French - 8 Some nice touches in attack. Didnt really look too dodgy in defence as i thought he may. Was the difference in the two teams.
Marshall - 8 A really good solid performance all round. Worked very hard.
Hardaker - 6 Made some good tackles. Didnt offer much in attack
Bibby - 6 Same as Hardaker
Burgess - 5 Caught a few kicks well but all round game was poor/average
Hastings - 7 a few nice touches and worked very hard but didnt seem to have anything other than a pass to Farrell
Tommy - 6 Offered very little in attack but worked hard in defence
Burgess - 1 One point for turning up. Awful.
Powell - 6 Was doing a typical Sam Powell h=job before injury
Partington - 7 Was heavily involved and worked hard.
Isa - 6 How he gets in ahead of Greenwood is beyond me. Works hard but so one dimensional
Farrell - 7 Typical hard working performance.
O'loughlin -7 Worked hard, some nice carries. Looked much fitter and livelier

Very poor performance IMO. More of the same of last season. Looked devoid of attacking moves. Full of errors and scrappy. Lucky to win against a wire team down to 11 men at one stage. If Wire had 13, i predict we would of lost.

Generally have no issue with the player ratings other than a couple of points. I thought Hastings looked dangerous when he ran the ball - set up the penalty try and made a couple of other half breaks. Maybe a touch harsh on Isa - he was all over the place.

In terms of the team performance in my opinion its harsh to call it very poor. I thought it was solid if not spectacular.

Let's not forget the involvement of the three young forwards off the bench. Struggling to make metres post contact but incredible work rate.

Isa does 80 minutes of hard work week after week. Greenwood does 10 minutes a month

I don’t know what to make of that performance but a win is a win and it starts the season off nicely.
I think we played the wrong tactics when wire went down to 12, we still kept plodding up the middle instead of letting the ball do the work.

As much as Wire we’re down to 12 men on the field, we can’t forget we were down to 15 overall pretty early. It was never going to be vintage on the back of that but we do need to improve.

In terms of ratings, I can’t go against many of them. I think the selection was wrong but Lam makes it clear who he trusts, so I don’t think the players in and those on the edges will trade places anytime soon.

French 9
Marshall 8
Hardaker 6
Bibby 6
Burgess 4
Hastings 8
Tommy 6
Burgess 0
Powell 6
Partington 7
ISA 6
Farrell 6
O’Loughlin 7

Bryne 8
Clubb 6
Smithies 7
Havard 6

Burgess 4???

Really.

Not too far off my own ratings there although i would rate both centres and O'Loughlin slightly higher. I also thought Isa was excellent. Maybe it didn't come across on the TV the same as it did at the match.

The game itself was a typical first hit up of the season made more scrappy by the disruption to players (us losing 2 in the first half and Wire going down to 12) alongside some very poor refereeing both ways.

I'm not sure how you predict a Wire win from that though? Their points came from 2 penalties for holding down, which were simply baffling in the context of the game, and them being gifted field position from the most blatant strip I've seen in recent years. It was clearly a strip even from 50 yards away as we were, so how the ref missed it, I'll never know. Even so we were 12-10 up when both sides were at full complement. The game after that was totally scrappy and didn't tell us much about either side.

I thought Kendall was awful. The new PTB rule just encourages messing around

Bibby was very good
Hardaker was very good
J Burgess did nothing wrong until he lost that ball in last minute Imo and did ok (I'd give him 6 or 7)
Isa was very good

Bibby grew and grew as the game went on I thought. He cut down some good attacking positions for Wire in that second half.

Looks shot to me, it isn’t his speed that worries me it’s his constant dropping of the ball or hesitance to run the ball into a tackle, I’ll be glad when Dom is back

Hastings needed to take charge and make sure they drove at the posts for him to knock over the drop goal. We had three sets where we could have done it from memory and kept turning the opportunity down so they still had a chance right till the end.

He was very solid at the back and grew into the game, as you say, making that excellent break towards the end. I thought Zak looked strong too at centre. Definitely seems to be growing into the position. Factor in Gildart's return and with Hank in the wings we have some genuine competition in the centres for a change.

French and Hastings were dangerous all game. Real threats with the ball. Can't wait to see how they get on over the season.

Marshall is so unorthodox as a winger but you cannot fault the lad. Burgess really needed to finish some of those opportunities today. Would have done his confidence a world of good. He will get a run of games before Manfredi comes back into contention. Should hopefully push him to work harder.

Hardaker and Gildart this season at centre should be exciting. I like Hardaker. Real competitor. Bibby time will tell for him. He had a good debut for me. Grew into the game.

George Burgess will get hammered for that but he should not have played. Way off the pace physically (what conditioning has been going on in the off season). Shows Lam's naievity for me. We havent signed a dud though, no need to panic yet. A fully.fit George Burgess will be a handful for teams this year.

Willie Isa is fantastic. I love him as a player. Competitive and gives absolutely everything. Yes he is not a world beater, but in a salary cap sport teams need a Willie Isa.

Young lads consistently give their all. Some great young forwards at Wigan. We just need the senior lads (Burgess, Flower, Clubb etc) to step up to support.

Here we go again, another season and the same two players from last season already being targeted.

No prize for naming the two!

Burgess is a confidence player. I've seen enough from him tonight to know he's still got some top class performances in him. He left Charnley for dead, only the last ditch tackle on a diagonal run stopped him. Him dropping the ball was unfortunate but good from the Wire defence on that one.

Budgie did plenty of good things tonight. He left Charnley for dead and only Ashton's speed prevented him from scoring; got held up over the line; and made a couple of good tackles when Wire broke through. As for the dropped ball with less than a minute to go, I am sure that Gelling knocked it out and it should have been play on, I shall watch the replay. My view was that he was much better than his opposite number and there are definitely signs that his form is improving.

I was surprised when Bullock missed out but I’m sure he’ll be in for George Burgess next week. Partington fell off quite a few tackles so hopefully he fixes that up.

Warrington were by far the better side and if they don’t go down to 12 they win quite comfortably. It does concern me a lot that not a lot seems to have changed, still plodding up the middle making hardly any yardage and no real plan for attack.

Defensively we looked alright in parts, poor in others and greats in some. Bit mix and match really.

Have to remember it’s the first game and a win is a win, regardless of the manner of it. French and Hastings were excellent and off last night should be our half backs. They had a fantastic partnership.

French - 8
Marshall - 7
Zak - 6
Bibby - 6
J Burgess - 5
Tommy - 5
Hastings - 8
Partington - 7
Powell - 6 (hard to score but looked ok until being decapitated)
G Burgess - 4 (really needs to get fitness right. Not to be wrote off just yet)
Isa - 7
Faz - 6
Lockers - 5 (well below usual standards)

Havard - 7
Byrne - 7
Smithies - 7
Clubb - 5 (same old, same old)

He's soft as $hit that's why. No wonder Saints fans called him Josephine.

/

Before or after we signed him?

Soft? He may not be aggressive but that does not mean he is soft. He is exactly the kind of running threat we need in the team. Isa may work hard but he offers nothing in attack. Everything Isa does with the ball is rank average or poor.

Greenwood can’t play on the right though that’s the major problem, and he’s certainly not good enough to get in front of Faz, Wells or Pearce Paul will be our long term right sided solution

French - 8
Marshall - 8
Zak - 6
Bibby - 7
J Burgess - 4
Tommy - 4
Hastings - 6
Partington - 7
Powell - 4 (100% Waney boy through and through, Needs offloading for someone creative)
G Burgess - 4
Isa - 8
Faz - 6
Lockers - 4 (His usual standard)

Havard - 7
Byrne - 7
Smithies - 7
Clubb - 4 (same old, same old)