Looks shot to me, it isn’t his speed that worries me it’s his constant dropping of the ball or hesitance to run the ball into a tackle, I’ll be glad when Dom is back

Hastings needed to take charge and make sure they drove at the posts for him to knock over the drop goal. We had three sets where we could have done it from memory and kept turning the opportunity down so they still had a chance right till the end.

He was very solid at the back and grew into the game, as you say, making that excellent break towards the end. I thought Zak looked strong too at centre. Definitely seems to be growing into the position. Factor in Gildart's return and with Hank in the wings we have some genuine competition in the centres for a change.

French and Hastings were dangerous all game. Real threats with the ball. Can't wait to see how they get on over the season.

Marshall is so unorthodox as a winger but you cannot fault the lad. Burgess really needed to finish some of those opportunities today. Would have done his confidence a world of good. He will get a run of games before Manfredi comes back into contention. Should hopefully push him to work harder.

Hardaker and Gildart this season at centre should be exciting. I like Hardaker. Real competitor. Bibby time will tell for him. He had a good debut for me. Grew into the game.

George Burgess will get hammered for that but he should not have played. Way off the pace physically (what conditioning has been going on in the off season). Shows Lam's naievity for me. We havent signed a dud though, no need to panic yet. A fully.fit George Burgess will be a handful for teams this year.

Willie Isa is fantastic. I love him as a player. Competitive and gives absolutely everything. Yes he is not a world beater, but in a salary cap sport teams need a Willie Isa.

Young lads consistently give their all. Some great young forwards at Wigan. We just need the senior lads (Burgess, Flower, Clubb etc) to step up to support.

Here we go again, another season and the same two players from last season already being targeted.

No prize for naming the two!

Burgess is a confidence player. I've seen enough from him tonight to know he's still got some top class performances in him. He left Charnley for dead, only the last ditch tackle on a diagonal run stopped him. Him dropping the ball was unfortunate but good from the Wire defence on that one.

Budgie did plenty of good things tonight. He left Charnley for dead and only Ashton's speed prevented him from scoring; got held up over the line; and made a couple of good tackles when Wire broke through. As for the dropped ball with less than a minute to go, I am sure that Gelling knocked it out and it should have been play on, I shall watch the replay. My view was that he was much better than his opposite number and there are definitely signs that his form is improving.

I was surprised when Bullock missed out but I’m sure he’ll be in for George Burgess next week. Partington fell off quite a few tackles so hopefully he fixes that up.

Warrington were by far the better side and if they don’t go down to 12 they win quite comfortably. It does concern me a lot that not a lot seems to have changed, still plodding up the middle making hardly any yardage and no real plan for attack.

Defensively we looked alright in parts, poor in others and greats in some. Bit mix and match really.

Have to remember it’s the first game and a win is a win, regardless of the manner of it. French and Hastings were excellent and off last night should be our half backs. They had a fantastic partnership.

French - 8
Marshall - 7
Zak - 6
Bibby - 6
J Burgess - 5
Tommy - 5
Hastings - 8
Partington - 7
Powell - 6 (hard to score but looked ok until being decapitated)
G Burgess - 4 (really needs to get fitness right. Not to be wrote off just yet)
Isa - 7
Faz - 6
Lockers - 5 (well below usual standards)

Havard - 7
Byrne - 7
Smithies - 7
Clubb - 5 (same old, same old)

He's soft as $hit that's why. No wonder Saints fans called him Josephine.

/

Before or after we signed him?

Soft? He may not be aggressive but that does not mean he is soft. He is exactly the kind of running threat we need in the team. Isa may work hard but he offers nothing in attack. Everything Isa does with the ball is rank average or poor.

Greenwood can’t play on the right though that’s the major problem, and he’s certainly not good enough to get in front of Faz, Wells or Pearce Paul will be our long term right sided solution

French - 8
Marshall - 8
Zak - 6
Bibby - 7
J Burgess - 4
Tommy - 4
Hastings - 6
Partington - 7
Powell - 4 (100% Waney boy through and through, Needs offloading for someone creative)
G Burgess - 4
Isa - 8
Faz - 6
Lockers - 4 (His usual standard)

Havard - 7
Byrne - 7
Smithies - 7
Clubb - 4 (same old, same old)

He isn't a running threat if he isn't running though is he

Exactly this. He’s always injured. The lad is either soft or made of biscuit. Either way, he’s no use to us. Isa 110 times out of 100, for me.

Like it or not Isa does..time and time again I keep seeing the usual "he shouldn't be playing" type post on here and social media, yet 2 coaches now clearly rated him,hes not just a squad player now he is a genuine first team regular it seems to me.

The only problem I have with Isa is that he lacks basic passing skills. He’s wasted more overlaps than I’ve had meat and tater pies in the east stand. And that is a lot. Otherwise he’s decent enough. Attitude especially in defence is phenomenal.

9 carries for 129 metres for Joe Burgess. Not bad considering the major knock on him is his workrate. Appreciate a chunk of those metres were the break

For me Isa could quite easily slot in at prop and I also don’t think he needs to pass. He’s our back row battering ram, pointless in trying to change him into something he isn’t and never has been (though FWIW I do generally agree with you).

Do you have Wigan t.v? If so watch Greenwoods performance v Widnes reserves yesterday. Wells, Bullock, Clark, Kilner and Shorrocks all ran harder and further than Greenwood. I expected far more from a player who played at International level less than 18 months go.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Greenwood moved on at some point this season. He’s a good player and a real threat but there’s no doubt he lacks an ability to grit his teeth when the going gets tough or he picks up niggles. He seems totally out of favour with Lam, so if he does get a chance at some point he’ll need to smash the door down.

Lam needs to use his squad depth and the reserves games to drive competition and not just keep his favourites in. If Bullock gets left out and Clubb kept in based on the couple of games over the weekend it’ll be a crime.

Wouldn't be surprised if he ended up at Salford.
After a promising start his performances have dropped off alarmingly

Was tremendous at the back end of 2018 but looked poor since. The concussions clearly got to him.

He also had a good start to 2019, dont forget his salward away performance early in March when he was very good, but Cas away in the 9th game of the season and the head knock changed that.
He couldn't string more than 1 or 2 games together and then miss 3 or 4 and for a guy of his size I think that's difficult.
Coupled with that is what a serious head knock can do and he had a couple (see Darrell goulding after Wembley 13 for evidence).

Quite prepared to see how goes once he gets 5/6 games ina row under his belt and although I only half agree with Rogues about yesterday it was good to see him get 60plus minutes under his belt which is surely what the reserves are there for.