LMS and top players in the same sentence !

A lot has been said over the last few weeks about how bad our props are, so I suggest that Shaun Wane is kept away from any news outlet wether it be TV, Radio or Newspapers, otherwise you may get what you wish for.



Ryan Baily has been released by Castleford.

It's good to see Bailey now being shown up for the talentless coat tail rider that he was at Leeds. He worked quite well in the Leeds side by basically just being a wind up merchant (a bit like Masoe at Saints) but his actual rugby talent is minimal.

Well, at Leeds he had JP's broad shoulders to ride on...

Outstanding tonight.

Result is.....

Crosby best game all year. Flower at it. Clubb brilliant. Mossop ... meh, looked good for 2 minutes after he got stood on.

Credit where it is due however. Generally good tonight. Nice to see them stand up rather than expecting the wingmen and centres take the hard yards.

A lot of people on here have criticised Crosby, but has I pointed out in a post last week Crosby has a bit of a "get in their faces" at times , whereas Mossop is so robotic when he takes it up.

As well tonight I am starting to see the emergence of what could be an hooker in Powell.

Hampshire did what was asked of him even though the conditions and still not clear if a definite position was set out for him tonight did not help.

Finally on a bit of a sour note Wigan seem to be getting a Wigan version of Ryan Baley in Joel Tomkins, cause a row when you have been given a penalty on your twenty and then stand behind the melee whilst your team mates sort it out.

Liam Farrell takes the ball up twice has much and makes twice the tackles has Tomkins, but because he is not one who has returned to the fold is probably on far less money. Also about 4" less in height and a stone and an half less in weight

Finally Lockers seems to be setting himself up for a grand finale.

Terrific performance from the forwards - all of them did well. Doubters (including myself) proven wrong - would be great if we could see that level of aggression consistently now.

What an insult to Joel. He has the best offload of any of our forwards and is the best passer of the ball too, apart from Lockers. We don't need a carbon copy of Faz on the other side. Joel is a class act. Not many people return from Union with any effectiveness. I would suggest that Joel is doing just fine. Besides Sam will need his minder next season

Re Tomkins absolutely spot on. Talks the talk but has never and probably never will follow through.
I've criticised Powell previously but must admit the last few games he has shown up really well and last night really looked the part. I love it when one of the young guys come through.
Clubb is becoming a bit of a talisman for us. He always looks for work and I like his aggressive style and his apparent honest approach to the game. I've watched his try from last a few times and you can actually see him telling Smith he wanted the inside ball as he had obviously seen the gap in the defence.
I think I saw Mossop doing something similar...................Nah that was just the Wainrights ale kicking in!
The most pleasing aspect from last night was just a little glimmer of Flower returning to something like the player he was. Steveo's reaction to the handbags just before Gildarts try was a joke.
Further improvement is required but at least you could actually call them a pack last night whereas a few times this year that couldn't always be applied.
Oh another good point was that Sutton quite rightly was preferred over Patrick.

Playing as a left-sided second row, Faz tends to get much more service as it's naturally easier to pass that way. And the fact that Williams has been out-playing Smith for some time now.

I think Joel has done OK since coming back. Not back to his best but not awful. The run at centre killed any kind of form he was generating but he'll get it back.

Game. Set and match.

Fair enough. Well argued. I must admit being a supporter I tend to form an attachment to certain players and I find it hard to criticise. When Joel came back I was delighted. I was worried he would struggle back in League. I'm more than happy with his contribution. As I see it he's one of our own. Family, if you like. Families stick together.

I find some of the criticism on here, at times, to be quite ridiculous. I think that we have the most fickle and spoilt fans in the business. Joel would walk into any team at Loose Forward or Second Row. To start criticism after such a great victory seems perverse. I honestly thought that we might have a few people eating humble pie this morning, especially after the displays of the two Mattys and Lockers. Apparently not. It seems we always need someone to bag.

You thought Matty Smith had a good game?Thought he went okay but certainly not well enough for the ney Sayers to be eating humble pie.Lockers and Bowen I agree with but not Smith.