It may be just a bump in the road, but it looked an awful lot like 2023 out there last week and today.

the first half was one of the worst performances I can remember..and we've had a few. We wouldn't have scored in a month of Sundays, Too many passengers in the team...can someone tell me what Curry offers us...he was absolutely shocking. The halves stank....both are finished as serious attacking players. I really hope this is just a cup final hangover and we're back at it against Hull... I fear, however, that we are back in the twilight zone with this crew and the wheels have fallen off again.

Said it for years Ratchford is a terrible player with a terrible attitude…glad we’ve signed the sulking loser for another 12 months. Pitiful all round including Burgess.

What’s Ratchford got to do with it?
Can he play prop?

Yes, that has to be the dullest, most ineffective pairing in Super League. Leyland & Meadows at London Broncos have more about them.

I think he was genuinely unable to explain that performance last night. The post-match interview was pretty strange and offered no real insight as to what is wrong or how to fix it.

I think we will all find out in the next 4 or 5 games if he has the answers. A chance for a confidence booster next week but both Saints and Wigan before the end of July so something needs to change pretty quickly.

On reflection, there’s an area of concern on the right and we need to find a way of finishing our sets higher up the pitch, because we can’t kick the ball well at all.

On the right, defensively they were poor. Couldn’t cope with either centre, again, but we really struggled with Tai on the wing. It looks like his instinct is to come inside and try and shut down the problem, but left himself exposed for their last try. Every time I watch Wrench it’s as if I’m watching a kid on debut, who has talent and enthusiasm but just looks like he’s never played the game before when it gets complex. He needs a run of games in one position, but I’m not sure that is with us right now, in the short term. It’s not helped that bar Nicholson that whole side has changed again for the third week in succession, but it’s the basic instinct that just doesn’t match those around him.

Kicking is awful, and we don’t have a fix for that. Walker aside. So we need to find a way of finishing our sets higher up the pitch. That came from having a better grip defensively when they are coming away from their line, but we let them come away easily, not only that but offload and cause us issues on the back of it. We need to be ruthless with discipline in those sets when we’re trying to pin them down there, which comes from having a bit in the tank to aggressively defend. To do that, your backs have to get you up the field. Dufty aside, maybe Ashton too, the backs didn’t make enough yards. Wrench and Tai had lots of touches for no return, King makes a lot of yards per carry but didn’t seem to get many at all. So we revert to the forwards in the middle and it’s just slow and easy to defend. Currie is the only one who ever looks like he might actually pass the ball, the rest plod up and get knocked back. Need more movement around the ball to make the defence have to work for it.

But it came down to fine margins. If Walker is an inch further back we go to their 20m, down by 11 with time on our side. We have a chance to win it. Instead I think Wood is caught offside and they go the other end and finish us off. Really frustrating.

I'm not sure whether we need to panic or not.....the right edge was abysmal in defence but we had a winger who isn't a winger and kept trying to do a centre's job, and a centre who hasn't been able to claim a regular spot in the team because he always does exactly what he did last night. Return to normal - Tai at centre and Thewlis out wide - and the problem should disappear again.

In attack, we had a playmaker who is 1) past his sell-by date, 2) traditionally less than creative or scintillating at half-back and 3) unable to command a regular team spot. When normal service is resumed, that should sort itself out as well, surely?

Yes we did look like the 2023 vintage wire, but we also made some 2023 team choices that must have played a role.

Flash in the pan, I hope. Don't panic, don't panic. We're not doomed.

As a Wigan supporter I have every sympathy with Warrington. Why were the two Challenge cup finalists given the shortage turn round when the rest had a week off. It stinks to high heaven.

As a Wigan supporter I have every sympathy with Warrington. Why were the two Challenge cup finalists given the shortage turn round when the rest had a week off. It stinks to high heaven.

Yeah tough one that such a weird game. We cut out the silly handling mistakes and penalties from the CC final and completed well but were so flat.

Our middle defence was awful and even though felt Dufty should have done better in the one on one with MacDonald the other two were 2 on 1 overlaps and he didn't make it look good but was unlikely to stop either.

Our attack was awful, and I thought putting Tai on the wing was a terrible tactical decision he got outstripped for pace and always still defended as a centre Wrench should have been on the wing.
You could see Salfords plan big kick from Sneyd to Dufty getting him to run back in and he wasn't involved as much in the attack as well as offload and get wide. I couldn't tell you what our gameplan was.
I thought we woukd win the forward battle and have kicks in more advance positions but we didnt, id have started Harrison as he look the only prop last night that did anything.
I think a bit of a hangover but now is the test for Sam B its performance almost as much as result next time out to send a message, hopefully a positive one.

Don't understand the slagging of Tai, he actually produced points unlike the majority of the team, and looked genuinely annoyed with how the night had gone.

Why are we STILL persisting with Dufty on tackle 4? Gleeson has been getting a lot of raps - surely has more than one idea??

I take it you mean tackle 5, its cos he can get a quick ptb for the kick

No, it's ALWAYS tackle 4. Even the brain's trust that is the BBC commentary team notice it.

I was a bit confused with the goal kicking options last night with the degree of difficulty. We have a right footed kicker from the right touchline & vice versa. Strange.

I think that Ratchford picked up a strain. Also noticed him carrying some sort of injury to his side during the first half.

'No country for old men'

A problem many of the Wire teams I've watched over three and a half decades, including some talented ones, is an underlying mental fragility. Once momentum starts going against us we find it very hard to break and we get mired into long losing runs.

When Cullen was coach I remember on several occasions after a defeat he'd bring up an earlier defeat as the reason, like "that Cup defeat against St Helens absolutely knocked the stuffing out of us". It's the kind of thing I couldn't imagine a Saints or Leeds coach ever saying - admitting that one bad loss would affect us weeks down the track.

It was a big part of the Steve Price era too. You knew if we had one or two bad losses that was it, we'd win about 2 of the next 10 games. No ability to turn it round.

But when you look at teams like Brian McDermott's Leeds or Shaun Wane's Wigan, usually they'd have a bad month or so of form mid season and their forums would be full of posts from their fans saying McDermott out/Wane out. But you knew that by the time August came round they would be starting off on an ominous winning run.

Now is Sam Burgess's Wire like the softer Cullen and Price teams of the past?
Or are we like McDermott's Leeds and Wane's Wigan?

I'm sure Burgess himself would regard the idea of players going into a funk and feeling sorry for themselves because of previous defeats as being ridiculous.

He finished both chances, fair enough. But aside from that there wasn’t much to report on. Didn’t carry the ball anywhere near often enough, or strongly enough. For comparison, Ashton mad 120+ more meters. Of the 4 wingers, he was 100 meters short of each at least. Got beat on the outside ball watching for the try in the first half, and came up and in again for their try in the second half, but I’ll caveat that with a bit of nervousness given the earlier no-try, I think he’s trying to protect Wrench/Ratchford more than a bad read.

Tough night for him. Decent player, yes, but he was the worst winger on the field, and I would pick every centre bar Wrench above him last night. Put it this way, if that was Greg Minikin last night, this board would be in meltdown.

Back in the centre next week, get back to basics and rebuild into the form of a few weeks ago.

Tai is a Poundland Ryan Atkins. He has no game smarts. When or how to pass, where to position himself or what lines to run. I really hope we don't offer him another contract. I'd rather develop Lindop and Wrench. While on Wrench, I raiser earlier in the season that I was worried I was seeing zero progress in him knowing how to position himself in defence and it's costing us tries. I still have this opinion.

Wrench just needs to play. He needs a loan move and play 80 minutes in the same position every week. For various reasons, he’s been in and out of the team. But he needs to learn the game. Every match is like he’s been plucked from the stands and thrown in at the deep end. There’s a rough diamond in there, but he needs to get a grip of his role.

Well said Bunkaib

`You could see Salfords plan big kick from Sneyd to Dufty getting him to run back in and he wasn't involved as much in the attack as well as offload and get wide`

Great coaching from Rowley.

Speaking of centres, why hasn't that Bruines been given a run yet?

He has had hamstring injury, and consequently hasn`t played a game yet for our Reserve team.

I saw him at yesterday`s Reserve game and he was walking OK, but not sure where his recovery is up to