After watching your game on Friday and having watched us get hammered at Wigan a few weeks ago got to say wigan tactics at the ptb are a disgrace,that is not what rugby league is about tbh thought thaler was shocking against you guys and kept you firmly on the back foot in the 1st half and to keep penalising you for hand on the ball when wigan was at it every tackle was very poor

I wont be watching many games involving wigan with those tatics as it just infuriates me

Good luck rest of season

They push the lying on to the very limit everytime. Sometimes they are very good at it, but other times they become an absolute joke. It was a very infuriating game at times.

Great post, just another indication that the jealousy amongst other teams fans as Wigan are back and are title challengers.

Teams have been doing it for years, just that other teams have been better at slowing the PTB at it than others, what do you want to see? The days of the scooter hooker are long gone, thankfully.

personally, i think their tactics are spot on. they play to the limit, but thats a sign of a professional team, a better question might be why we aren't doing it?

They play to the rules, get over it.

We tried it last season and kept getting dinged for penalties. I really don't think the current Saints team are capable of playing that way; it's just 'not us'. Wigan do it so well because they are allowed to do it. They wouldn't have gotten away with it as they did yesterday if Ganson had been reffing because he dinged them good style for it against Leeds at the outset of the match.

Sadly, slowing the PTB like that spoils the flow of a game but there seems to be no heart from the majority of refs to do anything about it. Either way, it wasn't what Wigan were doing which was the problem yesterday. It was what we were doing. Had we got our heads screwed on right for the match we would have won it. Alas. We left our heads in bed.

Is Wigans slowing gown of the play the ball by getting men on the tackle and peeling off one at a time any worse than Saints hand in at play the ball?
Something that happened a lot yesterday

I think the clue to the sour grapes is in the 'getting hammered' comment


Get over yourself. Every team plays laying on tactics.
Remember The Storm v Leeds WCC? Both sides watching the ref until he told them to get up. And how many teams are employing that same tactic this season?
We are just happen to be better than most at controlling the potb area at the mo'.
Name me one team (including Saints) who [idont [/itry to slow it down to their advantage?

Amazing how suddenly everybody wants quick ptb's, except of course when their team's defending.

Load of rubbish! You obviously didnt bother watching Boots N All this week when Paul Cullen had a stopwatch on the Wigan Leeds game..... Wigan took around 7 seconds to complete the tackle, Leeds took around 9 seconds.

Ganson was in charge of that match.

And he penalised Fielden for taking FIVE seconds !!

I don't think that's what is being said. What is being said is that the time allowed in the tackle is too long. I think on Boots n All it was timed at 11 seconds for Wigan. That's a lot of wasted time and a lot of boredom for fans. But it isn't up to Wigan to move quickly; it's up to the ref to get them off quickly. In the NRL they have wrestling in the tackle but they get off quickly. They don't scoot; they just don't mess about. It's the messing about that is the problem. But it's a problem which lies with the ref.

I think there's only Ganson who really gets to grips with it.

The jealousy is starting to raise its head again about Wigan. Think you need to look closer to home about why you got hammered rather than moaning about Wigan

It's all well and good wanting a quick play the ball, no problem. But then you need to make sure that the ball is played with the foot, a skill that seems to have been overlooked and is not happening at present.
Far too many players are just going through the motions and it gives too big an advantage to the attacking team

I agree. But can you envison refs being consistent enough to deal with that?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to go back to scooting but nor do I want durge rugby, which is what is given to us when the ref doesn't stop the messing about. Things aren't as bad as last year this season but there is still much room for improvement. A balance has to be found between allowing good defences and providing an opportunity for creative attack. I don't think that balance has been found as yet.

The slow PTB is a way of preventing fast, attacking and entertaining rugby - which is why many feel the game has become boring over the past few seasons. We all fell in love with the sport because of its fast, attacking style of play - and I know a lot of people getting disillusioned because of this. Huddersfield did it a lot last season, and they enjoyed their most successful season since Super Leagues inception. Wigan are doing it this year, and currently top the table.

Wigan are not breaking the rules, they are just adapting their style of play to the change in rules. Sure, its very ugly to watch, makes their plays boring, irritates opposition players and fans, but its effective.

We all want the rules changing as to eliminate these tedious slow PTBs, not to eradicate Wigans successful tactics, purely to restore the entertaining rugby which we all originially fell in love with.

You cant blame Wigan for bending the rules to the max. Its Cynical but its merely a way of reducing the oppositions effectiveness, in the past clubs would merely send a hit man out to remove a star player from the pitch.
Wigan actually tried that against Saints and got away with it with the shot on Graham.

Its upto other teams and players to play catch up with them.

Whats happening is that they are merely getting lots of bodies in at the tackle. The refs then give each player a set amount of time to peal away.

Their tactics are less cynical than Leeds, who introduced us to Chicken wing tactics, with the aim of injuring an opponent.

This thread is ridiculous (with due apologies to the sensible posters!). The ONLY difference between Saints and Wigan's ptb yesterday was that Wigan were able to [ucontrol[/u the ptb better than Saints. By that, I mean were able to increase the [uaverage[/u time at the ptb, not lie on for longer. Saints attempted to slow it down just as much but were unable to do it consistantly. The same thing happened against Leeds last week (as it did for them against Melbourne in the wcc). Paul Cullen showed quite clearly in Boots n All that Leeds had the same tactics. They even put in one 9 second ptb!! The difference is in the level of consistancy. Potter should stop whining and sort it out. The rules are there to be used to your best advantage. There is no requirement for a team to give the opposition an advantage as long as they stay within the rules. If Potter is unable to do prepare his team well enough to play to their maximum advantage he should get out and let someone who can do the job!

Anyone saying Wigan (or Saints) weren't penalised when they got it wrong are just deluded. Look at the penalty count for God's sake! It's no use fans moaning and expecting penalties when the defending team get it right!

Can I just point something out here please (in relation to ALL of the highlighted bits above):


Please take special not of the "For" and "Against" columns.

Wigan have the joint second-best defence in the league (Hudds are better, Wire equal).

However, due to our "boring", "non-entertaining", "ugly", "disillusioning" style of play, which is apparently putting so many people off our great sport, we have scored MORE POINTS than any other team in the league.

We were the first to score 100, first to 200 and look likely to be first to 300.

Which part of "boring" are we being exactly?

Wigan are simply better at defending, but are equally better at attacking than the rest of the league (to this point).

Get a grip, you wont be missed.

Our tactics were spot on. 13 on 13 we didn't concede a point, great effort!

Having been going 33 years if the game carrys on in this manner over the next 5 years can see me drifting away, maybe i was spoilt been brought up with Knocker Norton, Sterlo,Kenny,Pinner etc but the game is so boring

Yes every team do try but wigans is riduculous and just spoils the game imo

It's pretty obvious that Wigan are using hudds slowing tactics at the play the ball, good on them, if the refs let them get away with it then so what.

They are getting away with it, so good on them, it's working as they are top of the league and defence has been awesome.

Saints are now doing the same holding down at the play the ball which needs sorting as it's spoiling the game in terms of attack.

It's not wigan who should be getting bagged, it's the refs for letting it go on.

Wigans defence has been outstanding this season although the way we have allowed teams to score try's late in the game and the second half performance at Bradford shows that there is room for improvement.

However our attack is also much improved over last season - players like Amos Roberts and Pat Richards have really benefited from some fine attacking moves.

Ironic that you should mention four players who were masters at unlocking a set and organised defence yet at the same time you are moaning about the slowing down of the play the ball. Wigan are playing within the rules and doing it very well. It's up to other teams to find a way of unlocking what has for the most part this season been a very competent defence. Unfortunately (for you) 5 scoots from dummy half or 5 quick flat pass forward drives and 60 easy metres isn't the way to do it because Wigan are organised and dominant enough not to let it happen.

As a previous poster said, it's usually a good sign when people are discussing your style of play as it must mean you are doing something right. As for spoiling the game, some of Wigan's attacking play this season has been a pleasure to watch. I'm the first to admit we still have room for improvement but harping on constantly about how we are ruining the game when we have outscored everyone this season smacks of sour grapes.

Mmm. They did brilliantly yesterday. Two tries for the whole of the match. Had you not been gifted penalty kicks by our kindly players, we would have nilled you in the second half. That's an astounding attack!

Oh, and had we not been so stupid with ball in hand, we would have scored when Meli went over the line (forward pass) and when Puletua did (no ball at all since he didn't catch it). That's twice more than you that we actually got over your line but we botched both attempts. And you had 13 men on the pitch on both occasions. That's how astounding your defence was (ie, no better than ours).

You should be thanking Saints that they couldn't get a decent bit of composure together for the whole match!