Much better game today, skinned the Cas player for his try and made about three try saving tackles.

Thoughts on the try he let in?
Did the referee impede him? It looked that way from where we were stood.

Agree thought he was much more improved, he is great under the high ball. Would need to see the try he let in again to comment.

Have seen people still slating him on twitter, mostly people who I know didn't to to the game, just hope he doesn't read these and take it to heart.

I thought he moved too far over to the left which meant he was out of position when the grubber went through. Was an unlucky bounce and he may have been impeded, but had his initial positioning been better it wouldn't have mattered IMO. He was very good apart from that one mistake though.

Still not good enough and tbh he was very shaky under those high balls, to say apart from that he was very good just isn't true (imo that is)

Very shaky under the high balls? He was solid and didn't drop one. If Ryan Hampshire had played the way Bowen did today he would have a 3 page thread with praise.

Bowen cannot win at Wigan with some of our fans attitude towards him, it's embarrassing.

Were where you stood?

Where i was the opinion on him was pretty damning all the way through the match

Give him a chance, this is the Pat Richards thing all over again, he did fine under the high ball today, keep going Matty.

I'm going to give him a chance that's not an issue, i'd prefer to see Rocky in the position though as Bowen was always a temp solution

Bowen was impeded for their try from the grubber kick.
I was at the side of the sticks and it was very plain that he was in a good position to take the kick but a Cas player pulled him back by his shirt and pulled him to the ground.
The ref may not have seen it but the I G judge had an unobstructed view of it.
Thought Bowen did well. Took the high balls fine and beat Shenton on the outside very well for his try. A few try saving tackles too. Just a few games in for him, I think he'll go ok this season.

That's because we have a large number of supporters who are quite frankly embarrassing.

So that travelling support base that turn up in big numbers, make lots of noise and generally thought of as being the proper fans are basically embarrassing? Once the 2 min highlights came on wigan tv all the experts came out of the woodwork.
Which is more embarrassing the fans that travel and make their own minds up or the vast majority here who pretend they go? Embarrassing fans... the cheek of it coming from a keyboard warrior

I'm prepared to give him all the time he needs to get his form where it needs to be but he was poor again IMO yesterday. He just isn't involved enough in the attacking line and seems happy to just take a back seat. He needs to start commanding games more and demanding the ball because we all know how good he can be and we need to see that form. I link that back to saying I'll give him time though as it will take that for him to settle and feel confident enough to start calling the shots I suppose.

As for his mistake, the ref got in his way but he was so slow to react. He should have been more switched on and if you need to, do a Tomkins and get the ref out the way with a push.

Overall it was a minor improvement from him but still miles away from what he's capable of.

Yesterday was an improvement, no doubt. Solid under the high ball, some good tackling, my first thought was that he was impeded by ref for the try. (The ref was pretty good by the way - no complaints about the result)

But my point is this - Without Lockers we were like a team of headless chickens yesterday. No organisation at all. Micky Mac is not a skipper I'm afraid. Are we not entitled to some leadership from a supposedly "world class" player?

By all accounts Sam is shouting himself ho at NZW, and he's only settling in, same as Bowen.

How many times was "get rid and get the kids in" mentioned?





It's typical of a large number of our fans who decide on a player's worth after a couple of games. You'd think experience would tell them it might be worth waiting a bit longer.

Its a shame that Hardaker was imjured yesterday and couldnt play for us. oh, wait a minute...................

Kaii, I was stood in the Wigan end to the right of the sticks, can you let me know what you and others around you think he did wrong yesterday? For me he did absolutely nothing wrong, no mistakes, caught every high ball and made some try saving tackles especially on carney who is hard to put down, and scored a try himself.

He did nothing wrong in as much as he did the basics well. I think we are entitled to something better from a "world class player". In every game that Sam plays, even if he is having a stinker, he will create something.

Also Bowen should be, with all his experience, providing some leadership. We were bereft of that yesterday.

Example; when Matty dropped us into the lead with a minute left on the clock- what was going to happen next? A cool head would have had us prepared for the kick off instead of mobbing Matty. Everyone in the ground knew where Sneyd was going to put the ball from kick off.

OK so that isn't Bowen's fault but he is replacing a world class player who organised the defence and provided leadership.

Regarding Bowen and leadership, was this ever part of his game down under? I don't know so was wondering if calls for him to be a leader are misplaced?

Some world class players are just not the leadership types.

Maybe not...but it's what we need from him. Some people are quiet but with experience and age gain in self confidence and are respected, much like Lockers. Bowen has all of those attributes, in fact is so much more highly regarded than say Finch was, yet you couldn't shut Finch up. Bowen must be the quietest Aussie on the planet!!!

Well if we do need this from him it must be because we have shipped out too many players who would take over the leadership role when Lockers is out.

Do we still have the leadership team idea first introduced by Madge? If so who is in it? If not who would you suggest [iwas[/i in it? I don't mean who you might think ought to be in it because just like Bowen they are experienced players but who do you think has the attitude to be a member?

Yes we have shipped out too much experience. That was evident yesterday. Micky Mac was a headless chicken and certainly NOT captaincy material.

The leadership idea was still in place last season, but I've not heard anything this year.

Leadership contenders - Lockers, Matty Smith, Faz and I think Clubb is improving rapidly at prop. I believe that SW reckons he has leadership potential. It is a bit thin though, granted.

I think the fact that we have lost our 2 vice captains (TL and Sam) in consecutive seasons isn't really helping the cause in this regard.

I thought so but like yourself I have not heard about it this season.



That is pretty telling IMO. It is still worth doing again though especially if Lockers is going to limp his way through the season.

The leadership team is still in existence. I've read references to Micky Mac and Faz both being part of it this season.

One thing you notice without Lockers is the team is very quiet vocally, with him there he directs play and keeps everyone in order. That is a massive thing to lose and you need someone with a good rugby brain to fill in the spot, for me I'd go with Matty Smith but take kicking duties of him. I personally think that side of his game is a mental block now, we saw at stains he could kick but those misses must be effecting him.