We seem to be letting the opposition front load their effort (in the latest parlance) and then counter attack. The worry is that the best teams do not slow down that much in the second half and will not roll over.
I was quite pleased with young Hanley but he still looks like he would benefit from a season on loan to build up his confidence. Byrne looked full of energy and Smithies benefitted from playing a bit further out.
A big shout out to Isa for simply shipping the ball out quickly to give his winger space.

For me Hanley needs time to develop his strength. Still a baby.

Against a slow PTB he gets dominated but on the front foot quick play the ball he goes well.

Patience is the key with him for me.

He sometimes looks like he is struggling with his legacy at times too.

He just needs a bit of time to become his own player.

Oh look I'm not a real fan because i criticised wigan after the first half

A very good result in the end. I was worried prior to ko but the lads withstood the Trinity onslaught and we should have scored at least one more try in the first half. Second half we made up for it.
Our younger forwards did exceptionally well with Byrne & Shorrocks taking lots of energy out of their pack. Havard and Smithies made a lot of yards and Lam gave them all plenty game time which can't do them any harm when they knock out a winning score like that.
A very good win was that with the number of players out.

On paper and after the Leigh game and after the Trinity performance against Leeds, it was a potential banana skin.

As I said prior to the match a win would be a cracking result.

To win like we did was a very good result despite the lack of cohesion in the first half.

He dropped one over the line and got lucky not to concede one but I thought they would run riot against him today after his other two SL appearances to be honest, so his stock has gone up in my mind.

Only downside from tonight is reading Lam saying Gildart and Manfredi will be out for a good few weeks yet. Hoping it’s a badly worded article as he threw Marshall in there as well. I’m not sure who feeds Lammy his initial injury assessments but they’re usually way off.

Don’t think it’s been mentioned yet but I thought Isas centre passing for Bibbys first 2 try’s and another break were sublime. Excellent centre play.

Words You Thought You'd Never Hear Dept...

Over on the Wakefield forum they are saying Isa should be hung, drawn & quartered for deliberate foul play. Yes it was a tad high but deliberate foul play.... no way.
Best game I’ve seen Isa have for a while, top performance from him

Defence at times a liability but his hands were superb at times, some great drives too.

Faz had an opportunity to put Hanley away, and struggled, but thought he was great in defence.

It was another game where we were slow to start but I don't think that's a rarity with this team. We do seem to have a lot of games where the first half is very tight and the second half we cut loose a bit. Considering our makeshift backline I thought our attacking play in the second half was excellent.

I saw some criticism of Lam's team selection before the game on social media but you have to say he made the smart choice rather than the 'default' choice. He could have just looked at who had played centre previously and stuck Bateman there. Instead, after identifying what needed to happen in the game against Leigh (Bateman going back into the pack), he took the risk of putting Farrell in a position he'd never started before and it worked brilliantly. Both Bateman and Farrell were outstanding.

Bullock and Singleton both struggled at the start of the game again. Maybe they both still need a bit more time to get up to speed but that's one area that may need addressing. I thought in pre-season Mitch Clark looked like he had a point to prove and I'd be happy to see him get a chance. Our bench once again seemed to improve the team. Byrne had his best game in a long time which is great to see. Last year I worried he'd been found out a bit and was struggling defensively but he seems to be doing well this year. Havard was once again strong going forward, difficult to bring down and I thought he put himself about a bit in defence too.

Smithies carried the ball well at second row and on a few occasions was looking for an offload which is good to see as so far he's looked a bit limited in terms of handling. Shorrocks, despite fluffing a great try scoring opportunity, had another decent game. I thought he did a decent job filling in at hooker too, which might be something worth exploring given our lack of a natural replacement to spell Powell.

All things considered there's not a huge amount to worry about. Our supposed weakness in the centres turned into a strength. Bibby is in great form. Hardaker is in great form. Our interchange props are doing well even if the starters aren't. Partington is going well. Hopefully with a few more matches Hastings will get up to speed and find form too.

If Gildart and Manfredi aren't going to be fit for a while yet there's a concern there - maybe a need to bring back Hankinson at some point - but tonight showed that we aren't desperate. We do have some options and it may be that we can keep going with those players for a while. The return of French will help things as there's some scope to move things around between French, Hardaker and Bibby. Hanley didn't have the strongest of games but I don't think he was awful. Up against 6 foot 4 Innes Senior he wasn't likely to win many contested kicks so the goal would have been to disrupt as much as possible. Snatched at his chance to score but then soon after helped set up a break by keeping the ball alive in his own half. He lacks physicality but lots of young wingers do. Marshall did. Even Burgess did as he was always more height than size. If Hanley keeps his place next week there's no worries - if he's squeezed out by a returning player that's also no issue.

At the moment there's a hell of a lot more positives to the start of this season than negatives. There are much bigger tests to come but we've overcome two teams that we've had problems with in previous years.