The Hopoate signing was a strange one, was never really overly impressed with him in the NRL, I remember he burst onto the scene on debut with Manly but after he came back from his religious break from the game he never hit the heights.

Guessing his connection with Woolf played a part.

Played over 150 NRL so must be decent but wasn’t a signing I was gutted about Wigan missing out on (despite his needing a strike centre).

Will see how he goes tomorrow as barely seen his this year.

Hurrell is a luxury player that a team like Leeds couldn’t afford, Saints however who are normally on the front foot in most games he’s a good squad player for them.

Isn't French on the opposite wing anyway? It would be a very disruptive game plan that would be looking to have Hurrell running at French. I hope they do!

Alternatively it could just be Shabino not knowing what he's talking about...

They will be the 20-25 minutes that could win us the game though I feel.

If we can hang on when Walmsley is on the field and not end up 3 scores behind early then his offloads could break things open for us.

Fully agree.

I think it’ll be quite late when we see him (possibly after half time) and it’s so important we stick there or thereabouts until that time because if we can get him 8-10 carries in the time he’s on the field, there’s a chance he can crack something open for us. I hope we chance our arm tomorrow and really move the ball. I’ve no issue with us going conservative for the first 20-25 mins but we’ll need to open up at some point to trouble them.

I was thinking more in terms of Miski playing in which case French will be on the right. If it's Halsall then it could be either but I still think he'll be on the right but could stay on the left. I think he played left last week because Thornley was in the side which he won't be this week.

That’s a point. At least Saints will be as in the dark as we are. I’d like to see French somewhere around Hurrell but Makinson has been playing on the left with Percival, so that side is very strong for them and they may want to put French over there with Bateman.

I think he needs something of a roaming brief if he's on the right. His footwork last week looked to be getting back to what we know he's capable of. I think it would be too much for Hurrell even with relatively little space.

Not reading 25 pages to get the general consensus but having watched all of Wigan's games this season there's got to be concerns over a lot of these 'middle' forwards longer term. It might be tactical to build fitness through the season and peak at the end but right now nobody looks capable of making good ground consistently, really missing a big enforcer to lead the younger lads. You'd think Mago would be the one to do it but very disappointed with what he's given so far, too occupied with getting an offload away rather than getting on the front foot. His stats from yesterday are a disgrace - 22 metres from 7 carries! Even if he's getting flat ball from dummy half he's getting dominated in the contact every time to only make that pitiful average gain.

Havard looks a great prospect but does he have any intention of staying long term? By all accounts Melbourne were after him a couple of years ago and if he keeps performing it's only a matter of time before the NRL interest comes back.

Singleton got some good aggression defensively but you need more, he's coming into his peak now and I'd expect better from someone at this stage of his career.

Byrne is doing OK but is crying out for a starting partner who he can play off. You wouldn't be starting him at all at ideally but needs must.

Partington, not going to make it for me. Been playing regularly for a few seasons now and he's powder puff in the carry and full of dumb errors and discipline. Needs massive improvement.

Jury out on Ellis, needs a regular run before we can really evaluate.

Back row is fine, could upgrade on Isa with KPP (another who probably won't stay though!) and Smithies is another positive, he is being brought through well behind the established players and should be playing 13 for a good few years.

thats been the issue for 3 years now

Been a while since we had stats like this so May as well enjoy them

Singleton 11 carries for 97m

Bryne 8 for 81m

Farrell 12 for 122m

Bateman 14 for 119m

Smithies 10 for 73m

Mago 12 for 132m

Havard 9 for 87m

Ellis 16 for 128m

Cust, Miski, Bevan, Halsall all over 100m and Field 200m

Interesting that yet again Powell didn’t register one carry, will be interesting whoever plays at hooker if they run or not.


Think Byrne Singleton Havard Mago Ellis is a really solid 5 props.

People say we lack size but

Singleton 6ft 2 108kg

Mago 6ft 2 113kg

Havard 6ft 3 102kg

Byrne 6ft 2 113kg

Ellis 6ft 3 106kg

All can play big minutes bar Mago but he gives a bit of Xfactor. Was good to see Ellis offload yesterday hope we see more of it.

Yesterday was the first time them 5 have played together. Fingers crossed we can keep that settled.

Yeah the Wigan pack is as good as anyone in SL now. If Saints pick up another key injury the door will be wide open……

Terrific numbers across the board there and even that doesn't tell the whole story. We were excellent on the back of those metres too. Offloads, crisp passing and good attacking shape throughout the match.

I made a point on the Good Friday thread that none of our players even came close to their best whereas Saints had several at or around theirs. Yesterday we had season's best performances (Makinson, Paasi) from Singleton, French while he was on and Smith and others at their usual top standard (Roby, Percival etc) in the likes of Field, Faz and so on. The result was a drubbing for Wakefield who's players performed nowhere near their best. That's the nature of any team sport.

Where Saints have it over us at the moment is their ability to do that more often and in the big games. That's where the challenge lies. There's nothing wrong with our potential or ability. We have match winning players all over the park. They need to be able to do it when it matters and I back Peet to get us there.

Peet had clearly noted the issue on Friday and where we will need to get to if we’re to challenge Saints, when he said he’d discussed us not having any ‘dips’ over the course of the 80 mins. That is where Saints are so good, they play for 80 minutes and never have a real lull, certainly not in big games anyway. We went toe to toe for 30 mins on Friday and whilst that’s nowhere near enough, I felt it was our first 30 mins of doing that against them since the 2020 Grand Final. We now need to work towards increasing that. The easiest way to do that is to take your chances when they come along and that gives you a mental lift and energises you.

It shows you can make metres against Wakey...Not so easy against the big boys..