They were the best team imo and deserved to win but that was a cracking effort from the lads considering the players we had out:-
Lima - World champion
Finch - World champion
Richards - Man of steel
Fielden - One of best props in super league
Gleeson off injured too.
Theres probably 4 out of our 5 top earners there.

Even with all the above we still had chances to win it. If Goulding catches that ball it was a possible try and it would of stopped their try, If Sam wasnt taken out when he flicked it through he would of scored for certain imo, if we hadnt thrown passes to fans instead of players on a couple of occasions there were half chances there.

That sliding road block that SGI have is fooking unbelievable! Ive never seen a defence that good in my life.

We dont need to make excuses after last night, we did Wigan and our country proud. Any other team in super league with the same calibre of players missing that we had would of got completley embarrassed which is testament to the some of the young players coming through our system who are going to be big, big stars in the future. The SGI captain payed us a massive complement on his interview after saying we would win a lot of games in the NRL.

The future is bright for us and it will take a very good team to stop us this year.

As others have said i'm very proud of the boys tonight. We were up against it with a weakened front row but we stood up to the challenge and we can hold our heads up high. Guys like Mossop, Sam, Prescott, Mcilorum, Joel and Faz are still not anywhere near the players they will become and I’m excited for the future.

As far as the game goes the two biggest losses for us were Pat and either one of Lima or Fielden. It goes without saying that Pat is the best winger in SL and I very much doubt Morris would have found it as easy going as what he did last night if Pat would have been out there. As for the props if either one of Fielden or Lima would have been out there supporting the excellent work Coley and Prescott did then we really could have bullied them up front.

It wasn’t to be and the better side, with the better players won.

But everyone else has played an extra game too. Using that as an excuse will find little sympathy from other fans.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry too much about this.

If Leeds fans are saying that playing one extra game, albeit a tough one, was the reason why they failed to win anything last season, I'd take that with a pinch of salt. There were clearly other issues at Headingley, not least problems between the coach and the management.

While I agree that the WCC is a demanding extra fixture, our coaching staff are surely professional enough to plan around it, particularly where mental strength issues are concerned. I feel our squad depth will be tested earlier rather than later because, for the first time in several years, we suddenly have an injury crisis to deal with.

But it will be interesting to see how we cope on Friday. Last year we gave masterclasses in how to kick back from defeat, but this week we've got the minimum recovery time, plus Maguire can't exactly go in and bollock the lads senseless because that was a pretty good all-round effort. He'll now have to find a different way to get them back on their feet.

What DaveO said - without one or two handling errors we could have won the game. It was a fantastic specacle to watch (especially as I was in attendance at Crusaders v Bradford on Saturday - the difference in quality was staggering!) and for a neutral or newcomer to the game would have been brilliant. It wasn't to be but every credit to the team and especially to our young forwards, we really matched them up the middle. A bit of grunt from Lima and/or Fielden could have made the difference but no excuses, SGI were simply superb (after the first quarter...).

I wouldn't say that; we had an injury crisis last year, but nobody noticed.

St Georege took the chances they had. We didn't. That was the difference

We lost Roberts for most of the season, and though he was a key player, he was only one man. We're now lacking two key players in Finch and Richards for a prolonged period, and we don't know how long it will be before Fielden and Gleeson return.

I should revise what I said before. I don't think it's exactly an 'injury crisis'. But Finch and Richards are two guys who would make a big difference to any team. If the other two are off for a sustained period as well, I reckon we'll find it harder than we did last year.

I think the point Geoff was making was that around the time we went to Leeds away we had around 7 players out injured and that tested the squad as much as it's testing now.

Roberts/Phelps/Prescott/Mickey Mac/O'C/Bailey/Mossop were all 1st team/1st choicce players in and around rounds 1-4 yet by this part of the season they'd all missed/been missing 6 weeks + each and you can add Hansen who was only coming back into the team after 2 month + missing.

This pushed the move to FB for Sam, the inclusion fo Goulding as a Winger & the development of Tuson/Farrell etc further on and quicker than maybe would have happened with a cleaner bill of health?

I find it amazing that we so easily find things to devalue an excellent game;

They had to fly round the world, the weather is different etc. If we had flown to aus and were beaten by the same score it 's because we were not as good - anything else is just excuses.

The St George team are extremely well coached and have an amazing defence (as anyone who saw any of the NRL last season would testify). They also have an amazing backline. Morris, Cooper, Gasnier, would replace the top 3 backs in any SL side.

Credit to wigan that they

a) kept them to within a score
b) put them under a great deal of pressure in the 2nd half - we were a bad pass and a dropped ball away from making things very very interesting.

It was pretty unfortunate that gleeson dropped the ball in our own 20 to give them position for their 1st score.

The only really disapointing thing from a wigan perspective was our defence on gleeson/gouldings wing - goulding always looked well out of position - not sure if that's where he's been told to play or whether he just got sucked in?

Hansen, McIlorum, Mossop & Deacon missed a lot of games too (as well as "fringe" players like O'Carroll, Phelps, Bailey). I remember games when we had 6 or 7 regulars out at the same time - but as I said, nobody really noticed because of the depth we have.

I think we only had Sam & Joel (and almost Pat) who played every game.

Thought it was a cracking game of rugby to be honest and the best team won on the day. Any penalty or knock on from us was punished by a world class outfit but I felt we played really well and if we keep that standard up for the rest year and we'll be hard to beat.

Wigan would have won if Gleeson had of stayed on the park. Joel Tomkins got murdered playing at centre. Didn't think St George were all that tbh, was more impressed by Melbourne in recent years.

Our right edge defence tightened up after Gleeson went off imo. Tomkins pulled off two superb last ditch defensive efforts which kept us in it. To say St George werent all that is completely unjustified, they would have nilled most SL sides with that defensive effort, whilst drilling 50 points in to them.

I agree... I though the defensive structure looked far more robust after Gleeson left the field.