What a corker of a game, each team giving 110%.

Briers shoulder charge why did they ban that, understand if it contacts with the head should be a ban but not that.

Shudder to think what you and wigan will do to bradford in the next couple of weeks, boat without an engine atm.

I'd be more concerned why Wigan couldn't post more points in the second half, having the lion's share of posession for the first twenty minutes. We didn't touch the ball between the 40th and 52nd minute. It took until the 60th minute, before we completed consecutive sets of six.

It's ridiculous that the shoulder charge was banned. Dangerous tackles were banned anyway and that included dangerous shoulder charges but good clean shoulder charges are a great part of the game. Plus every time a player with the ball goes on a run into a tackle, he shoulder charges the tacklers and if he raises his arms dangerously it's a penalty, so what's the difference between attack and defence?

Stupid rule!

Wouldn't go mentioning that to the Ben's





Hodgson comments are OTT in my view. There are many still learning from him and he certainly helps organize the defence. I thought he had a very good game.
In fact most players did.

I agree with an earlier poster commenting on Woody and Hill being on top form.
They needed to be.

Wigans 'youngsters' played very very well.

The thing is, Logan Tomkins and Don Crosby played better against us last night than McIlorum and Prescott ever have.

Just like to say -what a great game and well done for winning.

(dead jealous)

I thought it was an excellent game. Wigan came into the game with a few injuries, so the pressure was effectively off for them... They had free reign to play with the shackles off. If they had got beat easy, it would have been a case of 'oh well what do you expect'.. As it turned out, they played very well and were a credit to their club.

As someone has already pointed out.. Logan Tomkins and Crosby played better than Mclorum and Prescot ever have against Warrington.

The thing that really struck me from a Warrington point of view was the contrast in the 2 front rows.

We look MUCH better with Hill, Higham, Wood as the front row compared to Morley, Monaghan, Carvell... The later being the best front row in superleague for a number of years (apart from st helens super pack obviously).

I think we are seeing why the club is seemingly shipping out quite a few of these. There must be plans a foot for a few new props before next season starts. You can make a case for us needing 3 new ones.

A few 50/50 decisions got Wigan back into the game just when they needed them.. if Myler hadn't been pulled back 16-0 could have gone onto have been many more.

Laugh of the game for me was Hansen running in and trying to put the big hit in on Morley.. 2009 'lights out, time for bed' moment still praying on his mind... he got the big hit in, unfortunately for Hansen, the result was almost the same. Poor lad got up and didn't know what day it was... 10/10 for effort though.

i've been meaning to start a paul wood thread for a few weeks now.

He's very very quietly, with no fuss transformed into a starting prop, and doesn't look out of place at all.

As you say, him and hilly, are giving some great go forward and equally good defence from the start of the game. He deserves some props (pardon the pun) for this considering his shakey pre season and shakier start to the season. He's knuckled down and just got on with working hard.

It’s a long time that I was so cheerful about losing a game. Both sides were up for it big time, and I would have been even more chuffed with a draw, which would have been a fair result IMO. With who we had missing I thought we showed great guts. Just think if this game had been one from the dark-side, a Lions game (as if) it would have gone down in RU history, and parts shown over and over again for years to come. Our great game is so maligned by the old school ties at the BBC and others, that it is forced into looking unfashionable and lower class with the mass of people who would love it as we all do, if only it had a fair roll of the dice.

Couldn't agree more FMC and without wishing to derail the 'Good Wood' thread before you've started it, was it me or did anyone else think that Chris Hill had a bit of limp at the end of the game? Didn't look too serious maybe just a slight knock and the fact that he ran his socks off

Well said old chap !

And as for Paul Wood ...there are times when he's been slagged off on here for silly passes at times but the effort he has put into the team season after season has been immense & he must be one of the cleanest players in the game. You would expect his name to one of the first on the team sheet every week .

I honestly think the missing players wouldn't have been able to play that game at that pace ..... it was clear from the way Wigan warmed up (fast run-ons, crossfield kicks etc) that having to use younger players who weren't going to be able to 'arm wrestle' Wire directly, forced Wigan to go for a Plan B of best using the attributes those incoming players had, namely faster play of the ball and pace out wider ..... and it nearly worked!

Had to laugh at Briers winding Sam up when he was trying to complain to the ref. Ended up laughing himself. Briers has been a thorn in other teams sides for a long time but the game will lose one hell of a character when he finally hangs up his boots!

Wigan approached the game the way they always should, relying on good hands and good moves to put players in space rather than offloads or quick play the balls from busting up forwards (crosby break aside). Its when they deviate from that plan, or that game plan is cut off that we really struggle, but the kids managed to get the execution right for most of the game.

That incident was really funny. Despite the intensity the two of them atill had time for a laugh. the other incident that really summed up the game of RL for me was when Woody timed his hit on Sam perfectly and absolutely cleaned him out. sam simply got up and played the ball. Tremendous.

Remember thinking he was walking like he'd been bummed at the end. Didn't look too major though.

Well that's one way of putting it ha ha

Well done the Wire! Nice to see that a decent team can put the brakes on the Wiggin jugernaut at last. Typical patronising comments from the Pies on this thread. They wouldn't have been so generous if your league positions were reversed. Their comments are akin to patting a small child on the head.
Hopefully when the big games come at the business end of the season they will choke, again.

The juggernaut was being serviced on Monday. We had to make do with the works van!

Quote ="pies-r-us"It’s a long time that I was so cheerful about losing a game. Both sides were up for it big time, and I would have been even more chuffed with a draw, which would have been a fair result IMO. With who we had missing I thought we showed great guts. Just think if this game had been one from the dark-side, a Lions game (as if) it would have gone down in RU history, and parts shown over and over again for years to come. Our great game is so maligned by the old school ties at the BBC and others, that it is forced into looking unfashionable and lower class with the mass of people who would love it as we all do, if only it had a fair roll of the dice.'" Spot on. Why don't we all e-mail Brian Robertson, Chief Executive of HSBC, to ask him when the 'world's local bank' will be announcing their sponsorship of the 'local' rugby world cup right here this autumn? His e-mail address is : managingdirectoruk@hsbc.com . After all, they seem keen on rugby. I've already done it. No reply to date ( surprise, surprise ).

Quote ="pies-r-us"It’s a long time that I was so cheerful about losing a game. Both sides were up for it big time, and I would have been even more chuffed with a draw, which would have been a fair result IMO. With who we had missing I thought we showed great guts. Just think if this game had been one from the dark-side, a Lions game (as if) it would have gone down in RU history, and parts shown over and over again for years to come. Our great game is so maligned by the old school ties at the BBC and others, that it is forced into looking unfashionable and lower class with the mass of people who would love it as we all do, if only it had a fair roll of the dice.'" Spot on. Why don't we all e-mail Brian Robertson, Chief Executive of HSBC, to ask him when the 'world's local bank' will be announcing their sponsorship of the 'local' rugby world cup right here this autumn? His e-mail address is : managingdirectoruk@hsbc.com . After all, they seem keen on rugby. I've already done it. No reply to date ( surprise, surprise ).

I can safely say that even if the Wires had lost I could've walked away from that game and say WOW!

Exactly, that game would have graced the NRL at the very top level. It was the best game of the year by a long, long way.

It was so tense at the game I didn't realise how quick and brutal the game actually was. Having watched it back a few times, I have to say that that second half was one of the most brutal halves of Rugby League I have ever seen. Shame that one team had to win, I personally think a draw would have been perfect, again.

It's the closest we have to Origin. The fans felt it, there was enough respect while a deep underlying hatred, and the game was first class! Collisions were bigger than 'a league game' and the pace was electric!

Still, I'm left scratching my head whether it was genius or stupidity from Sky putting it on a Monday. Any new viewers would be foaming at the mouth for more, but how many tuned in?

Having watched the game back again it was brutal stuff.... the intensity was at max for pretty much the whole game.

Due to errors, decisions and kick charge downs we gave up a ridiculous amount of possession.

Wigan had pretty much all their strike players there and they scored 2 trys, one of those questionable.... we soaked up all that pressure then came through last 10 minutes when we had more in the tank.

Thats one of the most high impact games of rugby ive seen in a while.. there wasn't a poor player on the pitch.

Great stuff