Whilst the margin of victory was quite large, I think it was a bit misleading to say it was easy. I don't think I have seen Waterhouse quite as tired as that before. The Wire forwards totally dominated Wigan, but they put in a huge amount of effort. It looked pretty brutal at times. If you cast your mind back to the scrums, there were quite a lot of occasions when both packs took a long breather before packing down, so I hope they have not used too much up for the cc final in two weeks.

I think Wigan dropped the ball an awful lot as well, probably because they were under so much pressure from us. I should think they will be pretty disappointed with that performance.

Finally, I thought Wigan looked totally demoralised at the end of the match. If TS wanted to make a statement, then the team certainly did that today. It must have been a real knock to their moral. Sets up a very interesting last few league games.

I doubt we'll see Clarke's 'play the ball' grid, on Boots'n'all, on Wednesday night, re tonight's game
It'll break his little pie heart

Well done to the boys, they deserved to and did win. They were excellent.

That's it now though. Leave it there. It is a minor achievement, with the main thing to come out of it is that it keeps Wigan honest to the final game. By the time I wake up I will forget about this game and look forward to what lies ahead.

The reason I'm thinking like this is because if we don't lift the Super Lrague trophy in October at the Swamp, today's win will mean nothing. Gloat now and I'll look a fool in October if we don't achieve the ultimate goal.

London next...then the big Wembley game against Lids.

Come on the Wire, time to be serious!

I'd love to know what that means. I know i should know but I don't. What does it mean?

I'd say he means Wigan now can't rest if they want the shield, as one slip up and it's ours. Had they won tonight they could have rotated the squad in safe knowledge the job was done ready for the playoffs.

Well beaten, why? For a start all are timing was way off, passing, dummy running, and coming out of the defensive line. Our forwards may as well stayed at home. I started to wonder if SW hadn’t got them too pumped-up. It was obvious Finch was not on his usual game, and it looked like we wanted it too much, if that’s possible? We needed to just keep it simple, play out our sets, and gain better field position, just like they did! We never do well if we go behind early doors, and it’s no use picking out individuals; no one had a good game! I know we can put it right and the injured troops that are coming back must help, but the basic lesson of this must be SIMPLICITY! “simples”

did you like that post so much you decided to copy and paste it from the wigan forum?

you were well beaten... anyone with half a brain can see that.

Dominated all over the pitch and on the scoreboard...... it could have easily been 50 points.

easy victory for us without having to move into top gear.

You do get the impression that Shaun Wane is a bit like the Kevin Keegan of RL: pacing up and down the changing room, getting the players to shout slogans and AWOOOGA, beating his primate chest and telling them they're the best in the world.

Probably works for single-cell organisms like Hock, fairly limited in top-level RL though.

i imagine today they are taking down their 'road kill acheived' posters.

Nope. They just happen to be the best 2 teams, even if yesterday Wire were better than us in every single department

Agreed..... if widnes find themselves up in the top 3 or 4 over the next few seasons, they will be viewed as the main enemy again.

Wigan still have saints there or thereabouts.

I agree but,
[uThey think the King is dead, now it's up to them to show he's not dead, he's just been sleeping![/u

Tony Smith must have loved Shaun Wane's outburst on Boots n' All last week when he was ranting about "I'm not having my lads bullied like last year ... it's just not going to happen again"

he basically loaded the gun for our forwards!

also liked the question on boots n all of do you think this is a rehersal for the grand final and will it have an effect.

shaun wane - well yes it could be and i think this could have a bearing with confidence etc.

tony smith - i dont have a crystal ball and couldn't answer anyone who does is an idiot and would never be a coach.

it was as if smith knew that wane would answer the question.

Smith's comments in recent days have, with a subtlety that Wane could never get his head around, intimated that he rates Wane's intelligence as highly as the rest of us.

Sorry it's a bit of a vague comment. I mean, had Wigan won yesterday they could rest players here and there and have a few weeks "rest" before the play-offs. As it stands we're not five points behind them, we're one point behind them, and they will have to win every game to keep all the advantages in the play-offs.

Excellent

I can't stop laughing today, they really do make it too easy for us sometimes.

Most of the pies lap Wane up "Oooh it'll be really tough this week! They'll be getting flogged today!".

Passion and commitment are important but are overstated. I'd rather have a properly prepared coach, who is calm and can think correctly under pressure then someone who jumps up and down. That stuff gets old really quickly and after a while will have zero impact.

It's one of the things cullen used to say, you can't rant and rave like that all the time, players just stop listening.

I'm still expecting a thread to pop up on the Wigan board titled "Rule change needed" after gravity was also too strong on Tomkins and he grounded the ball in goal.

there's one just popped up about forward passes. aparently the direction of the hands thing is farcical

Listening to his interview I remember him saying that he wanted to see the trainers on the pitch all the time. I just thought, what a stupid thing to say. How would he have felt if one of the Wigan players got carried off with a broken leg ?
He does seem to be 'mentally challenged' at times.

I've just tried to explain it.

Anyone got a tin hat?