we need to do a big job on this guy on friday esp wen wire are attacking 90% of there attack comes through him we need to smasah him at every given ooportunity cannot afford to let him dominate the play the ball and the ruck thoughts??

Well he is for me Warrington's #1 threat, followed by Briers. I think they key to stopping him, is controlling the ruck and being defensively sound around it. If we can do that as well as giving him as little time as possible on the ball, we'll go along way to beating Wire. Although that's far easier said than done.

The markers need to work hard.

Like Pryce for St Helens his game is cut in half when there is no QPT or markers running at him. We can't let him attack the line and put people through gaps.

I think we need to stop them getting on a roll - whether that's stopping their quick play-of-the-balls, or closing down Monaghan and Briers. Our current league position is based largely on our defence, so if we defend as well as we did against Hudds, we should minimise their scores. We also need to play the game in their half, and that means a good kick and chase game - something we've not been so great at recently. (Btw, I still think McIllorum can kick more than he does in that regard.) But to win the game, we need to find a second wave attack that we didn't really have against the Giants. Sam will help with that, but maybe Roberts should play on the wing instead of Goulding, to make us a bigger threat from deep.

why not try using some puctuation as this post takes 2 goes at reading it yes monaghan is a great threat for us but we also have others so you cant afford to target just one man ive not looked forward to a wire pie game as much in all my 30odd years of watching rl it should be an absolute stormer naturally im hoping for a wire win but a top showing in pubs and clubs around the country might open a few more eyes to our game now that yawnfest three point game has finished hogging mainstream tv sets each weekend and breathe

The key for me will be running hard at their two "spot" players (Briers and Myler), given the percentage of tackles they miss, in the first 20 minutes. We should make both of these do more work than they're use to in defence at the start to knacker them out, with the added bonus that we know they will miss tackles. Get the ball to both Hoffman and Hansen running hard wide (where they'll both be hiding) and run over the top of them in every set once the initial hard yards have been made in the first couple of tackles.

Both Briers defence and Mylers defence have improved considerably.....not as shaky as they used to be.

Watch out for the Myler ball steals...

We don't actually do that enough! As was mentioned on here afterwards, we didn't work Soward enough in the WCC and we didn't give Brough an awful lot to do in defence last week.

I am not sure Maguire looks at the other team as much as other coaches do, we play our own game and don't it be shaped by what the other team do.

They must have been really bad then as it's still not great.

For every 4 or 5 tackles Briers makes he misses 1. It's about 1 in every 6 or 7 for Myler.

I hope wigan smash lee briers and monaghan early on and set a platform for the forwards if finch plays from the start or off the bench he will make a big difference to our kicking game and in attack. I cant wait for friday

Myler
Tackles - 80
Marker - 9
Missed - 14
Errors - 6

Briers
Tackles - 61
Marker - 7
Missed - 13
Errors - 5

Tomkins
Tackles - 21
Marker - 2
Missed - 2
Errors - 4

Leuluai
Tackles - 97
Marker - 8
Missed - 6
Errors - 1

Deacon
Tackles - 47
Marker - 7
Missed - 6
Errors - 0

Here are the stats. Looks like you might be right. Bare in mind that Tomkins has only played FB the tackles he makes are alot of the time going to be one on one or a try saver. Our halves this year have made so few errors! 1 between them! Leuluai is quality in defence, he hurts the attack as well!

Watching the Wire offload is going to be very important as well. They've got several players who are very effective at this and it gives them a 2nd phase/broken field opportunity. Get 2 or 3 in to each tackle and keep the ball wrapped up!

Monaghan is class but then they've got class all over the park so we'll need to be on top form. I think the threat from most sides come from their 1, 6, 7 and 9 and we did a great job on the Huddersfield lot of Grix, Brown, Brough and Robinson(when he came on) but Friday night is a step up again in quality facing Hodgson, Briers, Myler and Monaghan so we need to keep that defence strong.

It's going to be a great test for us but it also is going to be a test for them and it makes for a brilliant contest. I think whichever side can control the ball better and keep their discipline will come out on top so we have to watch our step.

Roll on Friday.

They will be as worried about us as we are about them. We need to concentrate on our own game and less on what wire may or try to do.

Thoughts are that im glad Feka doesnt play for Wigan anymore!

Good point though - Monaghan has been a super signing for Warrington and stoping Monaghan will go a long way to winning the game for Wigan.

If wire do go on to win the GF this year then this fella will probably win man of steel. He is absolutely immense and yes saints fans he is better than roby! (who is top drawer also by the way)

I think Warrington will similarly target Finch, assuming he plays of course, particularly with it being his first game.

He was so good on Sunday it was grossly unfair to Quins to let him come back out for the second half. He did only play about 60 minutes in total though.

one good thing about sam tomkins is we will not have to tackle him much as most of time he ends up on floor before defence reaches him also milking penalties as he does will not will not endear him to many rl fans (unless of course your wigan fans)

Thanks for the heads up

Monas is a smart player, if any of your guys are not square it's an almost guaranteed penalty because he just runs straight in to them.
He's a smart player, if he sees that your line isn't set properly he'll go for it.
He'll always be looking for 40-20's so Sam will have to be sharp to that.
His offloading is great, he's an absolute tackling machine and i read in this thread that you should look to smash him to put him off, trust me this guy has the heart of a lion, I've seen people target Monas and hit him hard, trust me unless he's taken off permanently you won't put him off his game.

What you have to realise though is Wire have a few great ball handling thinking players.
Monas, Briers, Myler, Solomona(yes really) Hodgson, Bridge and to a lesser extent Grix.

We have great offloading players, Solo, Wood, Westwood, Harrison, Monas, Bridge and you have to be weary of Myler sniffing around looking for it.

Looking forward to seeing our guys testing your defense though, I'm like a kid I'm so excited.

If I could pick any player in SL to join Wigan, it'd be Monaghan. Quality player.

Warrington Wolves 82 Harlequins RL 6

on the video site

Another semi-literate berk takes it on himself to speak for the rest of the sport.

He actually refers to "many rl fans" but I suppose if you were a semi-literate berk you could take this to mean the rest of the sport!