I think people are overreacting a touch. We had too many players out of position due to injuries and if Harlequins are worst team in this league the standard has improved 20 fold since last season! This will let the players know they arent invincible and they havent won sh*t yet. We didnt even do the basics right so we were never going to win, Quins wanted it so much more and they got it.

We’ve got injuries and they’ve effected us in a major way imo. Let’s not go majorly OTT with the future of the season yet. Every team goes through a period like this and we’ve just gotta go back to basics, get some players back and plough through it.

Our injuries are having a big impact but they can’t be used as the sole reason for our defeats.

Coley= our best prop
Roberts= in form player in the league
Deacon & Tommy= No depth at HB
Gleeson= Best centre

If you lose your best prop, your best back, best centre and then have your first choice and back up seven getting injured at the same time it’s always gonna knock your team sideways.

It’s not all doom and gloom however. The return of Coley, Gleeson and Tommy will be huge for us. Having three players with their quality returning to the team will lift us above the level of last night as they are all quality players.

Tommy will give us more direction at HB and he’s a top defender
Gleeson will tighten up the defence on his side of the park and is cool head in the backs
Coley will also offer us hard yards and is, again, another top defender.

It’s not all doom and gloom and players like Farrell and Feka have been getting game time which will only benefit us in the long run.

We’ll soon have all of our top players back and that competition for places which worked so well for us early on.

I think there were a few things that contributed to last night

Poor performance in 2nd half - just didn't keep hold of the ball (I didn't think we did anything special in the 1st half to be 24-6 up to be honest)
injuries have caused a bit of disruption - however not an excuse as the players out there are good enough
quins - wanted it more but more importantly have got their key players back who all looked fresh

I dont think I have seen our line broken so much this season as in the last 2 games. Sheffield and Quins both did it with ease at times. All with simple rugby, deep attacking lines with dummy runners and plenty of controlled offloading in the tackle.

At times at the start of the 2nd half our right hand side looked very short. Not sure if that was poor defensively on our behalf or good play on the quins part.

at the end of the day I'd have snatched your hand off at the start of the season if you would have said we were top of the table with 10 wins from 12, and disappointed to have lost against quins at home

We now have a tricky / tough month with all our games away from home. Sometimes that eases the pressure, instead of being in front of your own fans

How on earth Harlequins are bottom of the Super League I don't know. They were absolutely fantastic and played some really expansive rugby league. On numerous occasions our fans were applauding some brilliant tries. Harlequins were doing a Wigan on occasions. Shifting the ball from left to right and stretching our defence. It worked. The tactics were spot on from Brian McDermott, who has suffered a lot of stick in recent months. They were nasty, in your face, meddling at the POTB and slowing our game down. They didn't allow us to get any rhythm going and it worked a charm. We didn't help ourselves, we didn't complete our sets and coughed up too much ball. We didn't build enough pressure in the second half where a good 15 minute spell and 1 try would have killed the game (just like Bradford). And anytime we did build pressure we offloaded in silly situations - Joel Tomkins and Cameron Phelps the culprits. We missed Amos Roberts, Thomas Leuluai and Martin Gleeson big time, Our attack was laboured and slow just like it was at Salford and our defence out wide was awful. Phil Bailey setup a lovely try with a great offload, but cost us so many points in defence it counted for nothing! Half a yard of pace and a bit of space and he was beaten. Joel Tomkins would have perhaps done a better job at centre because he at least has pace. It was a disappointing result in front of a big crowd, but all isn't lost. Liam Farrell had an excellent game and was my MOTM. He tackled everything that moved and created chances for himself and made a few breaks. He has great acceleration for a forward. Farrell is back. Johnny Walker another young lad who made his debut had a fine game. He was excellent in defence and showed great technique planting people on their backside, strong going forward too.

Has the bubble burst? No, not for a second. It was a result that was coming for a couple of weeks now. We're missing some key personnel and we will be a better team when players return, but it's no excuse really when you go 24-6 up at half time (which flattered us btw). MaGuire will have a much better idea of the depth of his squad and should learn some important lessons about his players. We need to address our defence out wide, get back to completing our sets & sort out the attitude or our players when we build a lead at half time. Twice we have done it now (although Harlequins were significantly better than Bradford) and that is something that needs addressing. Fortunately, next week we play Huddersfield, a great team who are coached superbly by Nathan Brown and that will mean we will have to lift our game. It should be a cracker.

Disappointing result and many improvements to be made, but we still remain a force and a challenge to any team in this league.

They had so much pace in the team it was unbelievable. They will give any team a game with performances like that.

Quins have had more injuries than any other team so far this season and do not have the squad depth of other clubs. This included starting the season without Dorn and Purdham who direct a lot of their play. They have also had one of their first choice front row Temata in and out with injuries and due to injuries have had to play amny people out of position on a regular basis. That simply is one of the major reasons they are bottom of the table. The valiant effort against Saints and the wins in the last two games are probably more indicative of what they can do. The team that we played is not the team that had lost all but one game. That doesn't excuse our performance though.

I feel sorry for Brian McDermott because he has had to endure some awful stick in the press and from the fans at the start of the season, but the fact is Harlequins can't afford to put together a squad big enough to deal with injuries to key personnel, but once those players return they are a match for anyone. I think they have really turned around their season and will make the top 8. They've improved every week since the Saints game. Flammin' typical though they run into form when we played them!

Again with each player that comes back over the next few weeks we'll get better in defence and attack. It’s not the end of the world

The more players we get back the more structured our game will start to look again. The triangle of Lockers at 13 with Sam and Tommy in the halves will improve the way we spread the ball at the options we take. No offence to Lockers but he’s a hell of a better 13 than he is a 6 and just having one of Deacon or Tommy in the side will improve us no end.

Coley and Hansen will give us that defensive steel back and I think we all know what Roberts can do as well.

Again it’s not the end of the world and every team goes through this. Lets just be thankful it’s happened now and not at the business end of the season.

Nothing to do with last nights loss IMO. All the other posts in the thread are right when they point to the injury situation and Quins good play. I'd go as far as saying had Gleeson played we would have won that match because Bailey cost us at least 12 points single handed.



Of course things have changed. The difference between Nobles Wigan and MM's Wigan is it takes a tough Easter program and 7 first team players out to drag us down whereas under Noble a full first team came up with unacceptable performances where there were no such excuses.



If we do lose twice to Hudds then if our closest rivals win their next three games (which is not guaranteed) we will be a grand total of 2 points off the top of the league with players to return. That is hardly also rans. That is the benefit of the very un-Noble like start to the season we have had getting us points in the bag to help see us through this injury crisis.

Dave

We've won 7 out the last 8 so can't say we are having a dip in form yet. We've got a cracker of a game coming up on Sunday and i know our attitude and concentration levels will be at 100% again. Also a few of the 50/50 injuries will be fit. This is what sport is all about. Can't wait.

Spoke to Gleeson today and he thought quins were great, we were out enthused and the players very much understand that the performance was not goog enough by the sounds of things. We have not been playing well but IMO it must be hard to raise your game for sheffield and salford when you are top of the table and they are such poor teams, however, at home last night infront of the biggest crowd of the season so far, there was no excuse.

I just hope we respond well. That is the sign of champions.

Did he say whether he'd be back for next week?

The way we have played this season teams dont lose form like that overnight

Aye, we were cack last week aswell.

Not much better at Salford either.

Time for another run boys:

Wasn't the second half against Bradford the end of the honeymoon period?

It will be interesting to see how MM will react next week in terms of team selection. Losing Gleeson was a big factor in the loss - Bailey was prety slow in defence for at least a couple of their tries and I would hope we don't see him in the centres again.

Quins did look good but it is pretty worrying that we shipped so many points in a half without response - i did think we wouldhave the depth in our squad to deal with this -especially with players like Farrell coming in and putting such a great performance.

I think the next game against a very good huddersfield team will be a good indicator for the rest of the season. Looking forward to it.

blips happen...i did have a relaps of bradford all over again but if anyone thinks their team is going to go a season without losing or having one of two games they don't perform for then they are going to be very disapointed, there isn't an easy team in superlague! If this poor form runs into 2/3/4 games then yes alarm bells can ring, but i think this is a bit of a knee jerk reaction to a loss.

You have to remember that we won the other games we haven't been great in and that is a sign of a champion team, we have lost key players and i don't think there was many on the pitch over the age of 25 last night.
Can i remind people that quins actually very nearly beat a good saints team as well as beating a good wakey team and their early season form was played heavily down to injuries.

I understand last night was desperately disapointing and no one should give away such a lead!!! however this is only our 2nd lose of the season, i don't think its time to panic just yet.

FWIW if wither one of Gleeson or Goulding is back (which you would expect one) I would go with the following for Hudds;

Richards
Gleeson/ Goulding
J Tomkins
Carmont
Ainscough
Phelps
S Tomkins
Mossop
Riddell
Fielden
Farrell
Bailey
O'Loughlin
---------------
Prescott
Feka
Mcllurum
Walker

Got to put players in the positions they play the best given the injuries. sO'L has only been half as effective in the halves as LF and needs to leed the pack....Bailey was a nightmare at centre and should never play there again...AGAIN he is better in the pack.

Also playing bailey and ainscough on the same wing in an untried partnership was just asking for trouble. We need to sturdy both sides and balance experience with youth, which is why I would have Ainny outside Carmont to get some protection from an experienced centre.

J Tomkins has arguably played his best rugby at centre this season and is almost a natural centre from the pack anyway so he would be the best readymade replacement.

Phelps has to move from FB as he is making too many errors at the minute defensively- Yes great in attack from FB but he has been Mathersesque in the last few weeks in defence....We have to go with Mr Reliable at FB IMO and the best defensive FB at the club to sure that position is PR.

Allow Phelps to work on his attacking game and give us another playmaker in the middle which we lost on Fri as Sam was trying to take the game on his own.

Far more balanced team IMO and as far as possible (given the injuries) we are using players where they will be most effective

Phelps isn't really an organiser, though. I'm really hoping we get either TL or Deacs back.

Our enthusiasm for the cause, self belief, confidence and commitment has been the key towards our start to the season. A refreshing change of culture.

We have out enthused virtually everyone we have faced. As a result we are top of the league.

What we have seen at Salford, Sheffield & culminating in last nights effort is a tailing off in those values that have seen us make such a good start. Granted we had injuries but we were out enthused last night. End of. And that is what we have to deal with. Do the team want to return to the old Wigan culture of poor performances leading to an unacceptable defeat which results in a temporary boost in form and several decent wins or do they want o be top o' the league consistent?

Good luck Maguire

That's good preparation for "the exam"

I wouldn't have Ainscough playing at Murrayfield. Huddersfield and Danny Brough in particular would kick at him all day and would take him apart. The outcome would likely be a heavy defeat for us. His kick defence is far too poor for him to be worth the risk. If necessary I would rather see Charnley, Marsh or Veivers given an opportunity than Ainscough.

We played some dumb rugby at times simple as. Why we wanted to throw the ball around when winning by 8 and then 2 I have no idea.

Still, we're 10 from 12 and that'll do me.