1. I doubt we will ever win it, 16-2 up should be game over, hurts x10 more then last year, back to back loses are hard to come back from

2. Says alot that most of us knew when Ratchford went we knew it was over while still in the lead, we had no bodies left, Joel gone, Ratchford gone, Carvell went down tunnel in the 60th min, the only thing that shocked me was Wigan only ended the game on 65 mins seemed it was over long before.

3. Wigan like Leeds prove once again the league means nothing, its just a practice for the playoffs, once in the playoffs the best thing to do is rest players an have the peak in Sept.

We switched off. During the lengthy delay for Joel's treatment I thought then that we were gonna get burnt when play resumed, and sure enough we'd dropped a gear and suddenly looked underdone. Whether that was down to panic that a key strike player was out, concern for a colleague or just lack of concentration due to the break in play we'll never know.

1. We got a penalty not long before the break and kicked for touch. Stupidly we tried to run in a try on tackle one and Bridge was put into touch. We should have either, one, kicked for goal from the penlalty or, two, taken our time with the set and ran the clock down.

From there the game turned on it's head...

2. J Monaghan got his injury, the game had a long break where our momentum was completely lost.

3. Wigan scored just before HT.

4. Wigan scored just after HT.

5. Ratchford got injured.

6. From there for about five minutes our defensive line was all over the place.

7. Wigan scored again.

There was no coming back from that the game was over as we were gone and then Wigan went and scored again just to rubber stamp it.

Commiserations to every Wire fan there last night (Apart from Dropkick Murphy)

I thought it was yours at half time. I felt terrible and thought there was absolutely no way we would come back and win.

I can't believe it. Better luck next year.

Wrong forum, mate

Sums it up perfectly.

Just made myself watch the game back again. Obviously the fact that we were down to 15 men had a big impact, but there were too many daft penalties and mistakes throughout the game. Wigan did incredibly well to come back from that deficit, but losing a comfortable lead is something we have done too often this year.

you deserve an award for watching that match again....i'll not even be buying the guardian this week!
I'll be taking the long routes in supermarkets so I don't catch a glimps of the RL trade papers either!!

I intend to force myself to watch the match over again tonight, I will then delete the game both from my recorder & my world.

may the force be with you FB!

Garbage. It was deliberate attempt to inure a fellow professional and was only ever going to have one outcome. My knee ligaments were ripped clean in two by a similar incident (being held on the upper body whilst a third player cuts in at the joint) and it is a disgraceful thing to so to another player.

Mark you are wrong and don't know what you are talking about every Wigan fan has said that there was nothing wrong with it

Mark you are wrong and don't know what you are talking about every Wigan fan has said that there was nothing wrong with it

Not watched the game back yet, I will eventually (unlike last year) but don't have the heart to do it yet. Warrington collapsed simply because they lost two of their most influential players in a short period of time, and had no ready made replacements on the bench. Add to that the resulting limited interchanges. Before then we were comfortable, but we were on a hiding to nothing from the moment Ratchford hobbled off.

Unlucky, simple as that. Had the roles been reversed and Wigan lost Richards just before the break and Tomkins early second half we would have won quite comfortably too.

-good point-bout sums it up really-

COME ON.

We're missing the point, here (in the last few pages, any how)

To blame our loss, on the injuries of Joel (a winger, who'll only have the ball a handfull of times in the game), and Stefan (yes, a key player) is deflecting from our shortcomings. Yes, the injuries didn't help our cause, but, we were beaten by the better side over the 80 minutes.

We had them "on the rack" for 10 minutes, but, we didn't grind their noses in the dirt, like we should have done! I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THAT

That Goulding try was a huge blow, but we still had a 10 point lead, ffs. All the confidence I had 5 minutes previously, was ebbing away quickly.


The moment Wigan scored in the second half, I KNEW we'd lose.
The moment we lost Ratchford, that was the final nail in the coffin. We just looked out on our feet, from there on. The rest of the match was like torture, just delaying the inevitable.

There's a tiny little thought going round in my brain (well, my brain is tiny) that last night was almost like Mohammed Ali v George Foreman. Wigan let us get them on the ropes and punch ourselves out, and then, just when we think we've done enough, they hit us, and we've got nowt left. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH THE FRUSTRATION.

We simply HAVE to win the GF next year, otherwise, it will become a millstone round our neck, like Stains with 5 GF losses on the bounce, and Leeds' 5h1t CCF record in recent years.

Lefty, you miss the point about the injuries - It wasn't necessarily that it was Monaghan and Ratchford who got injured that made the difference, it was the fact that their positions weren't , and couldn't be, covered adequately.

Our whole shape was screwed - Now my eyes aren't the best and I was in the Wigan end, but once Ratchford went off particularly, I could not suss out who was playing where, it seemed to change by the minute - I don't honestly think the players actually knew and by the end they were an unorganised rabble.

Its a huge 'what if' and it defies the precarious nature of a contact sport like RL, but if no injuries to Monaghan and Ratchford happen, then Wire maintain a carefully prepared structure and you probably have a different outcome to last night's game.

In hindsight, those two players were probably the last two players we would want to lose, in terms of being able to cover them and their positions adequately.... We had ample cover for any serious injuries to any forwards. We could just about have covered an injury to Briers, with M Monaghan on the bench, but our senior winger with Bridge as his centre??...Not a chance.

Similarly, with Ratchford following Monaghan, the balance of the side, with only 5 recognised backs on the pitch, was goosed and try scoring became an almost impossible task - I know its always easy to say in hindsight, but Hodgson on the bench might just have kept us in it....I'm not blaming Smith though, because I don't think anybody can plan for the misfortune of losing 2 such key players in such a big game.

We lost because we thought we had it won by half time. Wigan come out second half all guns blazing and blew us off the park.

when Wigan got into it, grix was at right centre, bridge on the wing, then riley at fullback with Atkins let's wing for the charnley try.

then briers went to full back with Myler and higham defending in kid halves

And that says it all - If we started ANY game with that line up, we'd be smashed by any SL side.

Wigan won because they were ruthless and exposed the fact that we were, formation-wise, in a mess....I certainly don't go with the theory that they played champion rugby, but they definitely played with a champion mentality of killing off a side that was there for the kill..... I applaud them for that.

Serious question here (no trolling, I think you guys know I don't do that), do you think you played that well for the majority of the first half even with a full team?

I ask that because I was surprised how slowly you started the game and I felt we'd missed a big opportunity in the first twenty minutes to be a couple of scores up. You had a purple patch for ten minutes but then lost your way for the last ten minutes of the half. I didn't see the usual intensity from your forwards and Higham didn't have any room to move. The offloads weren't really flowing either which surprised me.

We very nearly folded like a deck of cards during that ten minute spell but outside of that we looked as comfortable for 70 minutes as we have done against you guys in a very long time.

It was a really strange game. I couldn't believe that on the balance of play we were 16-2 down but I was even more surprised that you didn't go on with it. I said to the lads with me at 16-2 that we'd get 50 put on us because when Wire get on a roll they're the best side in the league.

Grand final defeats are tough to take (we had 3 in 4 years between 2000-2003) but it doesn't half make the victories more satisfying. With the backing you have and the coach you have you'll win one before long.

we had higham at right centre for a bit as well.

just seen the obstruction penalty, that was a ing joke as well. cummins is sayin how you only have to run behind your own player, how many times a week do you see a mazey run from acting half running behind stationary players and not getting penalized for it?

And Saints are the ugly fat bird left sitting at a table with a half of mild?

I understand your points, Ditas, but, we could have (and should have) coped with Joel's injury.
Forward (1 of the 4 subs, not (imo) a good idea) comes on, Grix drops to centre, and original centre goes onto wing. WE SHOULD HAVE BE ABLE TO COPE. We didn't.
I could tell the teams mental strength just "turned off" when that injury occured, and that's what killed us. WE SWITCHED OFF AS A TEAM.
The set of six which resulted in Goulding's try was (from memory) just poor attempts at tackling. We treaded water til half-time, and looked like we were going through the motions early in the second half, well before Ratch's injury.

As I said on page 1, masters of our own downfall.
I'd have expected more from Smith/Poaching/Marshall etc to marshall our troops better, between Joel's injury and Wigan's 2nd try (before Stef's injury). Stef's injury was the nail in the coffin. We were mentally shot at before.

there was a moment that summed up our structure and the rest of the night to follow for wire.

Around 10-15 mins into the 2nd half, there was a scrum about 10 off our line....

The front row packed, but nobody else for a minute....

All our players were looking around wondering who was playing in the back row....

Briers ended up getting in the pack himself!!