Well thank you, you Nearly gave credit to Hull KR there, Hull KR's defence is shocking, I hope we get a top 8 place but dont think we will, Its just a breath of fresh air to here we were beaten by the better side on the day, unfortunately its now all about how your team lost and lets find faults with individual players why we lost rather then giving credit to the opposition or the ref was poor, but thanks for the nearly did i gave Hull KR credit for coming from 20-6 down to win, how many teams have done that to Wigan? Fair play to Hull KR surely?

David, for fooks sake, stop moaning. We won, enjoy the victory as all other Rovers fans are doing.

its just a breath of fresh air to here we were beaten by the better side on the day, unfortunately its now all about how your team lost and lets find faults with individual players why we lost rather then giving credit to the opposition or the ref was poor..... I think you lost the point I was making!

That's probably because you remarkably manage to contradict yourself within each and every sentence. I think you're a Wigan fan? You could however be a fan of Limoux.

We should never have lost a 20 - 6 lead. But to be honest there seems to be areas for concern right across the park. There is not one position where we could say they are playing well.

Our half back pairing and the centres are woeful at the moment. And our wingers ? Is their below standard play due to the centres or the fact that at least one of them is off down under at the end of the season?
The pack is too small, and when 'Lockers' isn't playing which is getting more and more these days we are 'all at sea'. Bowen at full back offers nothing.
We don't have a decent goalkicker at all.

We are short of quality,skill, and pace, right across the park.

How on earth Waney put a positive spin on that display today I will never know.

Maybe the austerity measures imposed on the Wigan club over recent years will now show themselves to our detriment?

You cannot keep relying on the youngsters production line to win matches year on year just because it is the cheaper option. Especially when we now know that even our youngsters are now being 'poached' so God help us if we get a real talent (like another Sam Tomkins) because if we do, then rather than a team number just place a 'for sale' sign on their back.

It's a good job the standard of SL is also falling.

And there is the problem. A weak leadership team but more importantly the age of the team.

A few simple facts that may not be popular-

You need a dominant pack.

You need quality in the halves.

Wigan is not the epicentre of the rugby universe.

Our recruitment has been absolute garbage since Wane came in.

Pretty much. I wouldn't go so far as to say absolute garbage, but as already noted, players of the stature of Tomkins, Carmont, Green, Richards, Hansen etc have not been replaced by equivalent quality.

'm pretty sure you'll pull things round before too long, but on the whole your playing roster has reduced in quality every year since maguiore was your coach. Every year the other seccies think "Wigan have lost X, Y and Z, they'll not compete this year" but you've continued to stay at the top end. Maybe this is the year when things crack and you need a proper rebuild?

We won't get a re-build if it costs money so we'll have to work with what we've got.

In truth I think we'll be fine. Things have been so disrupted so far and we look like a team struggling to find any momentum but there are reasons for that-

7 England Tourists last year

Injured/suspended players

Team changing every week including in critical positions

Taking part in the WCS

Too many errors



I've already stated in other threads out discipline is poor and that needs fixing up urgently but those reasons above have lead to a sloppy start. As the pitches firm up and Wigan get the likes of Lockers, Flower and Sarginson back we'll improve hugely.

I certainly wouldn't write Wigan off yet.

I think you're right. Even without SOL in the back row, you stil have Bateman, TOmkins and Farrell.
Crosby, Flower, Tautai and Mossop are four good props and then you've got Patrik to slot in where needed.
You've not got a perfect set f backs, but its not really achievable in a salary capped game.

Looking at the stats. HKR had almost 50 more play the balls than Wigan. That's an unbelievable amount and I'd guess that the second half possession would have been something like 2:1 in their favour. As for the missed tackles 44 ouch!! Wigan had to make 97 more tackles than HKR, almost 40% and that was all due to dropped ball and penalties (some absolute stupid) To actually only concede four tries off stats like that shows that they didn't defend that poorly. www.superleague.co.uk/report/11026

Looking at the stats. HKR had almost 50 more play the balls than Wigan. That's an unbelievable amount and I'd guess that the second half possession would have been something like 2:1 in their favour. As for the missed tackles 44 ouch!! Wigan had to make 97 more tackles than HKR, almost 40% and that was all due to dropped ball and penalties (some absolute stupid) To actually only concede four tries off stats like that shows that they didn't defend that poorly. www.superleague.co.uk/report/11026

Defense isn't the problem.

It's the stupid penalties and the idiotic game management. We should have just simplified everything, played rugby in the right areas and cut out the pens.

Our game management is simply shocking and It's not a new problem either imo. Wane needs to get it sorted but I very much doubt he will (he's not done kit yet so why should we believe he'll start now).

It's like Noble has taken over again.

word for word, this is what i thought before last season, and begrudgingly they did bloody well. AS you say though, it catches up, eventually.

Didn't go yesterday but reading this thread it looks like a Widnes re-run.
Poor handling maybe due to different combinsations every week. Poor and cold weather might be to blame. That can come right and we did score some very good tries with excellent handling.

Where there is no excuse are the numerous penalties. Hand in at the ptb, lying on, being sucked in to a push and shove situation, away from home it's an easy penalty for the ref to give to get the home fans off his back. Chester's remarks that he told them to "get into Wigan's faces and pressure the ref" is that getting Wigan to retaliate was his game plan. Trouble is from reading all this that it succeeded and we fell for it big time!
One remedy is for the management/coaching staff to financially fine players who concede penalties. Our pen count against would drop like a stone. Was done some years ago I think by Leeds and had the required effect.
Noticable in the Saints/Souths game that when there was the possibility of a bit of push and shove the Souths players turned their backs and walked away. They also walked away with the trophy! Not easy I'm sure but that (a low pen count) can be the difference between winning and not.
In one sense we are ahead of where we were last year. After those same three opponents 2014 we had one League point now we've three.
We have a massively talented squad with plenty players to return and 27 games to go.
Sort this problem out now and it will be a very successful season.