Was the best player on the field by a country mile, beat Wigan on his own today.

1st Round.














Quality.

fair play then fella...gone r the years when the stadium emptied like a bomb alert

If we keep playing like that it will start again.

If you were in the same situation I'm sure you would do the same.

I hope were not going to get this all season pathetic, it's the first round yes we underperformed and looked a bit clueless but give the guys more than a game to prove themselves for god sake.

The team selection was predictable and worked as well as expected.

It looks like Noble would rather move our 7 to 9, 6 to 7, 13 to 6 and a second rower to loose forward then just play McIlorum or Tomkins from the bench and the reason is.............................because they aren't foreign and they aren't over the age of 25.

I've backed Noble to the hilt but he's dropped a right Boll*ck today and it's a mistake i see him repeating time and again.

Take off your cherry and white tinted speccies.

This judgement isn't just based on this game. It's from his whole time being here as Wigan coach. The guy has not got a clue.

Did you see anything different from last year? Considering Noble has said this is the best squad he's had since he's been here.

Did you see any attacking rugby league? As promised by Noble at the fans forum.

Can you offer a counter argument to my first post?

Sam tomkins needs to play on friday

I think most people found his team selections strange and it has come back to prove correct, however after such an abject performance it is difficult to believe a different team would have produced a different result.



He deserved a chance, he has had that, im certain he wont play next week.



Agreed, we need 2 hookers in the squad, I dont see how Noble can be accused of refusing to play local talent though, we need to go longer into the season before that can be judged.



I disagree, he was full of effort in defence, Roberts was much more of a liability.



Changing the key positions so many times today was never going to see us do anything different. TBH we tried many more things in attack early on, but when they didnt work, we reverted to type.



Drew was immense today, as was Dimetriu (sp), Wakefield will be nowhere near the bottom if they keep them fit.



He did which is to our detrement now, noone needed to try now Trent was here, we now need leaders to emerge.



He has taken us forward though, this season is a big year for him however, but to call for his head after one game is madness.

Or McIllorum, but there needs to be an extra option at 9.

There will never be a better chance then today to pick the lad and i'm afraid we may not see him all season(again).

If we don't pick him next week then McIlorum has to play from the bench because disrupting the side with 4 positional changes is going to do us more harm then good.


Mathers, Coley and Bailey out for me with S Tomkins, Prescott and Goulding coming in next week.

You seemed to have 0 impact on the bench today. McIlorum from what I've seen of him is not an impact hooker as such, the game today was crying out for a Micky Higham or James Roby esc Impact player to come on and run at what was a tiring Wakefield defense.

Yes and thats where sam tomkins comes in the lad as got speed and a cracking step

The thing is we are playing rubbish rugby boring and no flair we are trying to out muscle and we are not big enough so why not use our speed and skill?

Would it? We lacked fluency in the side today. If we just had a straight swap Riddell for McIlorum do you not think the side would have been a lot more organised and structured instead of having to change everytime Riddell goes off?

This is not the sole reason for the poor performance. Mathers being another reason but again who picks the side? Who extended his contract?



Why did he deserve a chance? He was poor last year and showed no sign of improvement in the friendlies.

I'll tell you who deserved a chance Sam Tomkins. He's been knocking on the door for 2 years now. Was immense every time he was given an opportunity (which is not many) He tore apart Warrington in the friendlies and wasn't given much time to impose himself on the game at Huddersfield and Leigh.

Noble claims people will get games on merit. If this is the case why did Mathers play and Sam didn't?



Why do we? It was clear last season that this was the case. He brought Phelps in to replace Goulding and seems to have banished McIlorum from the side. He claims to play players on merit. This has never been evident while he has been coach at Wigan.



Rubbish he was awful. He was missing tackles all over the shot and that is why Wakefield kept attacking that side. We were very imbalanced. With Hock Carmont and Richards on one side and Bailey Phelps and Roberts on the other. Wakefields second try that was ruled out was because of Smith. Jason Demetriou (sp) spotted his weakness in defense and just ran straight at him , Smith missed him completely. Roberts only looked a liability because Smith had missed tackles and there was an overlap created so Roberts has to move up on the man with the ball which leaves Gleeson (I think it was) to race over unchallenged(We don't have a fullback) and score.



Early on we didn't have the ball. It was four drives and a kick. Poor discipline and some shocking defense allowed Wakefield to dominate. This only changed in the second half when Leuluai moved to hooker and in fairness he did try to create plays but no-one else seemed interested.



Agreed but dont kid yourself. We should have smacked Wakefield today. They are a weak team missing a lot of key players. They just came and played simple rugby league and because we had nothing to offer and looked disinterested (FFS run to the scrum!) we made them look good. A bit harsh on Wakefield maybe but its the truth. Wakefield would not have done that to Leeds or St.Helens.



Agreed. But sadly I don't see them coming from anywhere anytime soon.



Agreed but I think is as far as he can take us.



Agreed.



It's not after one game though it's after two years of having him as a coach. From the dire performances last year to the ones we're seeing this year.

I'll not change many peoples' minds but just keep watching then. Let's see how we go this year.

Hock & Feka need to be moved to the bench. Nothing was gained from them starting, they provide great impact from the bench.

There needs to be a back up on the bench be it Tomkins/McIllorum.

Bailey wasn't bad today, but he is another who gets stick no matter what.

Bailey should move to centre next week if Goulding doesn't come back in.

I can't believe the booing today. Ok it was a crap performance, but it's the first game of the season!! Take nowt away from Wakey as well, thought they were excellent - well organised, committed in defence and showed flair in attack - everything that we weren't.

I've said it before on here, I like Noble and he has done a great job for us. The club has got some stability, but I don't think we should keep hold of Noble just for stability's sake. What's the point of 'stability' if it means being consistantly average?

His contract runs out at the end of this season IIRC. If there isn't some kind of noticeable improvement then we should show him the door, but ONLY if there is a good enough replacement i.e. a top quality NRL coach.

Rant over!

Agreed with this. But will Noble see this and act on it?

In the past he hasn't, I doubt he will this time.

The above mentioned was clear before we had even kicked a ball.

Wakefield just did the basics. Don't build them up to be world beaters though because they weren't. They would not have done that to Leeds or Saints. We were just poor in defense and conceeded two soft tries. Sadly because we pose little threat in attack that's all they needed to score. Two tries. Very worrying and if people keep giving all this crap "it's the first game of the season" nah nah nah. Then they are in for a shock!

Bailey should go to centre anyway. His best season for us was his first-at centre! Last year he was poor and offered very little at second row, we need him in the centre whilst we have so many options in the second row.

It was, hopefully he is a decent enough guy to realise he has made a mistake and change the team for next week.

Sam Tomkins does deserve a chance, and should potentially come in next week.

This season is a huge one for Noble, without improvement/trophy he wont be in charge next season, but lets not lose some sense of reality, it was the first game.

Today to my mind was a classic case of a coach not having any idea what his best side is.

Which part of my post do you disagree with?

Actually NO



More tend to leave early when the game is won etc

At 12-6 very few left early. Had Wakey's pen not hit the post maybe they ould have but they did not.

No Wire fan can ever accuse others of being fickle.

The bit quoted about Wakefield being excellent.

We made them look excellent.

Truth is they only had to score 2 tries in the whole match because we were so poor.

Or maybe we could only score 1 try because their defence was so committed? Because they forced us into errors and indiscipline? Give 'em some credit, for a so-called "poor team" with missing players, they all stood up and did their job today.

Well worthy of the 2 points, excellent performance.