I thought Bailey had a very good game. Prescott was poor on Saturday and fustrated me a lot!
Pryce is a difficult one, didn't do anything wrong but im sure he could have offered a lot more than he did like coming inside to look for work.

Bailey may concede a lot of penalties but he's also a hard working player and puts a lot of work in. We may have good back row forwards coming through but if we didn't have him for the game we'd have really struggled. As good as Liam Farrell is he's not quite up to Bailey's standard just yet.

With Paul Prescott I think a bit of patience is needed. After all those injuries he's actually only in his second full season playing regularly, and a few players suffer dips at this point (Joel Tomkins last year).
You also have to consider that he hasn't had a full pre season training, he was injured and had an operation if I'm not mistaken during the off season and was only fit again for the first pre season friendly. Amos Roberts has mentioned how much a full pre season has helped this year, so I think it was always going to be a difficult season.

As for his performance against Leeds, yes he wasn't very good going forward. He needs to bulk up to become more effective. However in defence he was one of our best, if not the best. He worked hard and made some important tackles and that's good work for a player who isn't in form.

As for Pryce, he's showing that with some persistence and regular game time he will improve. I agree that Goulding would have been much better against Leeds because he comes looking for work and would have given us a threat from dummy half that we didn't really have.
Saying that, Pryce didn't do anything wrong against Leeds and he's showing a steady improvement with each game. It's too early to write him off considering the improvements he's making each week.

We hear the same excuses made for Prescott every year and if his body can't hack the demands the game places on him then for the good of the team he needs to move on. He's been in and around the first team squad for 5 years now and just when you think he might kick on, he gets injured. His play-the-ball technique is horrific and if you watch him regularly he is off balance the majority of the time instead of regaining his feet and making a quick, controlled play-the-ball.

I don't fault Prescott's commitment to the side or his work rate because he puts himself about but it's no use having a prop forward who regulalry gets bounced by the opposition. These concerns were raised about O'Carroll but you only have to look at the improvement in him to see that he's looked at his game and improved where necessary.

In all honesty Paul Prsecott does need to be more disciplined. How people can fluff a play the ball up even when players hands are in etc, it is one of the basics of RL. Same with not lying on.

I think he will learn from this, theres no point getting rid.

Give him an extra year to prove himself, I'm sure he will.

Pryce was solid but at times in the game when we really needed some good kick returns to give us good field position he really did not step up, he was very lazy when returning the ball. Goulding could have given us that extra 10m. Before the game though it was right to play Pryce so I have no complaints about the selection.

Bailey is great throughout the game but him and Coley gave away too many stupid pens.

Prescott on current form does not seem do give us as much go forward as the rest of the forwards.

To say they shouldn't play for Wigan is an overstatement but maybe 1 of the 3 should be dropped for next week.

I know this is going to sound daft but if you watch Bailey, at times he is very good at giving away a penalty on purpose. I think he does this sometimes when he can see that a team are getting on top of us. Then its easier for the opposition to take the two, instead of maybe scoring six. After the penalty whether it was scored or not, we can regroup and start the defensive set again.

Your going to be telling us next that we should have Mickey Higham instead of Piggy

Not to mention...

Moran rather than Tomkins
DV instead of Gleeson
Mathers instead of Roberts
Bibey instead of Fielden
Desi Williams instead of Richards
Millward instead of Maguire
Whelen instead of Lenegan

DV instead of Gleeson - maybe defence about the same and going forward about the same at the moment

Yeah coz thats why the two wingers who have played outside of him this season are both near the top of the try scorers list

Gleeson has been very disappointing since he signed, particularly in the last few weeks. His attack hasnt been good at all and he rarely seems to pass to his winger, often going for glory himself. Indeed most of the tries scored on that side by the winger seem to come from O'Loughlin or the full back missing out Gleeson completely. His defence has also been poor since that Sheffield game.

Prescott - Walking Knock on - So many Lose carries

Pryce - Not mobile enough to be on Wing and I dont seem him playing anywhere else

Bailey - When Hocks is back next year he will be gone!

I think pryce is a heck of a lot more mobile than he looks. A guy that size and body weight is often gonna not going to look 'nippy', but he's done really well so far when things have required some mobility, and he show's a lot of ball skill to.

I can not take ur response seriously, fans are getting very carried away with Pryce, he was a scape goat last year and this season he is up there apparently. Will hear England call ups soon from half the fans on here.

Pryce as scored tries on a plate all year, and oppositions decide to pick him out with the kicks turn him round and make him bend is back, id rather have goulding and pat on the wings and amos at full back. Stupid to drop Goulding and yet keep Pryce in

So you'd drop somehow who's just scored 8 tries in 3 games, and hadn't made any mistakes defensively?

Up there in the top of the Most ridiculous statements of the year so far, Well done!

Goulding has played all of his matches on the right wing though so I think it was more a case of Roberts, who is also a right wing, or Goulding. In his first game back I dont think that Maguire wanted to rish Roberts at full back due to the increased demands. If Roberts is okay next week I would imagine that he will be back at full back with Richards back on the left wing and Goulding back on the right wing.

5 errors in 12 super league games says he's not too bad in the hamdling stakes?
Less than any of our other Front line props and better than most other props in SL.



He gets bounced by the opposition! Your having a laugh surely, especially when comparing him to O'C!

im struggling to work out what your actual problem is with pryce. As another poster says he's scored 8 tries in 3 games, he's alot better in defence than goulding and did you see the try he set up for carmont at hudds?

all this about him being a target for other teams.. so what if he is? he more than held his own against leeds at the weekend,and has done for the games he's played in so far.

sadly, i think he's going be that sort of player that comes in for alot of stick no matter what he does on the pitch.

Unless we win then it will all be down to the others rather than Pryce!


Got to have a scapegoat you know!

On the face of it Paul hasn't kicked on this season as much as others, but he's a 24 year old prop with a lot of experience, not a lot of them around, why throw him away now we have done all this work with him and let someone else benefit? Other than 2 errors (in a game with 20+ penalties) he had a good game on Saturday. Wane appears to rate him. Also isn't he still at University, in which case he may well kick on further once that has finished.

I've seen two of your posts. 1 from January, which you 'guaranteed' a Wigan 6match losing streak, claiming MM and SW had just made them run a little more.

That kinda went to pot didn't it?

And now I read this. Although before I dis-credit you, I actually agree regarding Prescott and Pryce. However, until the off-season they're fine where they are.

Seriously pal, you need to get behind the team. It's fickle fans like you who breed negativeness around the place, around these boards, one loss and it's a crisis, one win and we're world beaters. I am under the impression that that fits your character moulding. For crying out loud we are TOP OF THE SUPER LEAGUE 4 BLOODY POINTS CLEAR!! So what if Pryce or Prescott need to go, so what if Bailey is, well whatever you decided to say about him, can you not just be positive instead of finding a crack and turning it into a canyon?

Rant finished.

Bailey - I'm usually critical of him but I thought he had an excellent first half, racked up loads of tackles, he did well making the hard yards too, in the second half I didn't notice him much. That was his kind of game where it's all up the middle, it's the pacey teams that can exploit him. Assuming Hansen's still out I'd leave Bailey in the team, even though I said I wouldn't have played him v Leeds.

Prescott - He's fairly average, he's worth the spot at the moment though until we either get some bodies back or Davies steps it up another level, not sure whether he'll make it at Wigan long term. Talking of props I really wish Maguire would give Paleaaesina a few consecutive games, I can only assume he's not training well or Maguire doesn't believe in the idea of an impact prop.

Pryce - In attack he looked very sluggish, he really isn't making any friends by jogging in ball returns. However, I still think he's the better option than Goulding because even though Goulding might score a try or two more Pryce is a better defender, even if they didn't really run at him at the weekend. Leave him in next week, just hope they have a word about returning the ball with some urgency.

nice constructive response...well done yourself

After watching the game again on iPlayer, I think Prescott actually had a very good game overall and isn't deserving of so much criticism. There wasn't much difference in the amount of metres the forwards were making because of the conditions, but he put plenty of effort in, stood up well to some big tackles, put Tomkins through a gap with a good pass which on a dry day could have seen him squeeze through and in defence he was one of the best on the pitch.
He made 30 tackles in the game which is second only to O'Loughlin, and his metres made were decent compared to the other forwards.

Fielden is the one who put in the sub standard performance in that game. It was his worst of the season so far.

Pryce coped well in a difficult game but he wasn't exactly error free. Early on a cross field kick came over to him and whilst my impression at the game was he blocked Donald to follow it into touch after watching the game again he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it and could have been caught out.
He also gave Donald way too much space towards the end of the game by moving inside and off his man, something other players have been slated for plenty of times. Had the pass been a good one Donald had an easy walk in but the pass went straight to touch.

There's still a lot for him to work on, but I hope he retains his place in the side because he keeps improving with each game and there are promising signs for the future. Hopefully he's on his way to fulfilling his potential. If he works on aspects of his game in the same way others have this year then there should be much more to come.