You were lucky today and dirty...

But you werent

So I wont



Amazing game and from a Saints fan...the best team won today but what a game. I know where KC is comming from in being proud of the players, so was I and a great quote from Wane too. An absolute spectacle for Rugby League. Given it was Saints and Wigan that dragged the game through the mud last october, how fitting was it that it was both of us that put on that show today.

Good luck for the rest of the season and I hope we both meet in the grand final this year.

Regards

King James

Great game of RL. Edge of the seat stuff and both sets of players ran themselves into the ground.

DaveO, you missed the word "But", out of that post..

Thoroughly enjoyed that game, proper old fashioned rugby!

Nice to see a fair summary of the game not passed on by saints in post match interview,with saying that Mcarthy Scarsbrook played well and gave his all so I understand his disappointment .Two teams who should be in top four

????

I am sure I'l find one somewhere at some point

. I just [ireally[/i enjoyed that game. Far better than sticking 52 on Wakey.

it was the best game of the season so far, if we had more like that you wouldn't be able to get tickets.

I think Bentham did a good job. As Waney said, he let the game roll.

The intensity was superb, the skill level for the most part was average.

So thats what you call it? Letting the game roll, I must remember that term next time I see a 3 refereeing performance. One question though for all you Gelling fans, what on earth was he doing passing the ball at the end of the match? Does this man actually have a brain? Gelling please leave Wigan right now.

Intense defence does play a part in nullifying attacking flair.

Was there the chance to showboat? Nothing like a fan to take the shine off a cracking game eh?

I think you will find that he took the sheen of it..

Bentham did well, some people are never happy. I wonder what you would have said if we had been on the other end of the 8-2 penalty count!

Gelling has taken more carries, made more metres, scored more tries and more assists than any other Wigan player this season. He has also busted the line more than any except Manfredi. Granted he has a couple of handling errors in him that need ironing out but he's still well worth his spot in the team and IMO one of the best centres in the league

I agree with this. The actual standard of rugby was poor. It was a good solid battle but there was very little quality on show.

The game was decided by one piece of brilliance from Williams with that kick. That aside, it was poor.

Pah! That Williams is one-trick pony! That's twice he's done that kick now!



People are criticising (with some justification) our scratchy attack. But let's not be too keen to hold up the NRL as an example of doing it right. I just watched Top NRL Side Newcastle Knights. 50+ tackles in your opponents 20, and yet you still get nilled? At home? That's a pretty Olympian standard of ineptness right there!

Not sure if that was meant as a pop at me but if it was then you're getting me confused with someone else as I've never criticised Williams on here.

I think those who're having a go at Bentham are mainly on about the appalling inability to see players 2 yards in front of him at the PTB. The off-side rule may as well be scrapped for all it's policed (and what [iare[/i the touch-judges looking at anyway?). Apart from that, I agree with SW, he let the game flow. It would have been a completely different game if Child had been in charge for eg.

As for Gelling, he blows hot & cold. When his head's screwed on he's brilliant, but he does have a habit of falling into carelessness on occasion which just gives those who want to find anything to moan about, something to moan about.

FFS - we won the game - stop whinging.

Not a pop at you at all, just an ironic comment. As I've said before, I think Williams is growing into the role week by week. Of course he's not helped by the fact that Smith is not playing as well as he did last year, but he's done OK. Better than OK, in fact.

As I posted on the Saints board.

In the games Williams has played at #6 this year he has scored more tries, same number of assists, made more metres, made more tackles, missed fewer tackles, given fewer penalties and made fewer errors than Burns. He's also made more clean breaks and more tackle busts.
Williams is doing o.k. not brilliant but learning on the job. At least Wane will give our young halves a chance.

I have to laugh when some Saints fans ask what Wigan would do if they had both halves out. Well they could put the England Knights halves from 2013 (Sarginson and Powell) in there couldn't they
or play Hampshire at #6?

Re: the bit in bold. I have already mentioned this in another thread, Bentham was at most of the play the balls standing 12m away from it so anyone 2m or less in front of him was still onside. A ref does not need to stand 10m away from the play the ball and most will stand further away as Bentham did. Additionally a player standing in an offside position when the ball is played does not concede a penalty unless they impact on the play before having moved at least 10m away (to make themselves become onside) from it first. There were some instances of offside players being missed but not nearly so many as a lot of the crowd seemed to think.

I think that undervalues the defensive efforts from both sides.

I didn't mean it that way. I appreciate it was a tough tough match and the players gave their all.

What I meant was that there was very little attacking flair on show and whilst both defences had to work had down the middle, there wasn't much good attacking rugby on show. Far too many errors and a lack of cohesion from both sides.

We all know that the pitch at the DW is extremely heavy at the moment, on the morning of the game we had constant drizzle right up to midday. Twenty five minutes into the match the heavens opened right through till half time. Whilst it won't go down in history as the most expansive game ever, it was better than I've seen in similar conditions previously.