Also can I just add. I like Higham in his current role and I am glad he is at the club. I just don't think he is a better player than Clarke and I would rather have Clarke if I had to choose.

Clarkes hospital passes are by far the best in SL.

He is also an animal in defence generally. He is 7th in the SL tackle count charts as well as 4th in marker tackles.

I know stats are useless though according to some. I don'y know why all coaches seem to have someone recording and reporting on them

He should be sponsored by BUPA. Probably earns enough commission from them.

McIlrom from wigan is half decent imo and looks to be getting better and better.

Out of him, clarke and Higham i think id go for McIlrom.

The potential is there with McIlrom whilst the other two will never improve.

If Clarke was a giddy bleeder and ran from dummy half every play he'd go down quite well i'd imagine......

i'd be interested to hear the views of the Clarke haters on Say Danny Farrar... he never ran from Dummy half was a decent passer from marker and a great defender...... but was hardly spectacular

interesting that he was carried out of wilderspool shoulder high.......

We did a lot of that then (and now) in that I mean celebrating the distictly average.

some coaches wear sunglasses on their heads and not over their eyes, they dont get everything right....

also didnt someone on Sky probably Phil Clarke, say Higham is the most penalised player in the tackle...??

i'd use that stat just to you off.....

i'm with lefty on this one, i believe a lot of the hype with higham is down to a certain mike stephenson.
don't get me wrong, i am glad we have him in the team and i think he is a great impact hooker but it was glaringly obvious at the weekend that we played better and more controlled as a team when clarke was at dummy half.

Higham penalty to tackle ratio is 11/435 (2.5%), whereas Clarke is 2/220 (1%). So you are probably correct.

Not read through every post on this but when it came out that Brian Noble was not going to offer Mickey Higham another contract there were Wigan fans outside the J.J.B. with petitions to keep him.

Higham and Clarke comparisons are a bit chalk and cheese.

You need eyes not stats to know that the reason we have lost matches this season has been due to missed tackles, errors and conceding penalties.

That's rubbish.

Most supporters were happy apart from the few who liked him ''coz e putz in loads of effut''.

Most of his performances in a Wigan shirt were poor/average. You only have to look at the 2007 season when Shane Millard outplayed him most of the year.

simple
Clarke is better in defence
Higham is better in attack
Pity we don't play american football

problem with clarke is when we need him to come up with a big play he never does

i think he comes up with a lot of good balls out of acting half that give our halves the time and space they need to set the moves up which result in the tries that we score out wide

bit of an unsung hero in my book on that score, the moves are finished out wide but they always start with a good pass out of dummy half and it always seems to me that when we score these tries it's clarke in at 9

good point have to agree there tino

I've said for a while that Clarke gets alot of unfair stick.

He is useful to have in the team, think he would have made a decent loose forward as when he runs at broken play he can draw defenders and give a nice pass, such as the one to Vinny on Sat.

here here . cant understand why he gets slated all the time.

I think Clarkes improved an awful lot over the past 3 or 4 years.
I never rated him at all, the amount of time it took him to distribute a ball had me spitting feathers but I definately feel he's a worthy player now.
I would have to agree that overall he's the better player

Good debate this, I think both players suit it each other very well. Clarkey the distributes the ball very cleverly, defends well and communicates with the forwards very well. While Higham, provides that good impact off the bench, makes great runs from dummy half and can exploit the holes in defence very well.

Probably one of the best Hooker combos in the league. I'd prefer not to compare them as both of them bring different qualities to the hooking position and to the side.

I don't think either of them are that great. It is also now probably the most important position in the game.

Completely agree. Look at the best teams in the league. Saints have Cunningham and Roby, and Leeds boast Buderus and Diskin. Our hookers don't compare, and like you say its becoming the most important positon in RL.