Difference being you have your first choice full back, halves and hooker playing......

We were playing very entertaining rugby indeed early doors until the injuries hit in the key positions.

...and we are missing our captain and best player...

That's only 1 player though.

If your attacking game can't function without one injury prone back rower, I'd say that your issues are bigger than I had thought.

To dismiss O'Loughlin as "one injury prone back rower" is a bit silly.

Along with probably James Roby, he is the best player in Super League. Any team would miss that sort of quality.

We have struggled to replace Sam Tomkins and now we have lost Blake Green. The team is of course, adjusting to life without two of our three creative influences from the double season. Losing Lockers this early in the season makes that transition harder.

I'm not sure why teams aren't expected to struggle when their best player is out injured. I mean, if we didn't struggle, no doubt you'd similarly dismiss him by saying "he's not that good, you can play without him!"

As has been noted elsewhere O'Loughlin is probably three players in one, such is his influence on the team.

Sorry, I'm not dismissing him - he's a fabulous player (those with long memories will recall I held that view when it was far from unanimous on here amongst Wigan fans!)

My point is that if you can have a first choice 1/6/7/9 on the pitch, but contend that they aren't firing because SOL is missing, then I'd say the problem is less the absence of SOL and more the people in the 1/6/7/9 shirts.

You compare him to Roby and I agree that is a good comparison in terms of importance to the respective sides.

However, if we were missing Roby but had Lomax/Burns/Walsh/Lance at 1/6/7/9 I don't think we'd be talking about us struggling to post points - that was more my point.

Correct me if I'm wrong but IIRC Royce Simmonds lost his job after 4 defeats, all without Roby. As soon as Roby was fit, you started winning again under Rush. I always thought Royce was unlucky in that respect. You relied heavily on Roby and it cost him his job.

Excellent point - why did we struggle without Roby? We had inexperienced and insufficiently capable players in the halves Lomax/Gaskell/Wheeler.

And that is my point regarding Wigan - it's not the fact that SOL is missing, it's the fact that those left behind, despite being first choice, don't have enough about them to cope without him.

Incidentally though, Roby played in the first two of the 4 match losing streak that cost Royce his job.

Which is why I for one advocated the signing of someone like Brough, Carney, Campese for this season.

We got there in the end!

bump........how many of the 69 doubters have changed their mind

we will be champions again

Ha! Good point. Come on everyone - own up!

I voted yes. Way too many people overreact on here.

I voted yes, but as i said, it's a long season....

As for overreactions, do you really think so??

I'll stick with what I said on page 2. With a lot of players back and more to come our depth is there for all to see. Stay injury free and we will be fine but there's already quite a scrap going on for those places (Leeds apart for the moment) and it's great to see. Also, with Leigh's recent performance confirming their quality I can't wait to see the Middle 8 comp.