I believe the Finch and Goulding partnership in defence is the reason for Wigan's defence this season. It is a new partnership but already it is better than the J.Tomkins and Deacon partnership from last season.

Many games last season teams would attack this channel and cause the wigan defence many problems, but this season it has been entirely different.

Agree?

I agree that Goulding has stregthened the right hand side enormously after it being a problem for years. I also think that Josh has benefited an awful lot from Goulding being there and has himself looked better defensively. However Leuluai defends on that side and not Finch, who is a good defender, but who defends on the left.

the success is down to our pack who are controlling virtually every game we are in therefore creating time and space for the backs to work. I agree out defence has also been excellent but it is a team effort.

to ear mark Finch and Goulding whilst not recognising Lima, Mossop and co is a little self defeating.

I dont really think thats what he means but maybe the title is a little misleading. Surely you could say the same as this about any thread that talks about individual player/players. It is obviously a team game and all of 1-17 play their part and many players couldnt do what they do without other in the team.

I don't mean its down to just Finch and Goulding, what I mean is having Finch at stand off and Goulding at centre is so much better than having Tomkins and Deacon.

The fact that Finch plays on the left while Goulding plays right centre kind of negates the point you're making.

yeah i thought that. Tommy L defends inside Goulding on our right hand side

last year when tommy was at hooker, deacon would be on the right. i think its more like mcilorums development into a quality 80 minute hooker rather than finch.

I totally agree that our success is down to our outstanding pack. I am actually not sure that our backs are as good as we all think but because our pack is so dominant it makes the backs look so good?????? This is not to say they are not good and obviously some are world class but I really do think there is a bit of truth in what I am saying???

Dont really agree. The one thing that has impressed this year is the consistency and threat across the entire backline. in recent seasons we have had weak spots and tended to focus on individuals. this season we have 2 centres performing well, 2 wingers that can score tries, half backs that are experienced and sam. if you are defending against us - who do you focus on ?
the same could also be said of the defence. we are solid across the park. Players who were thought to be weak have improved, and new players are up to speed with the system by the team they play 1st team.
overall, the reason we are at the top is because we do the basics well across the park, and have a good, well disciplined set of back up players. its not the peaks of the stars that has improved, but we have raised the minimum acceptable standard for all players.

I disagree, mainly because it's been noticeable that we've not been as effective when our first choices have been missing. Not meaning this as criticism of Hughes, but when he was in for Carmont or Goulding, we were much less effective, and we're definitely missing Pat now (not only for his goal kicking).