All that information and the virus wasn't given an actual name or the symptoms of the said virus and it's effects. The interviewer only used flu as an example of a virus which Rads went along with. He didn't confirm or deny it was flu.

As a parent of primary school kids I've lost count the number of times myself or my wife have taken the kids to the doctors to be told they have a virus. The docs never know which one without extensive unnecessary testing. It's a virus, they knock you for six and after 3 to 5 days you get over them. It wasn't flu, anyone who has had flu will confirm you can't even get out of bed never mind get yourself on a rugby pitch.

I understand that completely having children myself and visiting NHS doctors. However, I doubt Wigan will be using NHS care and will have private medical insurance which would probs cover illness. If so many had the virus would not be irresponsible of Wigan to not at least find out the name of the virus? If they had to inform the RFL I doubt they would just accept the word virus as a reason? Wouldn't they require medical evidence so they could exercise dispensation for the salary cap? If not then that's pretty serious as every club will start the play the virus card just to increase the playing roster.

I'll confirm that, had it twice, it's horrible.... First time i got it, i ate a slice and a half of toast in a week... Hope i never get it again.

Fair comment, but even with all our problems I'd rather be where we are in the table than some of those teams (like Huddersfield, at the bottom) with a better attacking record than us. Sure, both would be nice, but I prefer a scrappy win to a fluid attacking defeat.

To a point I agree but we won't keep on winning scrappy games.
We are very poor in attack and even before the injuries we looked and played like a mid table team and that is where we will end up at best unless ST comes back and drags us to another level.
I cant remember the last time when I actually don't want to go to a match. The Catalan and Huddersfield games genuinely made my jaw drop at the sheer awfulness of the quality on display.
I've haven't been able to get to the last few matches but will be there on Friday when I expect an improvement for 20 minutes or so but then anticipate Cas to win in a canter as long as they can tackle. I can take a defeat but find robots and zero skills other than wrestling a little harder to digest.
Adversity can be turned into mental toughness which is what we all expect and maybe just maybe might squeak us an odd scrappy win here and there but without significant improvement in finness and basic rugby skills we are woefully short of being anything like a top team.
Sometimes you have to reach the bottom before you can start to climb up again. Personally I don't think we have reached the bottom yet but hope that come the backend of May we might start to pick up. The way we play even with a full team containing ST I just don't see us doing anything this season.
The off field fiascos are as bad as those on the field. The lack of information on injuries, fixtures, London fixture etc makes me feel that Uncle Maurice & Uncle Dave are back in charge rather than IL who was so refreshing when he first arrived.
I have written this season off and I'm just looking for some grains of comfort in future signings and other internal changes together with the burning of the wrestling pit.

Exactly. If there was a chance of the Wakefield players catching the virus, and if it was as debilitating as reported, then the Wakefield club should / would have agreed to a postponement without question.
So, that leads me to suspect some possible smoke and mirrors here from SW & KR?

The fact they will not say the name of the Virus that went round speaks volumes. If wakey players do get it then could WTW not request the medical information via the RFL so they could get a head start on the best treatment to minimise disruption? or would the file just say "Virus"?

More likely that the virus has not been named because no one has identified it - do you know how hard it is to actually identify a virus, that needs a highly specialised medical facility - and even then there are a lot of viruses in circulation which have not been named anyway (especially given the high degree of mutation rates of viruses there is no off the shelf catalogue of them). Try another conspiracy theory.....

I believe it was virus Wig270089 first seen in April about 27 years ago. However it's a new strain which has an effect known as Wak620016.

I hope that clears things up.

Really strikes a chord this one. I think it's boredom that has set in with a lot of the fans. I don't get to go at the best of times, but when I do I just see the team run through the same stale plays, with the same average players making the same mistakes, playing a brand of stale rugby that sucks out any of my remaining enthusiasm. We're crying out for an attacking coach or, if need be, a new head coach. Even down under Souths are starting to look a bit stale under Maguire with other teams playing more exciting, attacking brands of rugby...

Of course i'll support the team through thick and thin (was there when we got battered by Stains and Leeds), but it doesn't mean I have to be happy with what I see on the field.

perfectly cleared up!

Wonder whether Iestyn Harris would be welcomed back?

We do need an attacking coach as we are as dishwater at the minute, all the emphasis is on smashing the their attackers and I do like our aggressive defence don't get me wrong I just want to see good rugby not good wrestling.

By all accounts Harris wasn't that highly regarded here or at Salford. Though IIRC he was assistant coach is Wane's first season as head coach (2012)? That season is probably when we played the best attacking rugby (smashing Saints at MW, 50 on Leeds at Headingley spring to mind) but the season fizzled out with two poor semi final performances after winning the LLS. We didn't have flashy HBs then but we were really well drilled and ST had a field day out the back.

Yeah but all our resident experts feel that all of that was down to MM, so you can discount that idea..

Personally think we're missing Deacon more than Harris, but hard to know who was really calling the shots in attack...

For me, you've got to ask yourself a question.

Why would a Wigan lad with a coaching job at Wigan leave to coach in Union?

It could be money but it seems over the past few years anyone who's become assistant or near to those lofty heights have left, It would be good to know why and see what happens to John Winder over the next 12 months.

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As a player he would be an improvement.

In all animal species the "Alpha Male" always reacts in the same way when he feels a threat to his dominance, he gets rid of the threat.

It's not a matter pf getting a few bodies back. Surely, for a start, we must at any rate replace Smith? He's never been great, but he often used to be good, and I just can't see him ever being good again. In a Wigan shirt, anyway. Arguing about the quality or predictability of the plays seems almost academic when they are being executed so poorly that there's no chance of success anyway.

Wigan aren't the issue, the league is! We can't compete with Uunion and the NRL and therefore the best players are all going elsewhere and the quality drops. In terms of where the leagues at our squad is actually a very good one.

To sit here and say we're boring, our attack isn't functioning and so on is correct but surely people don't believe that will still be the case when we get all of our players back on board? It may still be a structured approach which we will play with but once we've got our attacking threats back in their correct positions and the team is settled we'll be absolutely fine!

I'm in agreement that we need to tweek a few things for next year (I'm in the camp that says Smiths time is up) but to read some posts you'd think we'd played with a full team all year and still hasn't been attacking well. We just need to be patient.

+1

Lots of calls for an attacking coach and it's the same over on our board. But isn't that what's making the game predictable, both for spectators and defences? It seems to me like an increasing number of teams rely on a fairly limited repertoire of well-rehed moves. Individual flair is the missing ingredient, not further coaching.