The OP has a title on this thread of "Why Wigan lost......" Erm, pardom me for stating the obvious but dudnt we score more points than you?

Do you mean like the semi final defeat to catalans did in 2007? Or the cc defeat to leeds in 2008? or the the cc semi defeat to warrington in 2009?

Mr Pedantic I've fixed the title just for you.

I notice how leeds get absolutely no credit for this on here yet it was the special effort by peacock which caused the poor kick.

It was a big play by leeds. Not a poor play by wigan. It didn't give leeds field position. Leeds earnt that position.

Maybe at the end of the season you can win some big games and have opposition fans blaming themselves and giving you no credit.

Or ALL your Challenge Cup losses since 1999.

I did notice - also noticed you have deleted a perfectly fair posting too.

No I haven't.

You've not my read my match report then? - [url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=862=#FF0000wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=862[/url

I think the OP has it right.
You just gave away too many penalties especially offside at the play the ball and reefing the ball out.

Bentham had a great game today.

The frustrating thing about the penalties is that it is the same players giving them away time and again, probably Coley, Bailey and O'Loughlin have given more away than the rest of the side put together.

Despite all the improvements made by Maguire this is one facet of play which does not seem to have improved and is always more likely to cost us in a big game than any other factor.

Saints, narrowly followed by Wigan, with most of the penalties being technical infringements such as lying on or offside. So while you are giving metres away, you're testing the referee better than most sides. I'd rather have a slower ruck when defending for the whole game and give away a few penalties, than I would no penalties and a quicker PTB throughout the game. One of the reasons Wigan are playing so well is their control of the ruck, giving your defence more time to rest and reset. The high penalty count is a consequence of this, but looking at your position in the table, surely it's worth it?

If penalising 2 off the ball challenges after not penalising the 1st two! Sin Binning a commited challenge but not dealing with a kick to the head or a high shot that saved a try!

Then yes had a stormer.

I thought that he was 'reasonably' committed but he lifted his arm as he went through with the challenge. This for me was why he got binned.

Jamie Peacocks determination to get to Sam was massive. He forced Sam to the side and a rushed kick that hit McIlorum which gave Leeds the ball. HAd Peacock not done that the ball would have been deep in Leeds half and Wigan would be inthe semi finals. The irony is accidental offiside. had that been normal offside it would have been a pen and Leeds would have gone for goal putting the match into extra time.

It's Wigan, followed by Huddersfield.

The control of 'the ruck' is a myth. Wigan aren't holding down the player longer than everybody else (with a few exceptions - see yesterday's game). What our players actually do is slow down the tackle process by getting two or three players to wrap up the ball and keep the ball carrier off the deck, so that our line is effectively set before the tackle is completed.

It may look like it's worth it but we've got progressively worse at giving away penalties as the season progresses and it is one or two players in particular.

Correct. We slow the tackle down not the PTB.



I think you are being harsh. I do not think we have got progressively worse. Yesterday was just an error strewn game it horrendous conditions against the current champions which we had the better of however we did not convert it into a win.

The irony is had we played Leeds in the same conditions 12 months ago the weather would have suited us more and our off the cuff brain dead rugby. We could not get our attacking moves going due to the poor weather which played into the Rhino's hands.

We have improved beyond what anybody could expected. We have a fantastic chance of making the GF if we finish top. We are as good as anybody in this league. We need to kick on from this and ensure we finish top to give us the best chance of getting to old trafford.

The conditions had a lot to do with it, but I think that's collectively the worst game I've seen our threequarters have. They've been a major strength all season (hence why we've been scoring so many tries out wide), but all 4 were poor on Sat.

Roberts didn't look fully recovered from his injury, so perhaps had some excuse (or alternatively perhaps shouldn't have played). Looked the most threatening of the 4, though.

Gleeson was poor; some dreadful passes early on in our exit sets, and of course [ithat[/i missed tackle.

Carmont bombed two decent scoring chances that normally he'd have snapped up.

Pryce; the best even his fans can find is one routine clear up of a grubber on his line.

Why Wigan let Leeds score more points than them? One missed tackle.

Can talk about all the penalties we gave away all day long, but if Martin Gleeson had made the tackle on Lee Smith, we could be awaiting the prospect of a Challenge Cup semi final.

Still think they would have scored on that set somewhere. Our last chance was on the third tackle when Roberts made a play at the ball if he hadn't who's to say the Leeds players wouldn't have fumbled the ball, it wasn't the best pass. Even if he had caught it he was covered (that was 4th tackle), our players were set for the last two. Just rotten luck.

This was the turning point for sure. All went west after Prescott stupidly held the player on if he was tired then you got to look at the subs we had only one prop a hooker and two second rowers, one of which played about 14 mins 10 of which was in the sin bin and the other wasted time getting stripped.

Bad selection!

I've never heard that one before.

Its strange because I, similar to Jiffy, felt Wigan were the more deserving team overall and were unlucky to fall victim of a big play in the last minute.

However, Sinfield had an off day with the boot. Most weeks Leeds wouldn't have been trailing as they were throughout that match and wouldn't have needed a last gasp winner.

Can anybody remember when they last saw a player penalised for kicking or throwing a ball away in frustration?? they tend to just call time off to get a ball on the field, I thought that decision whilst silly play from Coley was pedantic to say the least, The penalties against O'loughlin when his arm was trapped and the last one against Prescott were both Shocking decisions.


I completely agree that these decisions directly didn't cost us the game as this was down to a combination of a fingertip by roberts and a missed tackle by Gleeson but we are really suffering with 50/50 calls at the moment, possibly down to all the other coaches, chairmans etc whinging.


To me the fact that between this game and the Hudds game we have had 3 players binned and Leeds or Hudds had none speaks volumes. Senior, Mason and Peacock should have all had to sit out at least 10 mins in these games while Farrell should be recieving some kind of apology as his binning was a disgrace, he was clearly commited and most of my frustration at this decision is with Mcguire for going down like he had been shot by a sniper prompting the touchjudge to run on. It will be like football before long.


The biggest decision of the game though in my opinion was to rule a handover from the VR when Tomkins was held up, it was a blatant knock on by Smith that was missed and should have been a scrum to wigan on Leeds 10m line with 6 tackles and this COULD have had a major bearing on the game.

What action do you think should have been taken against Coley for the spear tackle?

Do you mean the one where he tackled Delaney and delaney landed on his back, similar to the Tomkins one against crusaders that faced No further action?


I think it was rightfully a penalty but I think he will get a caution at the worst for technique, didnt end up in a dangerous position.