Williams, though, is not a 6!! He is a scrum half - preferably with Hampshire at 6.
The question is where does that leave Matty Smith. Bench 9 to spell MM if that is needed?
The problem with Conor Farrell is he isn't big enough - which is probably why Wane didn't put him on earlier.
Wigan might supposedly have a first team squad of 35 as keeps being mentioned, but where is there any size or power, particularly if a few players ( Flower and Lockers) are missing?
The problem may be that Wane is "too close" to the players he brought through the academy and junior teams - as Jonh has said, playing in a successful academy team should not guarantee your succession into the first team. Wigan have been crying out for a couple of big forwards for over a year - most teams seem to have several Antipodeans who are naturally bigger than most British players. Hence the shortcomings of the policy of mostly home grown/Wigan born players, when applied particularly to the forwards.
Cunningham and Long seem to have got it right at Saints - even the back row forwards are big units, including the young British lads.

There are and I was expressing some of them before the season started mainly about the centres given Thornley is injured and still inexperienced, Gelling isn't one and at the time I posted Sarge had done nothing of note there. At least he looks better than I expected.

The trouble is you have to throw in Williams at 6 as well plus Budgie is also inexperienced.

There is a lot of inexperience in first 13 slots. Going with an inexperienced 6 might be OK if the rest of the team were seasoned pros. He'd probably look a star in the 2010 or 2011 team with Deacon alongside him and lot of other experienced players about but he is one of many changes.

The question is who's fault is this? Did IL tell Wane that was the team he had so get on with it or did Wane convince IL it would be alright on the night? As I have said before I tend to think Wane believes his own propaganda at times and convinces himself that players like Williams are not just going to be OK but will be the next Sam Tomkins. I doubt IL [idoesn't[/i have a say as he holds the cheque book but I think Wane has said enough about this squad for me to think he really did believe it was all going to be fine and it was mostly his choice..



It would not surprise me. It's also clear some players wanted to leave Wigan and I am referring to Goulding and Taylor here. Taylor isn't at Hull FC despite supposedly wanting to return to Hull as his GF was homesick and Goulding clearly wanted away. Why? I don't think homesick or new challenge are realistic reasons to leave a club expected to be challenging for the honours.

If I remember correctly IL stated at the pre-season dinner that this was the finest team so far during his reign. Bizzare at worst, wishful thinking at best there Ian.

The team next week is going to be interesting.......!

Where does Wane go from here?

Will he give Hampshire a chance at 6 - or just play him at 1 to give Bowen a rest, so he is "right" for Good Friday?!!

And what about the forwards.....?

Might they persuade Jordan James to come out of retirement to add some "experience"....? At least he would be cheap as he is already on the payroll!

If only we had Goulding now.

He'd add some much needed experience to our back line and it would allow us to move Gelling into the pack to give us extra size.

He must have learnt that trick from Hetherington, who says that every year.

As a Leeds fan, couldn't believe how bad Wigan were tonight. We should have battered you & it's our own fault we didn't. Wane said post-match that Wigan "dominated Leeds for long periods", but I've no idea what game he was watching if he thought that. Even when Wigan were ahead they'd had one try-scoring chance to about four that Leeds managed to butcher.

If you're talking about halves, I thought Green was the best half-back in the league and it's obvious to an outsider that he carried Smith through last season.

End of the day you can only replace quality with projects and youngsters for so long then it will eventually start to catch up with you!
•wane stated after the WCC defeat to roosters we wern't big enough, why after the defeat to the Broncos was he still saying were not big enough??
•discipline cost us the grand final,why now 5 months on is it still a big problem?
• what the hell is this "Different" type of rugby he talked about actually achieving??

Sadly although he is wigan through and through his limitations as a coach are being exposed....he's the sort of guy that will tell you to run through a brickwall all day what he doesn't know is how to tell you to get round it.

Couldn't agree more.

Summed him up in a nutshell.

Love to see us go a little left field and get someone like Garth Brennan in as the next coach.

42 year old academy coach at Penrith who was linked the Newcastle Job when Bennett left. Seems to be highly thought of down under and it's just a matter of time before gets an NRL head coach gig.

I thought the same

Waney can try as many combinations of halves as he likes but they won't get anywhere until he sorts out the forwards. First half only two in a tackle, Leeds offloaded at will and made 60 mtrs every set.
Mossop has to play to get consistancy.
Mic Mac doesn't look fit, he looks tired out or injured. Logan to start v Wakey.
Clubb I thought was our best forward.
If Crosby is fit next week he should start v Wakey as he's big at 6'4".
Joel is inconsistent in the tackle and ball in hand runs too far out wide taking the room Gelling and his wingman should have. That needs sorting and quick.
Farrell needs benching and replacing in the 2nd row by Gelling.
Don't know who should go to 13, Bateman is being asked to play a different position every week.
Last week Williams was a bench 9 this he's 6. Last week Patrick was 13 this week it's Bateman.
No wonder nothing is working.
As for the halves I'd go with Hampshire at 6, Williams at 7 with Smith on the bench.
The Latics play later today then no game at the DW 'till GF. The pitch might, just might be in better condition to give our fast backs the space and sure footwork they need.
First job is 3 and 4 man tackles to stop the offload. That's a big part of Saints game, if we give Walmsley & Co the room we gave Cuthbertson then it will a very long 80 mins.