The ref had stopped play just a bit earlier when we were on attack for Houghton to get his arm looked at, the momentum was stopped and Houghton miraculously was able to get his injured arm involved in the tackle with Farrell. Tommy goes down injured play wasn’t stopped

My favourite moment of the game by far was Swift completely failing to swipe the ball out of play and instead just slowing it down in the ingoal so that Isa could score, especially after his ridiculous barrel role while he was scoring their try.

Our first try was really good
We’ve got a proper rugby player in Hastings and a classy one in French

I thought ball distribution was much better yesterday, really missed Powell I thought, great to have him back. During the first half our field kicking from Tommy was pretty poor as usual but someone must have had a word as it soon switched to Hastings who put some towering kicks up in the high wind. For the final section of the game Harry Smith then took control, including his quality grubber which led to the Isa try.

Lots to work on (field kicking, preventing the offload & indiscipline) at this stage in the season but the signs so far are encouraging.

Powell made an enormous difference yesterday. I think it worth pointing out that he was the more effective of the 2 hookers on show despite Danny Houghton having a good game. He's not the type of hooker to make eye catching breaks in the same way as, say, Clarke or Roby are but then again neither is Houghton. Both bring high workrate, strong defence and solid distribution but Powell has definitely added speed out of dummy half to his nal under Lam. The one or two steps forward prior to passing is engaging the defensive line and putting us in the front foot in attack. We have definitely missed him and, dare I say it, are a better team with him in it.

I've just seen it back. Farrell causes it by rolling around holding onto Houghton's arm.

Farrell winds me up at times with the stupid penalties that he gives away. It’s simple really, when u make a tackle, get off the player and let him play the ball and if you get tackled yourself just get up and play the bleeding ball.
Marshall for all his good points is another, just get up and play the ball instead of flapping around like a fish out of water.

Swift is a poor excuse for a winger. Couldn’t cut it at saints so goes lower down the league.

Whilst I agree in principle, unfortunately this is a game wide problem and not doing it puts you at a disadvantage. Look at the number of times Hull did it yesterday receiving a number of penalties in the process. I swear a strong gust of wind would blow most players over at the play the ball at the moment! I'd like to see the penalty reversed for blatant attempts to milk it. However I just don't think the refereeing is of a high enough quality to both stick with it and apply it in an even handed manner. I'm afraid it seems as though we're stuck with it for the foreseeable...

We commented at the game how many times Hull players took a dive as they were getting up to play the ball. I lost count of the times they feigned to play the ball as well and then looked to appeal for us being offside.

Funny that Nicky, we commented the same thing, but it was Wigan doing it, funny old game. Best team won, hope you come to the away fixture and we give you a better game.

Proof that we probably only watch the opposition when it comes to gamesmanship and questionable tactics. It’s creeping in across the game and needs looking at.

No doubt mate. Fans are all pretty one-eyed when it comes to this sort of thing. It's always the other side that's 'miles offside all game' or 'getting away with lying on in the tackle' too. The fact is it's a game wide issue and ALL teams do it. I was merely pointing out that, unfortunately, any team that doesn't is putting themselves at a disadvantage. I'd rather it wasn't the case of course and it's certainly not an attempt to suggest we are any less at fault than other teams. I can't see it changing any time soon though.

It's only Wigan that cheat

I was just watching the NRL trial games between the Storm and the Warriors, and it was very noticeable how the Aussie refs encourage the players to just get on the game; when the ball-carrier barges forward as NK mentioned, they are told to go back and play it on the mark. Yeah, sure, they even have been penalised, but I think this approach works. Like when a tackler is (a bit) in the way in the ruck, the dummy-half will stoop and catch the ball and play om, rather than milking a penalty. Surely keeping the game flowing, without blowing too penalties, whilst still not allowing the players to take the mickey, is what we all want?