Positives
Bateman - this guys a machine, undersized but playing in the middle. Give this guy a long term deal

Sarge - good return played tough but didn't get much space

Clubb - yes plays dumb at times but smashed the Brisbane forwards all night. Our only prop that made consistent yards ( where was TT second half )

Attendance - very good

Negatives

Smith - bang out of form, feel he went missing tonight. As tough as we played we lacked direction. Need more from our England scrum half

Bowen - probably a top earner at the top club and simply doesn't play up to it. Slightly better in D but added FA in our attack which is revolved around the full back

Budge - Manfredi will be in if this continues

All in all a enjoyable match. Think we'll be better when our prop foursome is Mossop Flower Tautai and Clubb.

Your thoughts

Can't argue with any of them.

Our defence was outstanding. Some of it was brutal at times. Clubb especially as you pointed out.

I said it on the VT but I am convinced we don't even bother practising our attack much. Yet again we looked completely useless on 5th tackle plays, especially in their 20m and the only set-plays we did were the old "pass it to the wing with a couple of dummy runners and hope the defence makes a wrong read".

And lastly, we make so much hard work of getting out of our own 10m. Some times it takes about 4 plays - mainly due to our soft forwards and no one wanting to offer themselves up/run hard enough.

Positives

Terrific effort all round
Aggressive and fair defence
Mcilorum sensational
Bateman worked hard

Negatives

Burgess - very poor, casual play leading to errors. Tricky time for him, the fans are starting to turn on him - probably the right time for Manfredi to play
Handling poor again
Bowen is completely ineffective in attack on a heavy pitch
Forwards are far too small

agree with most of that, bateman is a monster. will tackle anything put in front of him. just feed him up a bit =)

madDogg, i really thought Mcilorum was awol for me.

Bateman looks a ready made replacement for Flanders, a terrific effort from him and by far Wigan's best player over the 80 minutes.

Gelling was superb in the first half, and had he not been injured he probably would've been MotM.

Clubb is a cracking, no nonsense prop, it's hard to believe he was ever a centre.

The effort was superb from Wigan but their lack of quality from all the pivots was evident (I don't see how anyone could claim McColorum was sensational in that game). The frustrating thing is the Brisbane pivots were also poor.

From a neutrals point of view I actually thought the character and aggressiveness your players showed was class through large periods of the game.

It showed Wigan in a different light to the usual niggly hothead performances that most think your team have adopted.

Bring it to Super a League and you'll win lots more than you'll lose. I'm glad my team has already taken the journey over to yours as that performance won't harm your confidence.

Great for Burgess to redeem himself from the worst performance I've seen him play at the end.

A prop and a half back short of a good team.

didn't a similar thing happen to Chris Ashton when he decided he was off.
Its a strange thing that players sign a contract with a new club when they still have a full season with their existing club.

Positives>>

Bateman

Negs>>

Joel is a ebag and will never ever be Wigan captain (unless SW is still coach)
Burgess can't catch
M Smith is crap
We have no forwards that Scare the opposition
Our coach is an idiot
Our chairman is a penny pincher

It does feel a little deja vu.

Positives: Effort. Team spirit. The odd piece of excellent individual skill.

Negatives: Recruitment. The pack wasn't big enough last year. It's double not big enough this. Wigan's forwards were like eggs hitting a cement floor.

Expect many more very similar quotes this year...

Reminds me of another coach we had ??

Haha the worst knee jerk reaction iv ever seen on a forum. A coach that made 2 grand finals in 2 years and won the double. And a chairman that basically saved the club.

Our pack will really benefit from having a fit Mossop and lockers back in it. We will be fine this season, we always start slow. The first 20 minutes of the second half was a Brisbane masterclass, flawless. Not many teams would live with it.

Did'nt you notice a simular trend in both games head high tackles not dealt with accordingly and flopping and holding down going unpunished

Hit the nail on the head!

I think we invited them to show whatever they could do. We put ourselves under pressure with mistakes and had multiple sets to defend. I thought Brisbane due to lack of match practice might tire and I think they did but we were also too tired to take advantage given the amount we had to defend in the first 20.

Yep, but then with Bentham and Wigan I wouldn't expect anything else.

I'd be cautious about pinning some of your hopes on Mossop's return. The guy hasn't an injury free run of form for 2 and half years.

Was it? I personally didn't reckon much to them as an attacking threat. Their pack kept rolling forward but their wasn't much behind it, in fact I reckon if an English HB paring put in a performance like that these boards would be full of fans telling us how rubbish our halves are.
Wigan were woeful for large parts of the second half with the ball. Yes their pack was getting beaten but some of the errors were shocking, and for all the talk about the famous 'Wigan structure' their attack looked slow, and disorganised, and it's something that I notice with Wigan is that their doesn't appear to be a plan B. The thing that made Wigan so dangerous when Maguire was the coach was that they could play off the cuff attacking rugby when they needed to to get them out of trouble, but that's not something I really associate with Wane's Wigan.

I agree, we shouldn't. But it's hard not to be hopeful as Crosby and Sutton look like what they probably should still be - academy players. Good prospects but not big or strong enough.

Disappointed we didn't go for Ashton Sims.

I'm not totally convinced by Simms so far but he would definitely help guide the young forwards whilst we are missing the likes of O'Loughlin and Flower.

I also think we are missing a little size in the back row especially when missing O'Loughlin. Minichello will be a good buy for Hull FC.

I hope our recruitment is already in full swing for next year. I still think we will be in the mix for both trophies in SL once our injured players return but we have to look at replacing Bowen, Burgess (Manfredi hopefully) and the transition of playing without O'Loughlin for large periods of the year.

Possibly, but Crosby is 24 (?) with over 70 first grade games, I'd say he was past the prospect stage now and it's time for him to develop. He's shown glimpses but I don't think he's been consistent.

I tell you what ,with this new intense set up i think the RFL did the worst thing they ever did in axing the academy system. The step up from under 19s could be too much for some players & on top of that we have lost a whole tier of player involvement throughout the league.

I do agree and they sort of go hand in hand. I think we'll be fine when Mossop and Flower are back because that's two good props which will in turn lead to more space for our halves.

Williams has been impressive but Smith needs to offer more. A lot of the England tourists are struggling! Charnley, Burgess, Smith and Farrell well below par and Sarge and Lockers either injured or just back.