Quote ="cadoo"Funnily enough I was thinking along these lines last week. The OP wasn't saying that we are a team to be scared of rather than can we be. I hope that we can. I'm sure every team strives for that aura around them. Warrington annihilated teams last year and I remember reading on their opposition forums beforehand and they were 'frightened' in a sense at the prospect of getting a thorough battering at the hands of the Wolves. Unfortunately for Warrington they didn't win anything!
The last team I remember truly thinking 's--t we're in for a tough match here' was the Bradford side of 2003ish era. I'd look at their lineup and think we are in for a tough match. It was their pack that was intimidating. Stuart Fielden, Joe Vagana, Paul Anderson, Brian McDermott, Jamie Peacock, Lee Radford, Daniel Gartner etc they just dwarfed and crushed the opposition forwards. Then in the backs with Lesley Vianikolo, Tevita Viakona, Shontayne Hape, Paul Deacon, Robbie Paul, Leon Pryce etc class and power in the backs. A team that when we fell behind early doors I wondered how on earth we could beat them. That was the only team I have ever thought opposition teams were "scared" of. A trip to Bradford was such a daunting prospect at one time.
Back to Wigan and we certainly do have one of the biggest/meanest packs in the league. Lee Mossop, Mike McIlorum, Jeff Lima, Harrison Hansen, Gareth Hock and Sean O'loughlin - only Saints and Wire can match that IMO. The difference will be from the interchange/depth in the side - Stuart Fielden, Paul Prescott, Epalahame Lauaki, Liam Farrell, Chris Tuson, Ben Flower, Gil Dudson, Greg Burke, Jack Hughes etc Some big, powerful players in there.
Our backs have the class - Leuluai and Finch have been brilliant. Sam Tomkins is one of the best fullbacks in the world and is probably the best attacking fullback in the history of Super League. Josh Charnley is excellent on the wing and Pat Richards is always dangerous, but in a couple of years will need replacing. Carmont is on borrowed time, so we will need to do something about that at centre. Darrell Goulding it's early days, but so far the signs are promising.
If Wigan keep putting in THAT (Castleford) performance each week will Wigan scare teams?
Certainly. If we can do that next week to Catalans then I'm not sure many teams will fancy playing us! The reality is though that Castleford were pretty poor by the sounds of things and were with a make-shift coach. However you can only play what is in front of you and Wigan were certainly excellent last week. I guess consistency is what we must look to. If you can keep on winning and win by those type of scorelines then not many teams will look forward to playing you.
Or do they need to be ruthless for the full 80?
That is the aim for our lads. So far they've not been. It's difficult, but this team strives for perfection. At some point it's going to all click for 80 minutes and with some of the poor opposition in Super League at the moment, I feel a tonking for someone is inevitable with the team we have.'"
That was a cracking post in February when you wrote it. Now ,it's all working out as you saw it then.(apart from Fielden). Congratulations.
