You must have seen a different game.


Their defense was immense, you don't win finals with flashy rugby. There are very few spectacular tries scored in finals.

You need low errors, low missed tackles, low penalties. High completion rates and a good kicking game.

Add to that and intensity and energy and Wigan had that in spades.

What worries me is that Saints have coasted most of our games and when we last met Wigan their pack was full of youngsters.

How we react in a knock out game, when we are level pegging or behind after 40 minutes is what will test this saints team.

If we play percentages and look to apply pressure we will be OK. But recent knockout games seems to indicate we don't enjoy the arm wrestle and errors creep in all over the place from all our players.

Bit Cliche but I think this Wigan team is very different to the ones that have lost to saints earlier in the year. Got some experienced forwards back ( O’Loughlin, Greenwood, Flower) and Smithies, Partington and Bryne have improved massively and look like first teamers rather than kids just doing there best

Sam Powell injured is bad, no real back up hooker and he’s always good for 50 tackles a week.

I think Wigan have it in them to beat saints once but probably not twice in the next 3 weeks.

That's assuming Wigan get to play Saints twice.

The previous posters have said it.
Wigan's defence looks the best of the remaining clubs in the comp plus, their mindset and nous when it comes to winning Grand Finals, a bit like Leeds of a few seasons ago - who just seemed to know how to win.

Nope. I watched exactly the same game as you.

You might be crapping yourself, but even the Wigan fans on their site are talking about 'improvement needed' from their performance against Salford. It was decent but hardly terrified me.

I don’t think the pack has enough go forward in it to beat Saints in a knock out game sadly. We can defend and defend and defend but there’s doing it against Salford and then doing it against Saints and with all due respect to Salford (who were great on Saturday), it’s going to ramp up a few notches on Friday. If we get pinned in our own half for the spells we did against Salford then Saints will put plenty more then 12 points on us.

Our kicking game will need to improve ten fold. It was as bad as I’ve seen in a play off game on Friday and we’ve probably lost Powell now and he’s been doing a lot of our kicking recently.

I don't do hyperbole, I take a more balanced view.

Wigan are not easy beats and saints are not invincible. As I said the test for saints will be how we react if it does not all go our way. Recent experience tends to suggest we like a way to keep it tight.

Since 1998 when the playoffs started has any team that finished top not made the final at 1st attempt?

Leeds in 2004 springs to mind immediately for me.
Warrington didn’t make it at all in 2011

Ok thanks I wasn't sure

Saints finished top and didn't make the final at all, I think it was 2005

Thanks to 10 minutes of mayhem and thuggery from terry newton taking out darren albert, lee gilmour and sean long with season ending facial injuries

wigan 2012 too.

Huddersfield 2013? Lost both I think

On the flip side, wasnt there one season where Bradford languished around 10th/11th all season then found a bit of form and scraped 5th on the last day and went on to win the Grand Final?

Under the current format, the only team finishing 1st not to make it at the first attempt was Wigan in 2000. They then got to the Grand FInal on their second chance but lost to St Helens.

last year

*Bump*

Don't get over cocky yet. You could still lose twice in the play offs!!

However I do hope you go one better than us in 2017 and go on to win it all for the underdogs.

Ah but we didn't get hammered last week so it's impossible for us to get hammered twice in the playoffsicon_wink.gif Whilst everyone is entitled to their opinions there have been some pretty disengenous comments made on here about Salford so I'm taking great pleasure in revisiting a few posts....

Tell you what, I'm loving seeing the Salford Reds arising. What a turnaround in fortunes and what a club. It's a shame there is no real backing yet, but hopefully they can take this season forward into next year, establish themselves as contenders and get the crowds the club deserves.

Can they win the Grand Final? Can they? But can they really? It's adding an unexpected mystique to the Play Offs. I fully expected Warrington to be sat where Salford are now, but Salford look capable of causing an upset in the second semi final now. As a Saints fan I will be dreading the Salford game if we end up losing tonight. I didn't think I'd be saying that a week ago.

Surely, Salford are "irrelevant"



More faces than the Town Hall Clock.

Even though Wigan were poor tonight they will still easily beat Salford to give us what everyone wants. The 2 biggest teams in SL head to head in the GF

I'm allowed to change my mind. Salford have proved me wrong, I'm not shy of admitting that.