that required 2 more changes across the backline (that was already having a poor game), rather than just bringing Shorrocks on, who has played in the halves last year.

I thought we handled Walmsley pretty well but Paasi was a different kettle of fish, absolutely battered us (pardon the pun) his error at the start of the 2nd half apart

Unfortunately for us Passi changed the game when he came on. We had nothing on the bench anywhere near his level.
I’m disappointed but not totally down.
At the moment it reminds me of the 1983/1984 years.
We’re getting there after some grim years but need that one player to make us click and move us on.
I’d love us to sign a Graeme West or a Dean Bell to compliment additional quality signings in the centres and the forwards. Easier said than done but I’ve got good vibes that the foundations are being laid.

The squad is totally unbalanced but we need to give Peet his way for planning for 2023. IL and KR need to leave the recruiting to Peet and his assistants.

I hate to say but Saints are a quality team but at least we know where the bar is set.

Just got in after being out all day after the game. Quite pleased with that overall.

Much will be made of Wigan’s injuries and rightly so but we had Sironen, Matautia, Grace, Hopoate missing then lost Knowles early which was a huge blow and also meant we were down to 16 players and one less sub. We then lost Dodd for the last 15 too.

Never for one minute did I think we were going to lose that game and we were quite poor in attack. Makinson was outstanding as was Roby and Lomax and Bell went really well too.

Apart from Fields try we kept him quiet and had a couple of VR decisions go against us (not watched the game back yet so don’t know how it looks)

All in all I think we will be much better for the SF and nothing I saw today has me worried for that game.

I haven't seen it back either, but my sense at the game was that Hurrell's (dodgy, but not enough to overturn, I thought) was a better shout than the one that was given.

You were the better side but for me you got a try that wasn’t with Batchelor go your way, a forward pass for the Lomax try not spotted and numerous ball steals not spotted, one which was a certain try for us in the first minute of the second half. That said Powell should have certainly seen red.
I think the absentees prior to the game was probably even? But you lost Knowles for the full game and we both lost halves in the second half.
We are still some way off you but we need to keep progressing and hope you regress but at the moment the only way I see is beating you in a meaningful game this season is us pulling out a dream performance and everything clicking into place or you lot having a shocker which I would think would only be likely with big injuries.

I do think we are not that far off,but we lost to a better team that is all.
Wigan are much better than last season we will get better this season unfortunatly saints will as well.
Should be a good season.

Not watched the game back and my head is still a bit fuzzy this morning however I seem to recall we handed Saints a number of tries from some very dumb plays on our side which could and should have been easily avoided.

We are clearly second best at the moment to Saints but if we don’t run out of touch on the first tackle from an attacking scrum etc then I think we can get closer to Saints in the semi and give them some nervous moments and look to cause an upset.

Credit to Singleton who seemed to be man marking Walmsley and I thought did a great job of keeping him quiet in the main.

Well it’s a result that hand on heart I expected. I thought we went well across the board to be honest but Saints showed again and again throughout the game why they are far and out the best team in SL. They didn’t panic with 2 disallowed tries nor when Field went in at the corner like most other teams would. They simply ground it out with the confidence and knowledge they’d pull it back.

I thought we really missed Ellis today, I don’t think he was the difference but we missed some ‘umph’ in the forwards though I did think we were ok there.

We are on the right track, we just need to be cleverer. Kicking on the first at a scrum on half way then giving a penalty away? What the actual ….? Mind blowing play. I get the plan is for Field/French to collect the kick but neither were anywhere near and it was never on in the memory of man.

Byrne did a really good job on walmsley in his first stint. Ran hard in attack and got into walmsley every time he got the ball and put some decent hits into him. He has come on alot this season byrne and is currently our best performing prop. Thought singleton had a solid first stint too.

There was a clear drop off in quality once these 2 got subbed. It does make me think if ellis was in the mix could we have been more competitive? Having byrne or ellis subbing in and keeping up the intensity would have been nice. Not saying it would have changed the result though, the better team clearly won yesterday.

Meter Stats from the game

Bell 132
Walsmley 119
Paasi 107
Makinson 236

Field 101
Partington 14
Byrne 24
Magoo 22

Good post. You make some fair and balanced points. Have to say also it’s pleasing to see decent people rightly condemning one of their own in Powell for that tackle.

Interestingly enough Walmsley ran for 119m, more than Paasi who I thought had a better game.

For context Mago, Byrne and Partington ran under 70m combined.

Makinson’s stats were freakish. He was far and away the MOM

236m from 19 carries, 12 tackle busts and 4 clean breaks.

I posted on another thread about Powell and weirdly just didn’t think much of it initially but after watching it back with no lager in me I can see how poor it was. A ban inbound and rightly so.

I thought the same re Walmsley. Singleton and Byrne got really stuck into him initially but the stats show he went about his work quietly and effectively, even if on viewing it didn’t look that way. Mago was poor IMO. He’s got the frame to make good yardage but it just seems all he wants is to offload. If he concentrated on making those yards and offloading when it’s on he’d be a far more effective prop. Partington I’m half and half on, I just don’t know if he genuinely has a future at Wigan. I was happy with Byrne to be honest, he got stuck in and did the hard graft alongside Singleton. Rarely will that ever get praised because on paper it doesn’t look great.

I said to a mate of mine yesterday that Makinson is a freakish player. Absolute class act. How he’s not attracted major NRL interest is beyond me, he’s well in the mix of best wingers in the world for me. He didn’t win the game single handedly for Saints but he was unplayable yesterday and a huge factor in the win.

Mago suffered from our stupid plays with the ball when he was brought on. He was gassed from defending and it completely obliterated any impact he should’ve had with the ball.