I was a big fan of Andy Johnson and in the transitional 97 season I thought we had a world beater in the making along with Nigel Wright. This subject is making me feel real melancholy

Craig Murdock
Chris Ashton
Mark Preston
Rob Louw
Ray Mordt
Sott Quinnell
Robbie McCormack
Nigel Wright
Matty Johns
Denis Moran

Ray Mordt and Rob Louw where short term signings but did very well in their time at the club as was Robbie McCormack dont think you can put these 3 in the same bracket as Dennis Moran

Lee Gilmour. He kind of did make it but left in 2000 as he wanted to play centre when second row was clearly his best position. He was a top player for us in 98 and 99 and i was gutted when he left.

Another one was Simon Haughton. Again he sort of did make it at Wigan but he got injured and Raper never gave him a fair chance after that and he vanished off radar. In the late 90's, Haughton was the one of the most effective impact players in the world. He was the most destructive wide running second rows ive ever seen. He had immense strength in his upper body and legs and was really quick for his size. He even managed to terrorize the Aussies in the 97 WCC and the few internationals he played. Anybody know if he played for anybody else after leaving Wigan?

He signed for Orrell RU, after they had gone professional

Ah right, i didnt know that. Im sure i read somewhere that he lives in Australia now and is a fire fighter.

he is

Was a good player Haughton Pitty he didn’t stay

Denis Moran, recommended to Wigan by the player he replaced...Adrian Lam.

Moran was a brilliant support player at London but was asked to play a different role with Wigan and suffered as a result. I’m pretty sure Radlinski says something similar to this in his book.

I felt sorry for Moran at Wigan, the criticism he received should have been directed at the person that decided to use him as an organising scrum half. If Moran had been playing outside of somebody like Dobson it would have been a completely different story.

Craig Murdock cracking player just couldn't shift Edwards from the team it i remember correctly?

He didn't help himself though with some of his comments / attitude at the time which did nothing to endear him to the Wigan fans - yes he did get a lot of criticism (not all of it justified) but it was wrong player/wrong time.

Sadly we have a history of poor choices at 7 over the last 20 years or so - very odd.

I seem to recall he had a lot of injury issues as well which stalled his career.