trust me grix is not the best fullback in the league, ratch is better, bowen will become better, hardaker is better and lomax will probably be better aswell.

not saying hes not a top player, but hes not the best.

Well done Huddersfield - fantastic win and a great 'welcome back' to RL after the winter months



You're also responsible for a couple of nasty hangovers at our house this morning....

Fantastic

We were far from brilliant, but made Wigan look very poor....defence won us that game as the chances we bombed could have cost us if we hadn't been in control.

I said at the game that without Tomkins i felt no threat whatsoever from that Wigan side, with Tomkins chiming into the attack i always felt worried he would carve us open....Bowen has a hell of a job on to get anywhere near to that level for them.

Thought Broughy was average by his own standards but still way too good for a clueless Wigan team.
Kaufusi, Eorl and Koppy hammered there forwards i thought and Bailey looked busy if not over creative though this will improve as the year goes on.

Leroy and Joe must rank up there as one of the best centre partnerships in the game, monsters in defence and always a handful in attack.
Brett Ferres was, as usual, awesome

Jerry's finishing was world class and Grix is getting better with every game ( how on earth did that hit on him go unpunished ?).

An excellent win, even though we were far from our best.

"Shaun Wane - Defeat tough to take" yeah that game meant nothing hahaha

Just watched this back. Any Wigan fan who says Wigan were not bothered about a win are talking out of their nether regions- they need to watch the reactions of the players and wane during the game!!!!!!!
Still some work to do- but I like the pizza delivery!

Hope we win both cos the LLS (best yeam over 29 rounds) means much much more to me than 3-4 games at end where team finishing below halfway could win it. Thats just plain stupid

Fair enough, I hope you win the Minor Premiership and we win the Super League Grand Final again this year

The one the players care for ( just look at what Brough said), the ones the club cares for, the one the sponsors care for and most of the fans care for.

If we won it from 8th i would not care.

As long as the big trophy is won by the team who win their last 4 games we have to go with the rule.

Whats the news on Larne Patrick?
Watching the replay its seemed hed done a knee....but the way they strapped him to a stretcher...didnt seem to correlate

I still think Wigan over-achieved last year. Their only 2 remaining international class players were sat in the stands. The rest are good SL players with some who might develop into international quality. Without Tomkins hitting the line, or Charnley on the end, they look pedestrian. Giants certainly seemed to have worked out how to defend their wonderfully executed attacking line. Taylor is a great prospect in the forwards but I wouldn't swap any of the rest if I was one of the other top teams.

that is the wigan fans excuse for losing to us on their own patch again jools.
im pretty sure the players and staff were bothered about it as were 15,000+ other wigan fans otherwise they would have stayed at home, they were probably better doing that

wigan coach wane "we were desperate to win" suppose the game meant nothing then



as for patrick, he is having scans this week to see the damage, prob ligaments

as much as i dont particularly like the concept, wigan found form in their last 3 games and won the grand final, they were pretty poor for 2 months before that, which is why i dont like the concept that whoever wins the play offs are champions, a champion team should be one that is consistently good all season not over 3 games.
i would say the same if we won it, i would accept it of course but i would prefer us to be recognized as genuine champions by being the best team throughout the season, wigan weren't, leeds before them weren't.

Mate, Wigan didn't 'find form' in the last 3 games of the season. We were runaway leaders for the first half of the season and everyone, pundits, players and fans alike, were saying we were head and shoulders the best side in SL. The period you are talking about was post Challenge cup. it's a well established fact that trying to maintain form throughout the season doesn't win you trophies and we took the right option of resting players after landing the first trophy in order to peak for the second. The coaching staff got it spot on, having learned from the previous season where we took out the League leaders but ran out of steam when it mattered. As a result, we took out both major trophies. Your own team has intimated it has learned the same lesson this time around.

I understand that it suits some people to play down the achievements of the Wigan side last season. The number of times I've read 'over achieved' and 'fluke' from opposition fans is laughable. Anyone thinking you can fluke winning the double is seriously deluded.

Having said all that, I agree that the team finishing top should be champions. However, whilst that isn't the case, you'll find the top teams targeting the games that matter. Your own side will do the same this year I'm sure. I know fans love to 'prove' that their side is the best because they won such and such a game. All I would say is we lost home and away to yourselves last season and everyone said that 'proved' you were the best side. Great! Enjoy your victories. I think your club would trade those wins for the double in a heartbeat. In truth, despite all the talk of consistency etc. so would your fans.

One further thing. Anyone thinking Huddersfield won't have learned those lessons or be a threat this time around are just as deluded as those who think Wigan didn't in 2012 and became double winners by 'fluking it'..

Your poor form started before your wembley appearance- if you'd met a top side you wouldn't have got there- and the wembley performance was dire. Who knows whether you could have upped your game against a better side-you had the opportunity to do the treble and blew it.
But to be honest it's all pretty irrelevant for this season.
One thing is for sure you will need to up your game against the roosters - even though I'm sure the RFL will do you a favour regarding Bowen.

Plenty of Wigan opinion until page 15, then it seems to die out...

i wasn't playing down your achievements, you did what you had to do which was come good for 3 games at the end of the season,thats how "champions" are decided now, you fully deserved the win off the back of that fantastic 2nd half in the grand final. my point was that for 8 weeks at the end of the regular season you were dire, but you came good when it mattered, not a slight on wigan at all its just how the game is these days.

like their team on friday after 4 minutes then

Perhaps our thoughts have turned to the upcoming World Club Challenge away to Sydney Roosters

Full credit to Hudds you had far more intensity and IMO Wane dropped a clanger picking Thornley, McIlorum (injured) and Hughes over Manfredi, Hampshire and Bateman. In terms of the game mattering to us, it didn't really, I'm bothered about us putting in a poor performance ahead of the WCC but there's another 26 games to go before any meaningful SL games take place.

If they're so meaningless then feel free to lose the next 26 and good luck in the play offs.

Oh, hang on...

Yeah fair point, regular season rounds are really important to us because we need to win enough of them to finish in the top 8. It'll be a real uphill struggle to retain the title now we've lost to Huddersfield in week 1.

Oh, hang on...

That wasn't the point you were trying to make though, was it. All SL games are meaningful, it's just some mean more than others.

Ultimately losing to us isn't the biggest deal because we're going to be there or thereabouts. Lose two or three to the perceived lesser teams and it's a bit more of an issue as that's a genuine two points lost, no offense to them.

Mind you, there are a significant portion of folk that perceive us as lesser. And plenty of Wigan fans are in that portion. Christ, Phil Clarke has us at 6th in his predicitions, although I suspect he's trying to be a bit outrageous.

Don't worry they always lose when Tomkins isn't playing, they're resting him, I hear he could be playing in the friendly against the Warriors though, something about Tomkins in New Zealand. Well anyway when he's back they'll start winning again.

The point I'm trying to make is that weekly rounds are almost wholly unimportant to the big four (us, Wire, Leeds and Saints) as we know we'll be in the mix come the business end of the season. Granted that would change if we started to look like missing out in the 8 but realistically that's not going to happen.

Barring anything catastrophic the regular season is all about trying different combinations out and preparing the team for the play offs, of course losing games in itself is a concern but only in that it bodes badly for the games that matter. ATEOTD though I'd wholly expect us to beat Hudds in the cup or the play offs regardless of regular season results, just as we did fairly convincingly last season

And I expect nothing less than a fan of the current champions. swollen with the usual arrogance those speccies tend to have. But the same team doesn't win it every year ad nauseum. One day our time will come.