Not a one off is it.

Poor performances are becoming a regular problem in big games especially.

We have had many wake up calls, the crowds are dropping.

Maybe IL will have had enough if we fail to final or win a trophy this season, i know i would.

Opposition will always raise their game against Wigan, we should always be ready and properly prepared for that, we weren't today.

The players lost us the game yes, although we are losing almost every game away from home.
Are those players too young? We need experienced players in the spine yet when Lockers isn't there we only have Smith out there for the 80. Mic Mac is experienced but is spelled by Powell or Logan.
Tonight I thought HKR's experience saw them through, just.
This away form has to improve or it's curtains on another season.

I've labelled the team childish on a few occasions this season. They run about getting wound up and play with little composure.

It's a huge issue.

You can't win every game even St Maguire couldn't do it with a far superior squad.
The players lost the game tonight.
Sarginson, Bateman and Tomkins are ok players. We make them out to be the best thing since sliced bread. BatemAn made one pass last Easter and suddenly he was the next best centre in the comp.
Senior players need to step up and SW should keep quiet and work away in the background for the next few months.
By the way is the CC a big game anymore? I'm a traditionalist but even I know for the last 15 years or so it's a bit of an afterthought with pathetic crowds until the final and even then they are pretty poor compared to the GF.
I hate losing and it ruins my weekend however, tonight we we're Second best to the opposition. Shit happens but there is still time to regroup.

I agree with most of that except I do think we were up for the GF v Wire. The win in the CC v Hull was a lot less convincing. Since then though I think we have been going backwards with the odd spark of form that flatters to deceive.

Getting to a Wembley final and winning is worth more financially than winning a GF.

But come off it, regardless of the finance . The CC is still huge.

Getting knocked out at this stage would have seen Wane sacked before he left the ground and thumbing a lift home. Particularly as it has happened two seasons in a row.

I fully accept the financial benefit however, for me the magic of the competition has gone maybe forever.
Personally I didn't have clue when the draw was taking place this year. Don't get me wrong I want to win it but the trophy to win these days is the GF

I don't like Wane but the bloke makes silk purses out of pigs ears and is building a formidable young team. They will have results like this until they gain experience. Two years time they'll win most things for a few seasons.
They got schooled by Campese who had Mickey Mouse in his back pocket and your captain never turned up.

Pretty similar to the way the importance and kudos of the FA cup has declined over the years.
For me a trophy is a trophy there are only two on offer and one has gone as a result of another inept display.

Congratulations to KR wanted it more and deserved their win

I don't believe that they wanted it more, the look on the Wigan players faces at the end shows just what it meant. I watched the game again when I got home last night and it's a game we SHOULD have won. The defence, bar Sarginsons poor tackle for the first try was good. However, the number of individual errors (I include poor decision making in that) cost us.
Tomkins should have give Charnley a run to the line just before half time, Williams should have caught the ball over the line instead on pushing it dead just before Sarginson lost the ball for the "gift try" Smith missed three kicks at goal, one from in front of the posts. Then there were the dropped balls from Hampshire, Smith, Farrell, Tautai etc. Poor passes from Williams and O'Loughlin, the list goes on.

Fair play to HKR they played their sets out better than we did and deserved their win, but our poor handling gave them a leg up.

The title of the thread is correct and being two points up with fifteen to go is exactly what we should have done. Kick deep and stay disciplined. There was no way HKR were going to go seventy or eighty meters, play smart.

Always browse your board and you are an outstanding poster imo,I agree with most of what you post.Dont you fancy the wigan coaching job ?

Wigan should have won that game by thirty points. But I'm afraid it's the same weakness showing through once more. When it comes to the real blood and thunder your front six just isn't at the races. Immediately after the half time whistle I detected a definite upsurge in the level of aggression shown by the Hull KR forwards. This peaked during the final fifteen minutes when Hull KR's pack were quite literally beating on your guys. Bateman and Farrell are just not capable of meeting some of these big, raw-boned opposition props head on and knocking them back. The former walked past your own winger (Burgess) in the final few moments and looked like a garden gnome! Wane is making a massive mistake playing both of them at once.

Time and time again Wigan showed that once they break over the advantage line they capitalise in the backfield. But last night, aside from Tautai (for a couple of brief periods) none of your props seemed capable of repeatedly generating big yards and quick play the balls to put the dummy half on the front foot. Certainly none of them seemed all that interested in standing up to Hull KR's bully boy tactics.

As for McIlorum - his current value to the team really was summed up by putting one of his own players in the infirmary.

Quick play the balls and fast ruck is not our game and hasn't been for years. Considering you're an expert on forwards, "packs" and the Wigan team you should know that.

And Bateman is more than a match for most forwards in SL thanks. He was outstanding in defence last night and last week against Cas he was probably the best forward on the pitch.

Epic 3x combo post but how funny is it to see Mugwimp on here after one loss? I bet his last post was err... about 6 weeks ago?

I really don't understand criticism of McIlorum. Our best spells were when he was on but once again he was spelled and was off the field for over half an hour. It just seems a tactic to give Powell some game time, because the drop in our overall standard of play when McIlorum is off the pitch is huge. I wish we'd just go with MMc for the full 80.

Point taken, but you have to have someone used to playing there if he should get injured... So Wane HAS to do it.

Mental mickey signalled to the bench in the first half that he had to come off,to me the only way to keep up the intensity is to put bateman at hooker while mickey is off to maintain the level of aggression.

May have to make a change next week, granted I was 100 yrds away on the terrace but the tackle Powell did when he came in 3rd man didn't look to clever, a visit to Red Hall may be on the cards.

I came on here after the match having a go at Wane for giving a team talk by calling him motor mouth ( over the top maybe) which in a way is right , because he seems to give the opposition as much impetus as he does Wigan with his team talks.
My take on the match is as follows, I was watching it and was certain with the amount of pressure Wigan put on HKR in the first quarter they must break. But approaching the half hour mark I suddenly started thinking Sheffield 1989, I think the odds on Wigan winning last night must have been the same. That feeling never left me all night.

One thing that really struck me was how HKR had really done there homework on how to combat the Wigan attack. by that I mean that during the last 8/9 matches Wigan have regularly spread the ball to the wings with such precision that overlaps occurred on a regular basis.(especially on the left)
Every time Wigan tried the famous "Wigan Structure" last night it failed, either Wigan were rushing it and moving the ball to quick so that they failed to keep it tight and the overlap was never there. Or what I thought was that HKR had done their homework and worked out that if they slid across and matched Wigan's movement the overlap would never appear. HKR took the chance (in my eyes ) that Wigan very seldom try anything different once the "move " is on and by that I mean suddenly bringing a player against the grain either a forward or an halfback.
Now comes the controversial bit, a lot as been said over the last few months about Hampshire's best position, I have contributed to this maybe not always right, but it as come to the stage that a young players career is in danger of being ruined by this instance that he is a fullback.
It is now obvious that when an high ball goes up that the coach and the fans HOPE HE CATCHES IT instead of knowing he will, either let him go out on loan to try what he wants to do which is play standoff, or let him go (the latter is what I think may happen).

Finally after what as been a bit of a downer today but I certainly have an upper tomorrow, myself and the family are having a bit of a party for my mother who had her 104th birthday a couple of days ago.
Then the pessimist in me thinks it maybe going downhill after that, I am due to fly to Spain on Wednesday and then on to the Catalans match.

Like for like, I like it if you know I mean.

Would agree - 7 matches is the norm - ask Rangi.

Rangi is a nut job with a heap of previous... The loon should be sent packing...

Absolutely nothing in it.

And how is this different to Sam Tomkins? He can't catch a cold so we will always have this problem.
And as for 7 matches for Powell? I think some people have been smoking wacky bacca , what he did and what anti Wigan supportors wanted to see are 2 different things he actually tackled his backside not his knees.