Thought he struggled his backside off tbh because he’s just not fit enough. He was having a breather in back play at the end of a lot of sets and whilst he wants to get in the contest, his body just isn’t letting him. I do t know what the answer is because he doesn’t look able to carry more weight but he’s lost a lot already and still looks unfit. He’s very Taulima Tautai esq in how he goes about things.

As for the rest, I thought it was a fair effort. If there are a couple of forward spots up for grabs for Saturday, then Greenwood and Bullock walked them. Ben Flower is sadly done. He can hardly drag his body off the ground to play the ball and after them letting sentiment rule rational thinking on Clubb last year, they can’t make the same mistake again. Liam Byrne has had probably his two worst Wigan performances in his last game before Covid and his first back tonight. I’d say it’s no coincidence he’s looked off the pace. I think he’s a superb young player but too much of a risk for Saturday.

The kids were very good in the main. Hanley won’t need to field 12-15 bombs in a usual first team game, playing alongside more experience and his bravery to keep coming back was a great sign. I thought McDonnell got better as the game went on playing out of position, Kilner brought what I hoped he’d bring and Pearce Paul looks a prime athlete and an excellent prospect. Harry Rushton did ok but probably not quite as well as I expected because I think he’s a cracking young player and Sam Halsall did ok. I’ve never been massively impressed with Halsall in the academy tbh, I think he just looks ok but not much more.

All in all a positive night.

Kilner was very impressive. No fear, really put himself about and had a great attitude. Plus he's a unit so frightening how good he could be as he physically matures. Pearce Paul has so much ability and very rangey, strong and illusive. There's certainly a few knocking on the door and I'd love to see the likes of Kilner play in an established first team pack because he'd shine. There should be one or two established players looking over their shoulder concerned about their shirt after some of of those performances

About what I expected tonight. We did the right thing 100%.

Considering these factors -

Massively inexperienced side
Saints are a brilliant team wanting a big performance after being knock out the cup
Saints having last Friday off
Most of our team having not played a game since February.

I think we did okay. I think you could slot any one of our 17 into the our first team 17 and they would do a good job for us

We held up physically a lot better than I thought we would, just the spine of Coote, lomax, Fages, roby was too good for us.

Gutted for Jack Wells, ( can’t believe the Graham crusher wasn’t mentioned)

It’s time for Jake Sharrocks to move on, he’s had no luck with injuries but I’m unsure how he’s still at the club (he’s a year older than gildart by the way, 25 next month)

All the lads will be better for the experience.

People up in arms wanting our strongest team tonight need a reality check.

Yes we got to look at some young talent. Yes we can smugly say we're playing in the semi.

But that has to go down as one of the worst Wigan Saints derbies in decades.

Tuesday Night, No Crowd, No first teamers, An average Saints cruise home and barely look bothered they won.

Like the 2005-2008 bunch when we knew we would get stuffed 99 times out of 100.

Great effort by the team tonight,for those people who are having a small dig at Hanley, I can can remember watching a young lad on debut for Saints at Wembley who dropped everything we aimed at him,had a nightmare, but he turned out ok,it was a certain mr Gary Connolly

Really good turn up from the lads last night. I’m confident now for the rest of the season that a few of those players can step into the first team and do a job. Ben Kilner especially, never took a backwards step and showed a great aggression (that looked under control and used more as a drive) I was really impressed by Kai Pearce-Paul he had some great carries and had a strength that seemed to come from no where (similar to Batty) going to really enjoy seeing what this lad can do when he fills out a little. Hanley got a lot of stick but I think people are forgetting that most of these lads have not Had a competitive game in months and to be thrown in against one of the best in the comp they should be proud of themselves.

To me saints looked shot last night. A lot of errors in attack, no flair to them. Looking at the players they are bringing through; Bentley, welsby, lee, Knowles looked poor . I see a lot to be concerned about when the Ageing saints players retire.

I wouldn’t go as far as that on Saints but they’re not the team that scared the hell out of me under Holbrook. We didn’t contain Walmsley well last night but they’re so reliant on him creating space it’s untrue. In a proper game if we can get in his face and limit his impact you’ve won half the battle. It’s easier said than done with the form he’s in but it’s not as big a task as it was to keep him and Thompson quiet. The downgrade from Thompson to Graham is huge. I’ve so much respect for James Graham but he’s clearly ready for a well deserved retirement.

Think you were watching a different game pal ..Bentley is arguably the Best British youngster coming through at the moment and it shows by keeping his place all season in the best team in Superleague. Hes very similar to Bateman has has that bit of steel about him.The work he gets through in the middle is relentless. That side last night would have upped a gear if they were playing your first team and still would have won at a canter.

He’s a decent young player Bentley but I find the comparisons to Bateman a bit of a laugh. Talk about heaping pressure on a player! He’s not the biggest, he was signed from Bradford, he has eyeballs and a mouth, so therefore he’s like John Bateman. I’m not bagging you, as you’ve just said he’s got steel about him like Bateman but I’m hearing these comparisons on a regular basis now and it’s ridiculous. We’re talking about one of the best backrowers in the world here, a guy who has smashed it in the NRL and was the best in his position in superleague whereas Bentley is a reasonable young player.

We’re all entitled to our opinion. Bentley is no Bateman and he never will be.

We only know the answer to that on Saturday I think. We have to win the game.

How come this amazing team didnt 'up a gear' against Wire in the cup? They would have won at a canter and would now be looking forward to a semi final and probable trip to Wembley? Funny that.

LeBron says nobody wants the cup, only the small teams.

That explains the 12 years.

Youngster, he's almost 24! He'd have been a grandad in that Wigan team last night.

If we’d have played the first team last night there would be no guarantees of beating a strong saints team. It would have majorly reduced our chances of winning on Saturday.

Whatever the result Saturday we’ve given ourselves the best chance.

I agree, but because we have put our eggs so obviously in the cup basket we have to win it.

Think people are being a bit harsh on Clark.

Not sure how many minutes he did but:
38 tackles (2nd after Rushton who made 41), 93% tackle efficiency
87 metres (2nd after McDonnell who made 121)
17 carries (2nd after Hanley with 17)
1 error and 0 penalties (knocked on from a poor Hanley pass)

Was going to post this last night, Seems to be this months Scapegoat

I thought he did ok
In fact I thought most of our experienced heads did, Flower/Bullock/Greenwood/Clarke & Smith (Classing him as experienced is a bit much, and 1 really bad kick aside)
Greenwood in particular for me showed a bit of steel, took the ball up well and didn't die in the tackle, and 4/5 times in particular 1st half was isolated against Walmesley and other Saints forwards and made very solid 1:1 hits.

As for Bentley - He's a Very good SL player - Whether he progresses into a John Bateman is yet to be seen, but I like him (Well I don't but you know what I mean).

I think Clark has been good the last few weeks TBH but having been billed as the most explosive forward in the league (or something like that) people are no doubt wanting to see something more than solid stats.

Then again, people like Clubby for some reason and his stats are terrible and isn't exactly explosive either.

Agreed mate.
Flower for me was a bit disappointing, a lot of leg tackles for some reason which was odd but not a huge negative, just meant he got left on the floor quite a few times. His PTB was also so slow I thought he was doing it on purpose.

You could arguably class Byrne as 'experienced' too, played every game this year bar two and 14 appearances last year. I thought he was pretty poor for most of the match. When Saints scored in the corner he looked like he was running in sand he was that slow. Missed 7 tackles and only made 21, pretty poor rate.

38 Tackles & 17 Carries is about 4 games For BFUT
But he has a catchy name in a song so that's ok.

I'm not interested in what Rads or anyone else says - I'm interested in what I see - He has a poor game about 4 weeks ago (Can't remember if it was the HKR one, but if it was so did a lot of others) but his performances in nearly all his other games has been around a 7/10 for me, which is ok, not brilliant but ok.

Currently he would be about my 5th choice Prop behind :-
Havard
Bullock
Partington
Flower

And with Greenwood & Shorrocks providing the Back up cover and bench spots he probably doesn't currently get in the 17
But should a prop drop out he would be in with a chance of a bench spot, along with Greenwood or Shorrocks

PS

next in line would be Byrne then


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Lets cut to the Chase - BFUT is way down!!!!!

Thought his go forward was OK - Found his front quite a bit, but agree when he didn't it looked ponderous

Byrne has been poor last 3-4 games he's played - Not much lateral movement in defence, and he isn't making yard after contact or finding a quick PTB
His effort is usually ok, and because he's so young is going to have up & down moments, this seems to be a bit of a down moment but there's time - I see him as a Paul Prescott type project - never a world beater but could be a solid club player for the next 10 years

Surprised with Clark’s stats tbh. He looked jiggered to me and was having a few rests in back play on tackle one and two but maybe he deserved them. I liked his willingness to get in the battle and to not back down to guys like Graham and LMS. There’s plenty to work on and he wouldn’t be in my first 17 but I’d certainly have him above Flower and Clubb. I thought Flower looked absolutely busted. It was a struggle to get up to play the ball and on that show he should probably retire rather than looking for a new contract anywhere.

Do you think the Covid bout may have played a part? I don’t know if he had symptoms or not but his fitness has looked well off where it was a few weeks ago to me. He missed 7 tackles last night and it was a similar story in his last game before his positive test. Up until that point I always felt his fitness looked a strong point.