I thought it was a clear no try but the amount of time taken to make the decision was appalling.

I think Mcilorum can play the 80 minutes in an occasional big game - whether his level of performance can remain at a high level throughout is the difficult one as you say.

The main problem is in his replacement. Powell offers nothing, is slow and makes poor decisions. A decent stand in and will tackle his heart out but the difference in class is huge. I would consider bringing Ganson back in during the Super 8's - he looked good to me when he played earlier in the year.

A mention for Willie Isa today, ran his blood to water, excellent performance, on that showing he gets the bench spot before Joel when Farrell is back.

His forms been excellent for a few weeks now. He's found a passing game from somewhere which has added a lot.

It'll be a tough call who misses out at Wembley unless we get injuries. There's a few weeks yet so time for things to change.

Couldnt get a grip on why childs had sent it up at all,seeing it on the tv though after the many replays it is clear Budgie doesnt have a hand on it,Childs must have a hell of a set of eyes on him.

best bit of the game for me.He clearly thought he was back in Oz from a few years back where this sort of thing was all too common. Unfortunately in the current climate lying on the ground appearing to have been hit hard, means mandatory head test.....
he knew he'd dropped a clanger when the doctor had no option to take him off despite him being fresh as a daisy.

play acting sorted in one unintentional ruling......

Some great performances in that match. MM, ST, Lockers, Davies, Isa and I thought FPN was far better than he has been for ages.

Loads of comments (rightly) about Gelling and his brain fart but that aside, he was superb today.

Yeah, fully agree with the last few comments. Willie Isa was very good, and looks twice the player lately. The Carney thing was hilarious.

Probably IMO. For semi's and finals (not every week now perhaps) he can do the full 80. If we are going to speculate about what you say above I'd speculate we'd not have conceded the points we did when he went off. Salford had far more space when MM was not getting in their faces.

If we want to beat Hull in the final I'd suggest one of the things Wane needs do is to play MM for the full 80. As it stands they will be waiting for him to go off bang on 20 minutes. They have a smart coach who knows how to play other teams a he showed v Cas in the cup and it's beyond reason to think he has not spotted this trait of Wane's.

I don't think Wane will do that though. He's not ruthless enough and if fit will put Powell in the team out of loyalty for the (undoubted) commitment Powell has shown and around the 20 min mark, on he will come.

Well said Willie Isa gives is all every game.

Did the change in the weather help or hinder us? On One hand Salford had trouble holding onto the ball but on the other, out wide Burgess became less sure about backing himself wide out.

After watching the replay it becomes clear that Micky Mac was the man of the match by a street. He was simply brilliant which is typical McIlorum in a big game and it was nice to see him put a few doubters minds at rest.

We did a great number on Murdoch Masila. He is there main strike weapon but Wigan got in to him before he could build up a head of steam and rattled him time and again. He will know he was in a game this morning.

Agreed. Thought we noticably lost momentum when MM went off.

there is conclusive proof he dropped the ball before the land on one of the slow ms you can see his fingers which are no longer in contact with the ball correct decision made

You don't have to ground the ball with your hand anyway, it was a ridiculous decision. Fair play to Thaler (and Child) for making the match more even and a bit of a better spectacle though.

He didn't drop the ball at all, at no point did his arm fall off the ball on the line.

It didn't matter anyway but Burgess of two years ago would probably have put that ball under the sticks.

no but must be in control of it, he was not in control of the ball when it hit the line and was not a try it was 100% the correct decision

MM was MOM for me, I appreciate Sam was excellent yesterday but there were many more good performances too.

Plus, Salford scored only 2 points while Micky was on the field. That's not a comment in detriment of Sam Powell at all but the facts are the facts. in fact I think Salford only scored 2 points against us when we went down to 12 men?

having watched the Leeds / hull game on Saturday I recall thinking that no matter who won the sunday game they'd struggle against Hull. but after yesterdays performance i'm quietly confident we can contain them just as we did the Salford big lads yesterday.

He only needs to have part off his upper body on it. There wasn't a single frame which suggested this wasn't the case, let alone conclusively proved it.

You've just made up a rule! You need downward pressure, not control.

This is starting to sound like the one straw you've been able to grab at.

How can it have been 100% certainty if he had to look at it 20-odd times?

You know the rules. Unless it's a clear-cut error, the on-field decision stands.

Likewise with Vatuvei, too.

Most of our first team back and we play the best rugby since February when they last played together.

That's true although I was far more worried about Masila who's been fantastic this year. What a great chance it was yesterday for Tom Davies to play up against Vatuvai. He did everything asked of him.

Wigans back five yesterday

Sam Tomkins 169 metres
Tom Davies 180 metres
Anthony Gelling 163 metres
Oliver Gildart 157 metres
Joe Burgess 176 metres.