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!

Hi WV, it was Burgess who chased down Marsh, he made the break from our 20 mtrs line and got caught on their 20 IIRC, and both started level so considering it always slows you a little carrying the ball it was always likely he would be caught from such a distance out. If the scrum had been 20 / 30 metres further down field he probably scores. Burgess as we know is no slouch!

Can't be too harsh on Marsh for that, however the shocking attempted tackle on Tompkins when he scored well I think we all saw what Marsh thought of that last night!

Joe Mellor and Aaron Heremaia were outstanding, just had to say that first up, the togetherness and work ethic amongst the group is our strongest point imo. A deserved draw and still plenty more to come.

Regards Wigan im not overly convinced by them, relatively poor pre season and they just look a little short, not replacing Blake Green with a quality 6 could cost them.

We have only won 4 opening day games in the last 14 seasons, I'm sure we'll come good at some point.

Congratulations on your performance.

But how much you Widnes fans moan about referees after almost every game is laughable. Best one was your player knocking on whilst tackling Smith, and then when we get the scrum your fans shout 'you don't know what you're doing'



Overall we got more decisions our way than you so it really was a massive effort for your lads to get the draw. However, we also got a couple of stupid decisions against us (Gelling getting penalised for knock on when he was pushed at play the ball, we were only 1 metre out at the time).

Again, congratulations, you deserved the two points on the night.

My only complaint with the comments on this thread are talking aboiut our 'thuggish' tactics. Other than the Smith/Tomkins silly incident at the end, I don't think we were any less/more thuggish than your lads. I mean Ah Van got sent off for an accidental/clumsy attack to Charnley's head. And the scuffle in the middle was started by O'Carroll when Mellor fell over whilst chasing one of his own kicks.

They were saying in the Sky summary, that the RFL should change the rules so that a person can be penalised even if the ball is out of play, becuse Widnes should have had a penalty after the kick by Smith after the last try last night, and as the rule stands a player can take someone out if the ball is out of play and not get penalised for it, which isn't fair.

I had forgotten over the close season how poor and biased a referee Child really is. Wigan were in front of the ball every time they kicked off, offside at most of Widnes's PTB, made 2 or 3 late shoulder charges on Widnes players after they kicked the ball (ie the late attack on Brown which ended his game), were as guilty of high tackles as were Widnes yet no cards against them for such tackles, all without action from the Referee. Shoulder charges are supposed to be dealt with by a card, apparantely not last night!

He didn't protect the Widnes players as he is paid to do.

His action, or rather inaction, over the Smith kicking incident was disgraceful, surely the game should have restarted after the try was converted with a penalty to Widnes and a red card against Smith?

I cringe whenever he is in charge of a game I watch.

Oh, I thought that Mellor played the game of his life.....despite Wigan trying to knock him off the park - particularly Farrell - he didn't get involved, got up, dusted himself down and played a brilliant game.

Well worthy of MOM, no question.

Gold, you mean the excellent, not late at all, fantastic big tackle from Sutton?

Yes it was unfortunate that Brown's game was ended, but it wasn't due to foul play. And pretty much all of the commentators including Cummins agreed on that.

glad to hear Azza started well, really like the lad. top player and top bloke. Will play well in the halves on the occasion, but to get the best from Azza you have to play him at 9, esp against a tiring team. He loves to rip[ teams apart like that.

Right Neil, I thought I saw a 3 on his back but it must have been 5, if it was Burgess a bit more understandable, pace wise! Yes Marsh wont like to see his pathetic attempt to stop Tomkins, rather like his defending in 2012 against Mathew Russell!

Nothing wrong with the incident re: Gelling close to the line. Normal contact happens in every tackle - what Child got wrong is that it was an incorrect play the ball so should have been a Widnes penalty.

Poor Hep Cahill couldnt breathe on a Wigan player without being penalised! Yet Liam Farrell gets away with murder in regards to holding down and being rough in the tackle.

Then there was Phelps tackled in the air but lets have a drop out rather than a penalty.

Every time Mellor kicked the ball down field he got smashed and they got away with it everytime. It was definitely a tactic to rough him up and im glad to say it diddnt work