I hear that Gareth Carvell is still looking for a club

No, but in all seriousness, I was genuinely shocked today at how dominated we were in the forwards. I've never seen that happen under Wane before. Even when we've lost in the past its been a close call but we struggled at times to make any metres and they were rolling through us like bulldozers.

In reality, it obviously means little in terms of the result and Tautai and O'Loughlin will be back soon. BUT one thing is does bring into question is our lack of size. I love seeing academy products get a chance but I remember a Paul Prescott interview a few years ago when he retired and he said "Im proud to have represented my hometown club in a position where so few other local lads have succeeded". He obviously meant at prop and its interesting because realistically the biggest players are often the ones with Pacific Islander heritage and as much as Wane loves bringing young local lads through I think Prop will be a position we may have to bring others in.

Sutton will go on to be great with us by the way but still needs a bit more size. I think Wane realizes we need to break our 'homegrown' policy in order to add size to the pack and this is evident from the signing of Tautai.

Farrell scares the life out of me when he has the ball. He looks like he can make a break ever time he gets the ball against saints. He always seems to score as well.

Whilst the results of the last two weeks are meaningless the performances aren't.

The negatives - Hampshire has no positional sense, he can't catch or tackle. So he's not a full back. He did play well at Stand off against an under strength Leigh team. That doesn't mean he's ready for Super League, because he's not.

The pack have been dominated. The props aren't big enough.

Joel is not a centre. Gildart is not ready. Sarginson may be needed at Full back.

Williams has offered nothing and is nowhere near ready. Our failure to replace Blake Green with a seasoned pro may backfire. The Dragons, Saints, even Hull KR and Cas, have quite possibly recruited better than we have.

The positives -There really haven't been any.

The way we finished last season gave me great hope for this one. However, there is lots to be concerned about. I know that people who haven't bothered going to the Leigh and Saints games are going to come on and slaughter me saying that there hasn't been a ball kicked yet and you are writing us off. I'm not - but I'm very concerned. If there was anyone there yesterday who isn't concerned I'd be surprised.

Except for the actual cup final which is Saint's cup final. Oh and the league year which they came top of last year, Then yes apart from those two little things then yes this was Saint's cup final.

Selling them to Australia

Can't agree more, I would probably if someone recorded me at the game sound a right miserable sod lol as I took apart our performance which was worryingly dreadful, fair enough we were better in the 2nd half but we couldn't of played worse than the 1st half. where only a week and half away from the start of the season as well!!

I never pay any attention in practice games. They are just for players to have a run out and get some match fitness

Nice of you to be magnanimous in victory but I'm not sure you'd feel the same if the tables were turned. The game was VERY competitive yesterday, and Wigan were bullied out of it. It was over as a contest at half time. The score in the end flattered us.

I expected us to come out and play better in the second half (and we did) because Shaun Wane's teams NEVER get on the wrong side of an absolute drubbing. But really, we were playing for pride. The manner of the defeat is very worrying.

I think people need to remember that Tautai, Mossop, Joel and O'Loughlin were all missing from our pack yesterday and will likely all be in there for the Widnes game, with Flower further strengthening the pack when he returns. Add them in and perhaps we don't get hammered in the pack, giving us territory and the halfbacks a platform to work off. We still had a good side out there and should have put in a much better performance but let's not go ott. I remember us looking absolutely terrible for the full game against Wire in Ben Westwood's testimonial, then we went on to win the double

Agree completely

Like I say the most woirrying element was how susceptible we were to the size of their pack.

Anyone who saw the game yesterday would rightfully be worried about the size of our pack. Of course, to use the cliche "Its only pre-season" and no doubt this was partially responsible for our forwards poor performance but what surprised me most yesterday was just how easily they bulldozed through us. Like I said, Ive honestly never seen our pack as beaten before since the days of Brian Noble. Im not overly worried because it is just a trial game but I honestly was surprised. The problem is our pack wasnt great last year either and as has been said, our backs bailed them out. Im just watching the highlights back now and I never thought Id say it but Mose Masoe actually managed to look like a Rugby League player.

A few other individual observances from Wigan TV highlights:

1) Most of their offloads were when Ryan Sutton failed to connect properly in tackle.

2) Hampshire better expect to catch a lot of high balls now if hes playing fullback this season.

3) George Williams. He honestly offered nothing and his performance gets worse everytime I see it.

Im sure we'll be better for the Widnes game but these facts and performances cant be ignored. I remember last preseaon when we were a little worried about goal kicking and we had to put up with the usual cliches from happy clappers "he'll improve as the season goes on" "its just a trial game, hes not trying to convert them properly" etc. Fact is goal kicking was poor all last year and cost us a top spot finish. (Hull KR away). Lets hope the size issue and lack of quality standoff doesnt hold us back this year.

I think we need to be careful with the likes of Hampshire, Williams and Burgess. The truth is that this is in reality their first season outside the u19's age group and they're going to make mistakes. The last thing we meed is another Kev Brown, Luke Robinson scenario where the fans get on their backs and they lose confidence. Hopefully they'll get around the 15 -20 games played this year. They should both be very important players for us in the coming years.

On Burgess, yesterday we had couple of "fans" shouting "F OFF" to Australia, I stress it was only one or two that I heard, but it's stupidity of the highest order IMO.

I think we'll be fine.
Our top 17 last year produced the best performances all year, especially in the run of home games up to Old Trafford.
The pack depth is stronger than last year, and the many youngsters are a year older.
The only change of note is at 6, and even there it's not as if we are changing the whole spine of the team (and we put in some more than decent performances without Green). I cannot see any rational basis for despair after a friendly.
This was against a Saints side who know in their heart of hearts they were the second best team to make the Grand Final. That sense of a hollow victory clearly provided more motivation than we had, treating it as a friednly. We'll be right.