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.

We could only score one try because we had no momentum and no fluency in attack. The errors we made were unforced and basic, we failed to handle the condition well and were made to pay for it.

When Leuluai tried stepping up the tempo we made a few breaks and had Wakefield on the back foot. If we had any clue in attack we would have made them pay. Saints Leeds Bradford Catalans etc would have.

I'm taking nothing away from Wakefield they played to there game plan and it payed off for them. Congratulations. But I doubt we'll see them at the top challenging for honours at the end of the season.

Fully agree with that.

It's only the first game. A few on here should calm down.


Sadly it has proven to me what I feared. We are still short of a halfback and a prop.


Now we don't know what the issue is here. If we were "in" for Greg Bird then presumably we have some money left to spend, similary IL's comments suggest we have some left over.


There is a bit to sort out. TL looks more impressive from 9. Maybe he should be the interchange with Riddell.

What currently happens is that he goes to 9, breaks up the half back partnership and TS looks lost.

Maybe play Tomkins and Smith together from the start? Very risky, but may work.

Usual comment re Lockers- he's no captain, never has been, never will be. No point going on about this, it's been flogged to death.


Something just doesn't look right with the squad atm. If I was a betting man I would say something is "going on" in there.

I'm sorry but the blame for today's defeat has to fall squarely at Noble's door.

A mad selection policy from him today which has majorly contributed to one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen.

Feka should never start a match! If there was a definition in the dictionary of an impact prop it’s Feka. Bring him on against tired opposition and he's far more destructive and effective. Same goes for Hock imo. Noble must know some of our best performances at the end of last season were due to them to adding impetus from the bench.

Feka and Fielden can’t start at the same time as when they both go off, as they did today, we are left with O’Carroll and Coley as our two props. Add to that Hock is off and we have no attacking players on the pitch. His team selection today just really didn’t make sense???

Hansen has to start as you get a better organised and defensive team when he’s in there. It’s far more unlikely the opposition team are going to score in the first minute if he’s on the pitch as he’s a work horse and our top tackler.

Mathers and Coley had shockers and there are more than enough decent players to take their place next week. Mathers may get dropped but will Coley? Under Noble I don’t think he will. If there is no threat of being dropped for some senior players then we’ll never see the best of them IMO.

I have to say Tommy was our best player today and our best spell came when he went to hooker. Sadly this was cancelled out by the fact that Lockers just isn’t a six. Why wasn’t Sam Tomkins played today? It’s madness to handy cap ourselves in such a way!!?!

But the main problem I’ve had with Noble is his inability to get a team up for the lesser teams in SL. No way in hell should we have lost to Wakefield today. It’s disgusting that Wigan just weren’t up for it! First home game of the season, two guys on debut against a weak Wakefield team and we can’t get up for it.

I don’t know if it’s too early to call for Nobles head yet but all I do know is;

We had zero attacking options i.e. moves or set pieces,
We severely lacked motivation
The wrong players were played at the wrong time meaning we didn’t get the best out of them.
We didn’t have a plan B

Same garbage different season.

Team selection was off as a few pointed out, and what the hell is with this "tactic" of moving forward 3 yards in defence and then holding?!!! We cannot give away cheap yards like that, we gave Drew space with this tactic and it tore us to pieces.

First game of the season and i am going to give it a little time but i have to say that performance highlighted the limitations in Noles coaching that i was hoping he would prove he did not have this year.

Excellent post and I totally agree.

It was glaringly obvious that Hock and Feka coming on after 20 mins tore teams to shreds at the back end of last season. Why has this changed?

My only hope is that they're trying to get Feka's fitness up to 100%

It was one of the major factors for using doing so well last season. Feka & Hock on and Tommy to 9 destroyed so many teams. Feka hitting it up hard, Tommy with a quick scoot and then Hock with some more hard yards.

Quite, but then we had TB and TS playing at halves. Two of the most gited halfbacks around.


Unless Nobby picks Tomkins who have we got? Lockers...............

I bet the Aussies are two double laughing at the thought of Lockers playing at 6.

This is a key area where I disagree with Nobby.

Sorry BK but for me Smith today, particularly in the second half was one of the major reasons we lost. The kicking game from Wigan was absolute garbage and Smith has to take much of the blame for this.

His inability to take the correct decisions - frankly I lost count of the number of times he moved the ball the wrong way - and lack of basis fitness (or is he injured?) in the second half really hurt us too.

I'm not saying the defeat was down to him - our forwards as a whole were very poor (several of the Leigh players from last week could have done a better job than Coley) and our defence on the right hand side was simply embarassing in the first half - but to say that TS on the form he showed at the end of last season and so far this season is a gifted halfback is wrong.

You said earlier that we are short of a halfback, totally agree with that, but that's because TS isn't up to the job. I am praying for a vast improvement from him....

On the basis of today BK who was right and who was wrong re Noble?

I guess it has to be Tomkins as there is no one else. I'm confident he can come on and do a good job tho. Some of Lockers passes from the base of the scrum were awful.

Get Sam in, tell him to do the basics i.e. Supply Smith at 6 with good fast ball from the scrum, distribute the ball well to available runners, talk, organise and kick us into good field position if needed. It’s not too much to ask if he’s as good as what everyone says. We could even say leave the more attacking aspects to Smith and Tommy and tell him to concentrate on the basics for the time being. Make it as easy as possible for him.

Roberts at FB, Goulding at centre

however, most of all. I cannot think of a winger better suited to Noble's 1 v 13 RL than Ainscough.

Is he ready? Others who see more reserve team rugby than me don't seem to think so.

I agree with your team switches for next week, but I think we all agree on those.

This sums it up for me. Was hoping it wouldn't happen but wasn't surprised.

I can see how Noble can be blamed for the team selection, but can he legislate for the players continually dropping the ball? surely as proffesionals they should be able to at least hold onto the ball.