It is strange that we seem to have a collective will in the team that enables us to play better with 12 men than we were with 13! Didn't we do the same against Bradford in 2013 when Hock was sent off and we rallied for a well earned draw. Perhaps we just throw caution to the wind in both defence and attack, or there is a collective sense of injustice that corresponds with the opposition thinking that this is now a shoe in, so they don't really have to try!
It was a great collective effort, but as others have said it allowed several players to really shine. Heremaia seemed to grow in confidence as the game wore on after an OK start. Mellor really took hold of things in Brown's absence and his kicking game was as good as we have seen in quite a while.

Everyone earned their "spurs" to be fair, although I have to say I'm not a fan of Isa's "no look" passes, especially at 90 miles an hour!

Our new boys acquitted themselves well, Heremaia already mentioned and Manuokafoa made decent yards and I noticed that several times a he was going down in the tackle his ball carrying arm was free and available to offload if anyone had been backing up. Something that we have surely got to work on, but perhaps last night wasn't the night! Clarkson too had a solid if unspectacular game (very much in the mould of the man he replaced, Galea).

One of the biggest surprises was that Marsh was caught from a scrum breakaway (is that the first time in 3 seasons that move has come off?) I think it was Gelling that overhauled him, which surprised me as I hadn't credited him with that much pace, but then he (Gelling) was a handful all night.

Sadly before all the drama, the combination of Wigan playing to the referee in terms of breaking from the 10 early and our rather pedestrian ball movement meant we didn't make much headway. I still feel our single forward drives are meat and drink to a side like Wigan who know that they only have to wait for the forward running it in, as the ball wont move beyond him, so they can concentrate their defenders. We played with greater fluency with a man short, perhaps realising that we had to make greater headway. It may well have been that we were very much finding our feet in our first competitive match and I dont want to take anything away from such a great performance in a game at 16 nil down with a player sent off and our inspirational captain "retired hurt" that could easily have been a 30 or 40 point trouncing!

Nope. I did not.



Back to you.

Thanks for the congratulations but........

Ah Van, you said it yourself, accidental/clumsy. Not malicious. 10 mins at best.

Farrell, who I used to admire but has turned into an utter grub hit Mellor late a number of times. Pre meditated to put one of out playmakers off/out of the/his game, elbowed in the tackle and hit out at players as he was running past them

Scuffle broke out in the middle when O'Carroll, fed up of his halfback being hit late took matters into his own hands as the Spineless Child didn't have the cojones to do anything about it earlier

The Smith/Tomkins one has been done already. Petulant and peevish. Both red!

Wigan were poor both in attitude and execution. Wane seems to incite rather than coach. I suspect that Wigan will struggle (by their standards) this season and Wane may well be on his way.

Widnes did well to turn the game (a better side than Wigan circa 2015 would have kicked on.

As to the incidents .... Ah Van was clumsy rather than malicious. He desrved a yellow card and a warning to behave himself.

Farrell apperas to be just a dumb trier sho is doing what the 'coach' wants.

Smith should have been sent off - no excuse for kicking (it wasn't a trip).

Tomkins should have just been told to 'wind his neck in' - although to be fair, if he tackled like that all the time it would be an improvement.

On a different topic - it is going to take time for the new rules to be bedded in - the Saints v Cats 1st half looked like an episode of Emergency Ward 10 and must have been the longest half in the history of yhe game !!!

Wire fan here so most definitely a neutral.

My main gripe with Child was his inconsistencies, i can live with an inept ref if it's equal but i found myself shouting at the injustice of his allowance of the Wigan laying on tactics and the penalising of Widnes in half the time he allowed Wigan.

I really couldn't care less in this fixture about the result but whoever won or lost i wanted it to be a blood and thunder entertaining contest and most of all a fair one...it wasn't(a fair one that is).

Ah Van sending off, going off past seasons i'd say harsh but i don't know what's been said behind Red Halls doors in the off season so I'm going to assume this is a new directive.
Unintentional definitely but intention isn't the prerequisite to a sending off, personally a yellow would have sufficed for me.

Smith, intent and foul play surely must have no other outcome than a red, it's violent conduct even by rugby full contact standards.

Tomkins, i think wasn't trying to tackle him to the floor but the player(?) Wasn't ready for the contact and fell back with Joel on top of him, although i don't think he was peace keeping, Tomkins has always been a hothead and a bit of sh*th**s*.

Draw was a fair result UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, although I'm not sure it was.

12 v 14 for me, Child dreadful.

Find myself almost completely agreeing with a Wire fan which must be a first. Bad refereeing is a given, not much we can do about it but blatant bias is another thing altogether and believe me, this fella's got plenty of previous where Widnes are concerned. To add insult to injury, we had the other clown Robert Hicks running the line who seems to have reported Smith for something he said, but couldn't see the blatant kick aimed at a retreating player. For anybody who knows anything about the game, these 2 are an embarrasment and for good measure, you can put Ben Thaler into that category as well.