Great under the high ball especially in those conditions, tactics wrong by Shaun Wane for me. And it lost us the game in the end.

and so say all of us

would Maguire have tried a Rookie at full back in the most important game of the season?

I think not!

Thorniley would have slotted in on the wing no problem.

pat richards has the safest pair of hands in superleague,shame wane could`nt see it in the most important game of the season

In terms of safety Pat Richards is the best full back at Wigan (and I include Sam Tomkins in that).

Same here from a Leeds fan, pat is a very capable full back and no disrespect to the young lad but we may have never had that kick at the end if Richards was there

I agree, sorry Shaun a game like this Pat full back Gelling or Thornley on the wing >>>simple <<<<< i think he is more of a supporter than a coach!!

its ok being wise after the fact, but when i saw Murphy in for Sam , i was quite happy. He played ok against Bradford....well enough for Wane to have confidence.
And given Sams track record of droping bombs, lets not make young Murphy a scapregoat?..or Wane............we didnt turn up until half time.....end of

I wonder if Russell was an option?

I presume he was but Murphy was chosen ahead of Russell the last time and the coaching staff obviously thought Murphy was more capable.

Think all the comments are a bit unfair. Pat at fullback may have resulted in the same outcome. Murphy had to sprint for the bombs, yes pat may have a safer pair of hands but would he have got anywhere near them at the end of the day they were very good good kicks. Plus people need to get over madge, yes he would have played at full back and the strongest side week in week out but would we have seen the amount of youngsters we have this year no, still a work in progress

Think all the comments are a bit unfair. Pat at fullback may have resulted in the same outcome. Murphy had to sprint for the bombs, yes pat may have a safer pair of hands but would he have got anywhere near them at the end of the day they were very good good kicks. Plus people need to get over madge, yes he would have played at full back and the strongest side week in week out but would we have seen the amount of youngsters we have this year no, still a work in progress

Mcdermott and Sinfield must have choked on their pre match meal when they saw Wane's choice of full back for this game.

"What should we do with the rookie fullback Bri"
"Errrm............Just bomb the sh*t out of him and knock his confidence"
"Yeah that's what I was thinking boss"

I really feel for Murphy. Looks a decent talent, just not for a play off semi !!!!

Rubbish mate. Richards would have taken up a better position prior to the kicks going up, thus he wouldn't have had to sprint to catch them.

Sinfield kicked to Josh 4 or 5 times in the first half, it is only in the second half he kicks at Murphy with the Leeds fans behind him, tactics probably only made at half time, only very effective.

seemed like a strange decision to throw him in for such a big game after only 1 previous appearance (if that's the case).

to be fair to the lad he looked ok.... yes he dropped a kick... didn't do much else wrong though.

I disagree, Murphy's positioning at fullback is probably better than Richards. Murphy has always been a smart player in that respect.

He did what many fullbacks will do, struggle with well placed kicks by a player with one of the best kicking games in the whole of rugby league. I know Richards has a good reputation as having safe hands but he rarely if ever had to face kicks as difficult as that and under that sort of pressure. They just don't happen that frequently and you need the right combination of excellent kicker and inept pressuring from the defence simply to end up facing a kick like that. Richards has also dropped high bombs before, so it's no guarantee he would have been any better.

In all honesty I would of played Richards fullback but then again I don't blame murphy for not catching the bombs he's inexperienced and they were great kicks. You have to ask why was sinfield allowed to put such great kicks in and the answer is because we never attemped to pressure him even though it was clear he was Leeds main threat.

On another day, Murphy would have wriggled out of the tackle when he made a couple of half breaks right at the start of the game and gone the length of the field to score As it was a couple of very committed tacklers just managed to hold onto him - we would all have been saying what a brilliant brave decision by Wane.

Moving Pat to FB away from his best position on the wing would have been seen by many to be a backwards move, taking our best attacking winger away.

If we had played a little smarter and finished our sets of 6 at the leeds end with a grubber to pen then down their end or force a drop out, or put more pressure on sinfield then maybe Murphy wouldn't have been exposed at the end.

I tell you what Wane did with Murphy right there. He said, "Son, you're this clubs future, I rate you, and I want you involved" What Wigan got there was Murphy saying, "I love this club and it's my future" Wigan have a good young player there who will serve the club well. You might have lost last night but I bet you'll be singing about Murphy for years.

Let's not kid ourselves, had SW put Richards in at fullback he would have had to replace the wing spot with a lesser experienced player (Gelling..etc).

The instruction from Leeds would have been for Sinfield to bomb the $hit out of the winger.

Same result possibly. Great tactics and if only we employed similar (as Richards has arguably the bigger boot)!

Sorry, but what lost us the game was not kicking the penalty we had in their 20, points mean prizes, it wasn't a league game it was knock out rugby, we should have been taking any points we could have got our hands on, hope wane figures this out for next season, Murphy will probably learn more from this loss than he would have a win imo

Agreed!! Just hope he hasn't ruined a young lads career. Ridiculous decision!

The lad was struggling in the first half and seemed to have picked up an injury. Should have been changed at half time and put Richards there especially with the Leeds fans behind us.

Don't blame your young full back for dropping the bomb. Blame the player who gave us the penalty for offside.