Some players will need to be replaced on both sides. The big questions for Wigan are Field and French and then Saints have some big players coming to the back end, with no obvious replacements jumping out from outside the club but it’s tough to see either club falling away dramatically for a good while.

One thing we haven’t had is many finals between the clubs (not that we could attend anyway) but I can’t see how we won’t have a couple in the next few years. I read opposition fans saying it’s boring seeing a Wigan v Saints final ‘again’ but not sure where they get that from. We’ve not had a challenge cup final between us for 20 years and we’ve had 1 Grand Final in the last 9 seasons (and no fans could go). I can only imagine how intense a final would be between the sides at the minute!

To summarise. Saints fans “lol we dominated you and Thompson is rubbish”

Wigan fans “even though we were utterly dominated there is nothing to worry about and we are still streets ahead of saints”

I think that’s a fair assessment of the salt and tears from both fans.

As a Wigan fan I was very happy to hear his 2 year extension.
Lomax of 3 or 4 years ago and you would have had Friday’s game sown up by half time.

At the moment you have the advantage in the forwards, particularly in the backrow where personally in a combined team I would pick at least 2 players from Saints. Until Walters and maybe Nsemba become regular starters/players unless conditions are dry and firm we will struggle to dominate against your pack.

Overall I think our backs trump Saints and for me when our pack can compete and obtain 50% possession then that is when we may win more than we lose against you.

Interesting times.

I mentioned pregame that Wigan haven’t beaten Saints with Walmsley playing for a great number of years.

Felt he was the difference on Friday. What a player. Even at 34 he’s still killing it.

I took a non RL fan who was totally new to the sport and he picked up within the first 10mins what a monster he was.

He also mentioned Saints looked a lot bigger than Wigan. I’d be excited to have Walters for Isa in the backrow and Havard somewhere on the bench to match size wise.

He played last Good Friday didn’t he?

Strangely enough I thought the opposite. During the warm ups I thought Wigan looked bigger. Byrne and Mago are huge bodies although it could be perception given Wigan were in t shirts and we were in hoodies.

I think the next game on a drier track will see Wigan shift it wide early with their superior back line. For some reason Peet seemed to take us on down the middle in a grind which is our game now. The Entertainers tag has long gone.

I think it's a fair assumption that Wigan will be a lot, lot better next time out. Wigan made 14 errors in the first 50 minutes (penalties, errors and six agains; see the 'Saints (a) thread for reference), that's nearly one every two minutes with ball in play!

Furthermore, I think it's pretty unlikely we'll be playing half an hour with 12 men, next time out. If we do, we'll only have ourselves to blame.

And finally, sport tends to even itself out. Saints got the rub of the green with the Lees head contact being missed. Like him or loathe him, Rob Hicks has gone on record that that is the type of tackle that they're trying to get rid of. The next tackle Dupree gets sin binned. The video ref also recommends yellow for Byrne, but Kendall chose red. All the small moments went Saints way.

Despite all of the above, after 73 mins, Wigan were winning the game.

I can see why after the game Matt Peet was optimistic and confident for us going forward, he knows a lot more about RL than anyone on this board.

Yeah and if my Aunty had balls etc…

I’d love to know where you get your stats from as the official ones show us completing 2 less sets and making 5 more errors.

Incidentally when you did have 13 on the field you didn’t make a single break. Not one.

Also everyone has conveniently ignored the fact that we lost Percival for the same amount of time that Byrne was off which meant a prop playing centre regardless of how good he is.

We were also down an interchange with Batchelor going off too. But hey let’s just assume that Wigan wipe the floor with us next time just by making less errors.

The pitch will be Saints saving grace at the start and back end of the season. It’s a disgrace and a serious accident will happen on that surface before long.

Im sure Sky said its being relaid in the summer

Coming from you, I'll take that as a ringing endorsement. A union troll telling me I know nothing about rugby league! Fabulous!

Whatever the relationship between Stu and myself is at present, I feel confident in saying he'd prefer not to have you in his corner.

Anyone know what waqa blake has been upto?

Bonding with the locals apparently.

Been plenty of rumours only thing he's been guilty of is being crap been told a few home truths and dropped to the reserves v Wakfield