Then i am quite happy to apologise as it appears that your views have changed. I was only going on what i remebered at the time of the original discussions when anyone who said it was bad idea were shouted down.

Although trouble occurs at all crowds by all sets of fans at some time- those incidents are usually down to tempers fraying and too much beer and just occur as things flare up. However these cretins are going round with scarves and hoods to hide their identity, and flares/firecrackers in their pocket. There is a perceived intention to intimidate and disrupt. A reputation will grow from this if people act all ostrich like and put it down to a few idiots, that's what it is at the moment but that could change as people make the choice to stay away. I doubt the terrified little girl in tears in the carpark will want to come again with her grandfather,
I will be coming to the DW - but I'm seriously thinking twice about taking my elderly mum and my seven and eight year old.

I have to say we certailny dont want our club Reputation to be marred by thuggish hooligans, and no matter how many of you try to defend them or try to compensate for all the good they have tried to do i personally saw some of the trouble makers and they were kitted out in stone island jackets and all your typical hooligan gear, do us a favour put a warriors shirt on or frigg off and watch the football. Rugby League has never and will never be a breeding ground for hooliganism there's a reason why we call it a family sport and a reason why we are allowed to drink alchohol in our seats, if mindless idiots like yourselves were to take this priveledge away from me and the other 99.9% of fans, i for one will make sure every last one of you gets a lifetime ban from attending our games, we dont need your kind of support, grow up or ship out!

RL had a shocking reputation in the 70s and early 80s.

Jools I would not worry, have been to the DW with The Giants and Crusaders in recent years and had no problems whatsoever.

In the Cup last year the Brigantes were in the stand where the bulk of the Crusaders fans were and the atmosphere was excellent, think they did go there aiming to intimidate but it was going to take alot more than that to worry the visiting fans and they even started pinching a few Crusaders songs by the end and probably embarrassingly for them now celebrated the Crusaders try as though it was one Wigan had scored.

Misguided probably, heart in the right place, for sure but a threat to everyone who goes to watch Wigan play....I don't think so.

I've been to the DW every year for several years, my family have sometimes come too-it's one of the few all seater stadiums that means we can all go and see the game alongside other giants supporters, my mum finds it difficult to stand for a whole game. I dont mind the chanting and the singing side of the intimidation - that's to try to make the stadium a fortress for the home side - but if flares, vandalism and violence is part of what they do - I won't take my family. I don't want my 7 yr old daughter to be so terrified it puts her off the game. If something kicks off outside the stadium again- I don't want to be worried that my 73 yr old mum can't get out of the way. Perhaps you think I'm over reacting but if this isn't dealt with it's only going to get worse not better. A lot can happen between now and August.

To be honest i dont really understand it.

Singing songs wavibg flags and getting the crowd going i get.

Why would you want to intimidate away fans though? Dont we want them coming and spending their money just from a financial point of view.

What do ppl want no away fans? Or just intimidated ones thwt sit quietly for 80 minutes.

I dont get to go to a lot of games but hopefully that will change soon (finances etc) and im looking forward to bringing my daughter but not to listen to a load of numpties shout and scream then kuck off with other fans.

If i want my daughter to see that kind of thing il stay in blackpool and not pay for the privalege.

On a side note dont see why fans unhappy about this dont just ask the club to ban the said group and have done with it. No more "clubs" just fans and if they bring flags and sing more the better but no more "pack" mentality.

Apologies for spelling on my phone

You could be right and to be fair it was probably lucky Wigan did not score in the 2nd half as the flare (or whatever it was) would probably have gone up earlier and caused more angst and problems between the Wigan fans.

In truth if it focuses minds it was a minor incident compared with what could have happened and where they go from now will determin if your worries are correct or not.

3,500 at Huddersfield yesterday suggests otherwise.

This makes very sad reading.

The Brigante thing was a brilliant concept, and well done the guys who strarted it off, but in hindsight things like this can go off the rails.
The original brigante "commitee ?" worked hard, putting in their own cash, and using their own unpaid time to make matchdays exciting.
The club worked alongside and gave support, as did Old trafford in the 2010 GF. The guys ran events like the fundraisers at Spring View cricket club, and some notable "names" turned up to help raise the profile, Billy Boston, Bill Ashurst, Graham West, to name a few, even the Warriors kitman turned up. The club donated prizes, merchandise and season tickets and lent the Trophies they won to help raise cash.
They raised a substantial sum for charities, notably the time they lugged a book around for people to sign, again at their own time and expense.
I dont know where, when or how it all changed, but it did change, and not for the better.
The last time i was close to these guys at a match , it seemed to have been hijacked my kids who cant hold their beer, some not even old enough to be drinking.
If any of these young mindless clowns are reading this, take a step back and think.
Think about how the guys who got this off the ground are feeling. You are undoing the hard work they put it.
STOP IT NOW GUYS, AND GROW UP.

I think it's a shame that certain drunken idiots have ruined the reputation of a group who originally did a brilliant thing.

I loved it. All the flags looked brilliant. The world club challenge looked amazing on tv ( I had to watch it abroad) but the massive flag's that where waved and the atmosphere they created looked electric.

Same goes for the playoff match at Widnes in 2011 against Saint's. It was a brilliant atmosphere despite losing.


Now unfortunately the wrong people have gotten involved and ruined it with wearing balaclava's and scarves round their faces, putting stickers anywhere they possibly can and just generally being over the top.

There's no excuse for going around a town vandalising the place by putting "brigante's" stickers anywhere they see fit. I saw a pic yesterday on twitter of a lad who had even got one of the "ultra" emblems tattooed on his arm. and then a group photo of them all balaclavad up in a pub giving it the big I am.

I think the problem is worse away from home because the group are spending all their time getting tanked up on ale which they can't handle, and then it just escalates.

They where warned that going down the ultra route would be a bad choice, and it would seem it is now showing.

Rugby league is not European football. It has a totally different culture.

The problem with this business of putting scarves across your face/setting off flares/smoke bombs is its young lads trying to recreate what they have seen on TV in European football matches. When you go to Europe and watch football yes sometimes this does have a crackling atmosphere, with an undercurrent of tension that these are quite nasty people often involved in far right wing groups that fight for white racial purity, so when you go there as an English tourist you kind of think, well this is certainly an experience to talk about when I get home, but I wouldn't particularly want it at home matches...

Now aside from casting any judgement on whether its appropriate to be copying something with undercurrents of right wing racial hooliganism, even if you just want to recreate that atmosphere, you can't recreate that over here. One, being a working class sport, right wingers and skin heads have never been able to get a foothold in it especially as in France the Nazis banned RL....they would never be welcome. Two, the audiences are mainly families, in European football it is mostly males and they don't go with girlfriends/wives or especially kids, as a general rule, they go with their mates. This is especially true in places like Turkey, Eastern Europe where you get the real 'atmosphere'.

So if you get together a handful of English young lads, that aren't real authentic hard right wing skinheads, but are just pretending to be like that to look a bit notorious, and experimenting with smoke bombs and stuff, it just looks totally cringeworthy. Not only is it disruptive but its not even scary, we all know they aren't really hard, they are just knobs.

This isn't a post against Wigan as I am agreeing with most of the Wigan fans on here and the Warrington chavs get on my nerves too. With us we had a similar situation to the Brigantes business of young chavs spoiling good efforts from older supporters to try and encourage good atmosphere with the 'barmy army'. You would get a lot of hangers on around Geordie (who did a lot for the club) and his drum, wanting to be seen as 'hardcore fans' and then acting like idiots being offensive to other clubs fans etc.

Could the reason the group are more out of control at away games, simply be down to cause and effect.

If you get out of control at an away ground, the worst case senario is that you will be ejected.

If they got as out of control at the Wigan ground, the club would ban them and so stop their access.

Each away match is like an individual event with no long lasting impact on their activities.

come off it... more like 2000.

shame it was on a saturday would of been a fair few more if it was sunday