Come back when you dont choke in playoffs or finals

I mentioned on twitter that I thought we went too wide too soon.

Just got this from twitter, made me chuckle..

Wigan took more fans to the other side of the world than Warrington took to other side of Pennines last night

I didn't think we'd win this game. We have lost too many good players and regardless of the ability of those who replaced them it has come too soon in the season.

I would not write Bowen or anybody off yet. I always remember the comments made about Gene Miles when he looked out of sorts for almost half a season.

However to a large extent we only have ourselves to blame for starting with so many new faces in the team again and for seemingly not addressing the blindingly obvious need for a goal kicker in the off-season.

The idea of steady progression with junior players fed gradually into a more experienced side has seemingly gone out of the window and replaced by a lot of changes all at once.

I'd also rather see it played at the end of the season because in theory you could end up with your own ex-players facing you!

All that aside I think the club has to be applauded for taking the game to Australia. I think it generated far more interest than had it been here which is a good thing especially on the back of bad news like Burgess leaving the game.

Anyone who doesn't recognise the positive aspect of doing that or thinks the competition is pointless is a complete moron IMO.

I'd like it switched to the end of the season so it's the same players, coaches etc. but I'm not sure it's completely feasible. Players win the GF then deserve to celebrate, not get straight back to training and get ready for another massive game, which will include one team travelling to the other side of the world.

I'm not sure I get the point of the 6 team expanded WCC that Peacock and Hetherington have been touting, where 3rd play 3rd, 2nd play 2nd and 1st play 1st over one weekend. I'd like to see every 4 or 5 years we play a full tournament with the top 4 from both leagues, but I think this would have to be played at the expense of the international tournament in October/November. I know people will be critical of that, but you have to play to your strengths, and we have a lot more competitive club sides that we do international teams, and an 8 team WCC would have more interest than a lot of international fixtures IMO.

Wigan looked extremely nervous in the changing room before the game and those nerves were there for all to see in the first half. Very poor handling, a lack of shape in both attack and defence and too many individual errors.

Got it together a bit in the 2nd half and started to play more direct and with a little more confidence. Unfortunately the odd error and fatigue from having to defend so hard against a physically bigger team meant we could never get back into the game.

Bowen was too static at times which held up our attack. Sarginson runs hard but seems to be running around like a headless chicken at times. O'Loughlin, Burgess and Mcilorum (bar the terrible forward passes) were great.

Clearly a tremendous effort but sadly we didn't do ourselves justice overall.

Good effort in the 2nd half and had we kicked all our goals( no disrespect to Matty Smith, 2 difficult kicks off touchline) we would have been 6 points behind at one point.
The awful handling that led to Jennings 3rd try killed it really.
We need to make sure we get another crack next year.

I thought we looked very nervous as well. Terry O'Connor was saying we looked focussed but I thought the players looked tense and had similar feeling to the fans in that they didn't really believe they could win. I thought they looked even more nervous during the anthems.

It was only in that second half that they seemed to come to life and play as though they had nothing to lose and by that point it was too late.

Wane will be spitting chips over the two tries scored by the Roosters props. That shouldn't happen at this level. It was a lack of concentration.

Have to say I'm disappointed in Bowen. Questioned how's he's linking in attack, which hopefully will develop in time, but the basics of FB play were terrible. He's an experienced NRL (former player) and was one of the worse on the pitch.

You absolutely never ever miss an opportunity

Wigan played well, for what they and the other elite Super League teams are (which is a whole level below the elite NRL teams).

So I'd be happy with a lot of what you did if I were you.

There were nerves/mistakes/lack of cohesion at times but the aggression you displayed and the way some of your players really rolled their sleeves up in the 40-60minute section of the game was very commendable. Apart from Chris Hill and one or two others in my Wire team I don't see where that would have come from had it been us there today and not Wigan (I actually dread to think what score it would have been had it been us!). I think a lot of that is down to your coach so Wayne deserves a lot of credit.

But it's time to increase the salary cap now isn't it? We need to keep hold of and entice more of the elite in Super League.

Wigan can hold their heads high. I feared for the worst after 20 minutes but they gave as good as they got after that. Wigan demonstrated a mental toughness that few Super League teams would have done. McIlorum's aggression in defence was great to watch.

They looked nervous probably because they were nervous.
We had a very young team out there and they couldn't cope with that first 20 minutes. The way they stuck at it and didn't allow their heads to go down was comendable. The fact is the Roosters had a team out there that is far better than ours or any club's squad in Super League. They looked streets ahead on the paper team sheet and they were streets ahead on the field.
Once we got a period of pressure they cracked as we had done and conceded tries.
They dropped ball as we did but they had 60 minutes of pressure on us where we had 20 mins of pressure on them. There's a lot of NRL clubs that will lose by more than 22 at the SFS against the Roosters this season.
Two points from the game- first is a Super League problem and that is the disparity in levels of salary cap. The other is IL's policy of allowing so many experienced players leave early with years left on their contracts.
The salary cap one is nothing the club can do about at present.
The other is, IL has to try and insist that players see out their contract and that when they sign for us, that time period of x years will be aheard to. We now have more central funding, we now need expeienced players more than we need transfer fees.
This will do these players a lot of good long term. Right now they'll be gutted but once they have returned and see no one in British Rugby League has a downer on them then they will be stronger. We just have to try and ensure they stay at Wigan.