1-Great for the game to see Hull KR and Leigh in the final, a tribute to two ambitious chairmen who have invested in their team and bought into the IMG era ethos.
2-Gutting to lose but in those conditions and after a red card, the team showed a lot of guts and lost to a freakish hit and hope drop goal. Anyone expecting better from us in attack in that weather is living in cloud cuckoo land. We lacked composure but so did our opponents in a harum scarum semi final
3-Having said that, we do miss Briers clearly, it might be an idea to let an experienced coach with fresh ideas into the management team
4-Bevan French at 6 is a stopgap that needs to stop
5-It was a red card but in mitigation he hit a small man who was going to ground in the chin. The impact of Miski's was worse but to be fair, the Hull player was bounced into him by the impact from French
6-Someone reiterate to Nobby that it is "Jay" not "Jye" although I was amused by the schoolboy giggling in the commentary box when he shouted "We have a semi on our hands" Fnar.
7-On the positive side, since the league and cup double is almost impossible these days, we can really put all our eggs in the play off basket. Our next two games are against the two Wembley finalists who will likely be distracted or depleted. Let's get on a roll, Cats are the best team but anyone can beat anyone in a one off game and if we get some momentum..you never know
8-I am working on Challenge Cup final day for the second year running, so at least now I won't have to strangle my boss. (Well, not for that anyway)

I agree with you we were scoring tries for fun when French was on the wing Cust not in favour Rocky not in favour Miski to the forwards for me he takes the ball up well.At least try Rocky for one match at stand off to see how it goes we are clueless in attack since Briers left why pick Isa been out for weeks and straight into the team only played miniscule minutes i honestly think the honeymoon is over with Peet we have no attack plan whatsoever back to Wanes type of rugby 5 drives and a kick offloads seemed to have dried up Mago and KPP were offloading at will now stopped. Miski might face a ban this week so things might revert to what it used to be.
I think Farrell is finished not contributing anything to the team why have a sub on the bench and not used especially when down to 12 men why did Isa get picked ??

We have missed a golden opportunity to put more silverware in the cabinet.

I thought that the Shorrocks tackle was a great hit. Similar to Isa when he got red carded. If I’m proven wrong so be it but the tackle was right in front of me and I thought the whiplash made it look worse.
In awful conditions and a man down for virtually 30 minutes I thought our effort was first class.
The problem is as I’ve as said previously we are a very inexperienced team and as a squad unbalanced.
Today take out Farrell and Isa and our pack is extremely inexperienced. The current new signings don’t address this and unless we have at 3 additional signings with proven ability we will repeat and fail again next year.
I repeat at the moment French is totally and utterly wasted. In fact with yet another interception he’s becoming a liability if he’s not careful. Yes Smith’s decision to kick on the 3rd on golden point time was a particularly bad error but the lad is playing on his own in the halves and he’s not much more than a bairn. We’re haven’t had a decent 6 for years.
I’m not one for criticising referees but today took the biscuit.
I thought O’Neil looked good today and KPP was always dangerous when he had the ball.
Very disappointing result but not totally surprising. Grinding results as a first line of tactics is hard and you are always on the cusp of a defeat. That realistically for me is where we are. A hard team to play against but very beatable.
We need much better players than we have currently signed if we are to become the dominant team in the competition.

I’ve calmed down a bit now so I can see the attraction of a Leyth n HKR final. I think that if Leyth perform anything like yesterday that they will win comfortably. If they go into the game too confident HKR are capable of springing a shock.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Leyth win by +20.

Now I’ve

But it wasn't and that's the point. For it to be direct contact you have to lead with the shoulder and he clearly didn't. He made the tackle with his arms at chest height and the head only came into contact with the shoulder AFTER the arms because the KR player is falling. Normally when a player is falling it is counted as mitigation (you hear it all the time on the ref's mics) and is usually a penalty or a yellow at worst. Poor, poor decision that, once again, turned a match. There's been way too much of that recently from refs in general.

As I’ve said in a previous post I don’t like to disparage referees but the Shorrocks decision was totally awful.
I agree with your summary of the tackle 100%.

I'd give a shout-out to Smithies, I haven't watched the match back, but live, I thought he really put in a shift.

Not sure but I believe it is now.

Wonders never cease, a Wiganer giving Leigh some credit, I suppose we are now up with the big lads , it’s great , in the next week we will announce some signings and hopefully make an effort to get to the Grand Final .

You have to give credit if it is due and Leigh are a good team at the moment no doubt about that.
Good luck in the final

We played our best rugby last year with French on the wing, he played his best rugby on the wing. Yet apparently he's wasted there, and now we are disfunctional because we are trying to ensure he's not wasted. Peet has had the same core for 18 months and still doesn't know how to get the best out of it.

I have family in Leigh and they love to get stuck in when they beat us or certainly on occasions like this weekend but I don’t think they or many Leythers understand that many Wiganers hold zero animosity towards Leigh. Hatred is the wrong word but I’m sure most Leythers have a dislike for all things Wigan but it’s pretty much a one way rivalry. There just haven’t been enough meaningful contests over the years to get our fans going and our main rivals are Saints and to a lesser degree, Warrington but hopefully that will change.

I wish Leigh all the best for the final. I’d be really happy for Adrian Lam if they get the win.

I'll keep saying this until I'm blue in the face, but we can't lay all the blame at Peet's feet. What coach wouldn't say yeah to keeping French? What sadly needed to happen is a Director of Rugby, a person who you'd assume has overall sight of the playing budget, stepping in and saying no to a new deal for French. Not because he's not wanted, but knowing that a proper 6 and prop would be more beneficial to the overall balance of the squad.

This isn't a one off occurrence by the way. Think back to when Burgess retired and we spent his salary on Hastings and French, but had Clarke and Clubb as props. We've had countless squads over the last decade that are stacked in certain positions and paper thin in others. The balance never seems to be there.

I was one of the 1st to bag Lam and I stick by that too. That being said when you hear that he wanted to bring in a centre and Radders cucked him instead - it builds a picture of a guy well out of his depth. Looking at the England squad and some of the baffling selections Wane made and the loyalty shown to some of his mates, I doubt he's the guy to make those tough decisions too.

I agree, worked in Leigh years back. Animosity goes further than rugby. Pit strike humbles firstly and then because we have a bigger Christmas tree at the town hall than them. That said, I've a few mates from Leigh that I'm happy for, fifty years is a long time to wait for a trip to Wembley (I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime), should make for a good game with a healthy crowd for once which is good for the sport.

Leythers will travel to us in good numbers at the weekend I'd expect, their supporters will no doubt rubbing it in, let's dust ourselves off and send them home with a loss of we can. Then aim for a place at Old Trafford.

Never a red card in a million years.

Another terrible decision that ruins it for one team.

It's also worth noting that Lewis' head goes forward at the point of first contact, not backwards as it would have done with direct contact. Also no KR players run in and the ref was going to play on which further reinforces that their was no issue with the tackle. I thought Sam Tomkins tweet summed it up rather nicely:

Red card?????

Madness


I couldn't agree more.

I think you'll find plenty Wiganers have given credit to Leigh this year, and rightly so. What you're doing there at the moment is worthy of credit. I, and I suspect many others, will be cheering you on in the final. Good luck.

To be fair, when you watch the NRL the Aussies do say Jye not Jay when they say the name Jai so i can see why Noble would think that. I just call him Field now to stop the debate happening

That’s the arrogance of a lot of your fans on here…

What's arrogant about that?

I know a lot of Wiganers want us todo well , around 90% of my family are Wiganers and are great people , I’m a Leyther through and through , but my Mrs is from Worsley Mesnes originally, I know they will be wanting aLeigh win at Wembley , I love the banter and take a lot of stick from them , I really wanted a Wigan v Leigh final , hopefully a great game on Saturday .

One game for Sorrocks https://www.rugby-league.com/article/61 ... vjNc4M4npo

One game for Sorrocks https://www.rugby-league.com/article/61 ... vjNc4M4npo

Quote ="apollosghost"One game for Sorrocks https://www.rugby-league.com/article/61 ... vjNc4M4npo'" That's as close to an admission of the ref getting it wrong as they could make, IMO. They were never going to give "No case to answer" or "Sending off sufficient", as that would, effectively, have been an admission that Moore got it completely wrong. If it was genuine shoulder to the head, it should have been 2-4 games minimum. So for me, this is them admitting Moore was wrong, without giving anyone any recourse to have a go at him directly.

Quote ="apollosghost"One game for Sorrocks https://www.rugby-league.com/article/61 ... vjNc4M4npo'" That's as close to an admission of the ref getting it wrong as they could make, IMO. They were never going to give "No case to answer" or "Sending off sufficient", as that would, effectively, have been an admission that Moore got it completely wrong. If it was genuine shoulder to the head, it should have been 2-4 games minimum. So for me, this is them admitting Moore was wrong, without giving anyone any recourse to have a go at him directly.

More Thaler than Moore, to be fair.

Firstly congratulations to both Hull KR and Leigh, I hope they both make it a final to remember. It’s good for the game to see some new faces in the final and wish both team well.

There’s a lot of OTT reactions in this thread. Put Cooper and Havard in that team and it’s likely a very different outcome. I agree that props win pots and we were missing our best 2.

I think French is growing into the #6 role and has shown some very good touches. Assuming we continue and with a full pre season there I think he will be vastly improved next year.

Yesterday, in those conditions playing the second half with a player short was always going to be difficult. I don’t begrudge Hull KR the win but am left frustrated with a number of refereeing decisions at crucial times.

The sending off was a joke. Despite numerous replays there was no clear evidence he even made contact with the head, if he did it was secondary contact. The video was clear that initial contact was at shoulder level, Lewis’ head went forwards and then back. Direct contact with the head would have sent his head backwards initially. This is evidenced by the disciplinary report.

Yes, it’s disappointing to lose a semi final but there are still positives to be taken, if nothing else in terms of effort and commitment. I thought Ellis was very good, regularly got post contact metres. O’Neil is getting better as is Smithies who’s work rate was second to none again. The conditions didn’t allow either team to play expansive rugby. I think we were a little conservative at times. Where I would criticise Peet is not utilising Hill. With a man down the team we’re gassed, fresh legs could have made a difference.