didnt we all say that after the opening game of the season, 5 games ago, though?

at the end of the day the team wane put out was a good enough team on the day, they were obviously outplayed on the day even if it was just by a point.

what i dont get is why wane says he needed to rest players 6 games in?! REALLY annoyed me that. they get paid a shedload more than i do and all they have to do is keep themselves fit. i work 40 hour weeks and manage to do it. if they are unfit drop them to the u20s, dont rest them like primadonnas.

and for me, this season is going to be a steep learning curve for wane. i'll be surprised and very happy if we make it to any semi-finals at all.

Don't think that changing your RLFANS username over the last 24hrs will allow you to hide from your previous persona (and respective posts).

I've just read for the umpteenth time something to the effect of Wane 'disrespecting' Widnes. This sort of modern day term comes from those half baked numpties sat in front of the box watching Jeremy Kyle with nowt else to do.

Wane didn't show a lack of respect to anyone. He simply made a mistake albeit a big one at that. Blooding four youngsters was probably two or three too many and just goes to show that you can't do that sort of thing even against the basement club. We do need to test the young lads, they need to be able to step in when the call comes. It needs to be one at a time like we have done with Jack Hughes.

We should have seen the game out in the second half when we were eighteen points to the good and I'm sure we would have done with our rested players on the pitch.

As has just been mentioned, Shaun Wane is on a steep learning curve. It's a big step up to being the main man. He'll make other mistakes, that's for sure but I don't think he'll make one again like yesterdays.

Oh, and as for Wane must go, get a grip. Where were the calls for his head after we had relatively easily beaten both Leeds and Catalan?

Credit to Widnes for both raising their game and taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity that came their way.

Agree with the fact that he shouldn't have rested our key players but with us being up 36-18 up and letting it slip is not wanes fault.no team should lose when that far in front. His team selection nearly payed off. Some of the tries should have never been given anyway. My only concern is will he give the youngsters another chance.

Regular season games are now not much more than pre season friendlies. They have minimal effect on who will be champions, especially to the big clubs, as it is all about performing for 4 weeks at the end of the season, not for 27 weekly games. Wire were exceptional last season, Leeds were average, but look who are Champions, albeit statistically the worst ever. It might be wrong but Wane has to aim to win the playoffs - not finish top. Its the season ticket holders who suffer mostly but don't blame Wane. Blame Sky or the RFL who invented the playoff when there is no need to.

Completely disagree. The play off system is nowehere near perfect - over half the league can qualify - but the play off system is far better than a 'finish top and you win' structure.

Regarding Wane, yes he made a mistake but you tell me a coach who hasn't ballsed up with his selection at some stage. It's early days and I suspect Wire/Leeds/Huds will be in for a shock defeat somewhere along the line. The first half of the season is all about getting the points and getting high up in that table, the second half is about solidifying your position in the league and/or shifting a place or two up.

Wane will take Madge's work further. Wane will maintain our success. Wane will keep Wigan a force to be reckoned with.

I hope your right but from speaking to many people before the game on Sunday the result was clearly not a shock once we heard the starting line ups from both teams.

Shaun Wane has had a solid start to his tenure as head coach but Sunday really highlighted a change in attitude for me in comparison to the previous two seasons and if Wane can make a mistake like Sunday what other poor decisions behind the scenes could he make in the future?

Under Maguire Wigan were ruthless and i have no doubt that his attitude on Sunday would of been to forget about who the opposition are and put a full strength side out that would be capable of putting 80 past them.

Calling for SW to be sacked is ridiculous but Sunday was a balls up of epic proportions - if SW was confident that the side he fielded against Widnes was good enough to win the game then im sure he will be confident enough to pick exactly the same team against London.....then again.

Hope we respect the opposition in future.

no you can't

Just got back from holiday and seen this thread. My God, what a numpty the OP is.
The league is won in October not March. Wane needs to alter the squad from time to time in order to check the younger ones out.
These days it is no longer fatal if we lose 6 or 7 league games so long as we are on top form come play off time.
Had I been home I would have gone to Widnes no matter what the team was.

As someone said above, "Wane in".

Onward and upward.

In Maguires first season we threw away a 20 point lead to lose at Bradford, and threw an 18 point half time lead away to lose at home to bottom club Harlequins.
It wasn't all sweetness and light, but it ended well. I hope for something similar this season.

Sometimes, collective memory plays tricks on you......thanks for the reminder RG.

Having just watched the highlights it looked like we played some pretty good stuff going forward but were especially sloppy defending out own line. They got lucky with a couple of wild passes. More worrryingly our left hand side of defence let some sloppy tries in too (Finch, Charnley and Hughes all looked at fault). Should have won that game easily with the team we had on the pitch...

Super post!

Wane got it SLIGHTLY wrong.

I disagree with the sentiment that he shouldn't have rested players. For me that was the one of the few things that Maguire got wrong. He did rest players, but nowhere near as often as he should have. As previous posters said last season, perhaps with him knowing he was leaving and going to Souths he wasn't interested in blooding youngsters whereas Wane is. With the cup run including tough games vs Bradford, Wire, Saints and Leeds, the WCC, and exiles game, I do think we did look jaded towards the end of last season.

If Wane had rested 2 (possibly 3) and not 5 and we had won, everyone would have called it a masterstoke, he made a mistake and it backfired.

It still irks me that had we rested a full 17 against Crusaders in the last league game of last season and gone in fresh against Saints at home, the playoff's may have been that bit more manageable. Yes, as fans we suffer, but that truly was a 'nothing' game and could have easily been used as a weeks rest. We may not like seeing weakened teams, but winning the Grand Final is what is it all about, so if we drop points along the way, but
end up with the main prize then that is what Wane / Wigan must strive to achieve.

FWIW I'm not defending Wane, the jury is still out on him IMO. I really hope he does well, time will tell but he definately deserves his chance. To call for him to be sacked (OP) is ludicrous after 6 games in, when we have played some really good stuff thus far.

I don't know why, but I feel more confident than I did than this time last season.

I cannot understand why wane does not admit his team selection was wrong at widnes.His comments on GMR that he would do it all again are disrespectful to Widnes and Wigan supporters. He does not seem to possess any man management skills. I understand that we need to blood our younger players but not 5 at once. Mr Wane needs to eat some humble pie. If he handledsthe players like he does the supporters we are definitely on the WANE!!

He won't do it again (at least not to that extent) and he won't admit he was wrong.

Why give people a stick to beat you with. Inside the dressing room i'm sure he knows and the senior players know he got it wrong but it will stay there and thats correct imo.

He wasn't wrong. That team was good enough to win the game. It wasn't Wane who missed those tackles, or gave those needles penalties.
We gave away an 18 point lead.

But as I have pointed out we did the same under Maguire.

I just hope that the TEAM (including Wane) learns from the mistakes.

To be honest, while I too feel Wane got it wrong in his selections at Widnes, the bit I've underlined is exactly the opposite of what I've been hearing. I've been told that his man management skills are as good as Maguire's, if not better.

He made a mistake last weekend, but some of these plucked-out-of-the-air accusations are getting a bit silly.

Glad somebody pointed out that Wigan actually lost games under Maguire - not many but a couple of red face moments as well. I also agree that Wane has done the right thing by not saying he was wrong publicly.

General concensus is that he made a mistake by resting a few too many key players at Widnes. Everyone at some point or other will make mistakes. Mistakes are a good thing if you learn from them and find ways to improve on what you did. We lost one league match due to that mistake, we can still top the league despite the loss, we can still go on and win the GF despite it. That one league defeat matters very little in the grand scheme of things for the season. It will much more likely benefit us. Losing as we did makes it less likely that the same approach will be followed later in the season. If for example we draw a weaker SL side or a championship side in the cup it will mean that although some players may be rested we will not see as many left out as we did at Widnes and so avoid an embarrassing cup exit. It also means that if injuries hit at the business end that those rookie players involved will have had at least one match at SL level already and will have experience of a tough, close fought encounter under their belts if they are called upon to play first team again.

SW has not said publicly that he thinks he was wrong or that he made a mistake but if he was to do so then he would be undermining the confidence of the players that took part. To do so would be as good as saying "these young lads aren't up to it, they won't be getting another go for ages" or criticising the efforts of the senior players on the park. What he did say showed dissapointment with the result and some aspects of the performance but gave encouragement and support to the players particularly the debutants and has told them that they will get other chances to impress if they work hard in training. That is what man management is all about. You criticise where necessary and also offer encouragement, support and praise when warranted. You make sure that people know and understand that making a mistake doesn't exclude them from having another go in the future. You also give them opportunities to develop their skills and performance. That's what SW did.

SW has said (in the Wigan Observer) that the players that were "rested" for the last game will be back in on Sunday and has spoken of making a couple of other changes to bring back first choice players from injury. London have the same record as Widnes but there is no talk of any more players being rested for that game with the strongest line up possible being the likely one. This suggests that he has learnt something from the experience and we will not see all but one of the key players rested at once again. Like anyone else SW doesn't need to publicise where he thinks he has made mistakes, he just needs to realise when he has and to learn from them. He seems to have done so in this instance and that is good enough for me.

Fair comment, and a good read.

The couple of players coming back from injury he mentions are probably Carmont and Richards.
The defeat could cost us as that's two points dropped against a team who will play Wire three time in the League. That six points in the bag for Wire. Best we could have hoped for was four, now it's two. Wire will no doubt do their points diff some good in the process of their three wins. Tony Smith, nor any other coach, will rest that number of players after seeing Wigan's result.
As almost everyone else has said, rest players by all means in one's and two's but not five at one time!

Sorry, meant Carmont and Prescott, not Richards!

But then it comes back to an issue where finishing 1st or finishing 4th is much the same. Yes it would be nice to be top at the end of the year but in reality it means little. I won't go down the route some do and start saying look at Leeds winning it from 5th because that is harder and I think that will be more a one off then the norm but the facts are finishing first isnt the be all and end all.

It was 2 points dropped Sunday and it could cost us a place or 2 in the table but I'm fully confident we'll finish in the top 4 and that will be job done. If one of the rested lads from Sunday comes up with a piece of magic in the play offs or ideally the Grand Final Shaun Wane may just point back to days like Sunday.

As much as I hate the League being devalued in this way I agree and it just doesnt seem right. I would also say it is perfectly possible for a team to win it from 5th or below, the only reason it didnt happen until Leeds last year was because a team that was good enough to do it hadnt finished that low before. The best teams have generally finished in the top 2 anyway. The teams that finish 5th and below are generally the Hull KR's, Hull and whatever other average teams that manage to scrape into the top 8. If by some miracle Wigan, Warrington, Leeds and Saints finished 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th this year then I would still put my mortgage on one of these teams winning it.