I actually thought he was poor!
Looked very unstable under the high ball, was poor defensively and seemed to lack any confidence!
I was very disappointed

Agreed, he did well. An obvious tactic from Widnes at the beginning to fire bombs at him which he coped with. He got away with spilling the second due to Widnes being off side but he looked promising and returned a couple of kicks well. As said above though, too many changes and the young lads needed some experence and guidance alongside them. Even though Goulding and Charnley are regulars that was still an inexperienced 1-5 which they may have coped with had Lockers been there, but he wasn't. Finch isn't a captain.

Harsh to criticise him for being unstable under the bomb or for lacking confidence.

He was ok For his first game, a better team would have bombed him all day though and killed his confidence. Pleased for him to get the two try's. For me he always seemed to be too far forward when dropping back in defence, almost all the time the kick went miles over his head and we lost ground when he was chasing it back. That can easily be worked on though.

Forgot about that. At the game I kept mentioning that, time and time again it went over his head by about 5 yards.

Technique under the high ball can be coached and experience of first team will help with dealing with pressure. What you cant teach is his natural eye for a gap, pace, agility and evasive footwork. Hes also exceptionally strong for a youngster. Once he starts to gain experience and reads a game better at SL level, he'll be a star.

I thought he was poor in defence today both under the high ball and in his positional play with ball in hand he did ok. I've seen him play a number of times now and he is lots better than what he showed today

This

He looks like a good prospect but he looked shaky at times today imo and positionally he got caught out a couple of times.

Very promising but he's not quite the finished article yet.

Thought he was miles out of position . He was virtually standing in our defending line and when Widnes kicked he's was permantly running back to our line and nearly getting smashed back over the line . Looked shakey under high ball but which kid wouldn't with some of them kicks . Looked strong in attack .But that's prob only 2nd time I've saw him so can't compare how he usuall plays

he wasnt deep enough for a full back, time and time again widnes put high kicks up to him. People want Sam to move back to 6 to accomodate him? Not for me unfortunately. Long, long way to go before he can even be considered as a super league full back.

I thought he did ok, but Russell's performance has shown me just how good of a player Sam is, especially when coming into the line.

Even if Russell does become a better player in the next few years, I would still have Sam at FB everytime. Russell didn't have the impact I thought he would, hearing what people had to say on here, but he did a good job and will improve.

It's too early for him at Super League level as a fullback. He's only 18. Even Tomkins didn't make his Wigan debut until the age of 19. I'm sure Russell will do very well at Leigh on dual registration and perhaps next year or a year later he should be challenging to become a first team regular.

He'll hopefully play regular for Leigh this season and get a few games for us thrown in as well. He's done well today and would go even better with a full team around him helping him out.

He is raw and needs work but it's all basics. His natural ability is freakish with ball in hand.

You only get experience from playing and so I say well done Wane for giving him game time. As disappointing as the defeat is, it is only a blip in what will be a roller coaster season. I expect Wigan to be challenging for honours at the business end.

I thought he took his tries really well, but thought he was very week defensively and under the high ball.