No.

We scored 3 tries of absolute top quality.
All of those tries had to be worked for and all of them had first class skills and delivered at a fantastic pace.
Ive been lucky enough to see us score some great CCF tries over the years and yesterday's 3 are in my top 10 of all time.
Smithies offload was brilliant and the lad is improving leaps and bounds.
Fields try was a classic. Brilliant passing finished with astonishing pace from French & Field.
Marshall is the most underrated winger in the competition and I love the fact that he was our match winner in the SF & Final.

Smith played almost single handedly in the halves, knocked on early in the game in his own 20 and didn't get his usual support from the second row but still managed to score a blinder and set up a brilliant winner. The lad is still really just a kid but has the capacity to mature into a top class HB for club and country.

Having watched the game again today, there is far too much significance being given to this 'Hudds had their pockets pinched' idea.

They were a bit steadier than we were, but they didn't do anything like enough to justify such a claim.

The move that killed them was attempted at least a couple of times earlier in the match, and yet they still got caught out by it. None of the presenters mentioned that to my knowledge, which makes me think they were commentating on what they wanted to be happening rather than what actually was.

Lets face it if this game had been played under the rules applied at the beginning of the season it would have ended up a nines match

to be honest moto only when a saints fan comes on and tries (see what I did) to put Wigan down.

Agree with both posts. I was quite down on our performance and felt the game was a little dour for the most part on the long journey back on the coach yesterday. Watching it again without the uncertainty and stress of sitting in the stands, I saw a lot to admire from both teams. In the heat of the moment, it’s those daft knock-ons that catch the eye, but you don’t register the sheer graft in defence and all the pivotal plays that could have swung either way. I thought Huddersfield came with a superb game plan designed to shut us down, but watching it again, you could see they were creaking during the last quarter of the game as we kept pushing at their edges. Sometimes it can be hard to appreciate the performance of the team when you’re there and the game is so tight.

And anyone who thinks Harry Smith had an off-day seriously needs to watch his performance again.

I've not had chance to watch again (going to do the first half now, rest tomorrow).

Before I do, one of the main things I noticed at the game was how little Mago did (minutes and metres), I thought he was very uninspiring when he was on (ten minutes or so)? My question is, did he suffer an injury or was he not fully fit in the first place. Like I said, I'm going to watch again without the pressure but for me it was his poorest game for us so far.

Yes Mago was underwhelming - he needs to start running his weight and pumping those legs after contact instead of purely focusing on offloads.

Whilst we're onto negatives I thought Jake Bibby was poor again at centre - two bad defensive reads which led to tries. Not unhappy that he appears to be off to Huddersfield in all honesty - a solid right winger at Wigan but nothing more than that. Maybe Ian Watson can get the best out of him.

I’m amazed people are criticising Child on some platforms and blaming him for the Huddersfield defeat. I’ve watched the game back and we got a bad hand from him. The first pen is a joke, the penalty for Huddersfield messing up their own scrum down is also a joke, he should sin bin their man on half time for a professional foul, McQueens try shouid go upstairs for obstruction, he missed a blatant 6 again part way though the second half, which ended with French being tackled in possession and just before the Smith try, Faz gets a whack to the face from Yates and stays down but gets nothing. The replay clearly shows he gets hit high.

If he gave us a helping hand, I shudder to think how he’d have performed if he’d been against us!

All history now and all that matters is Challenge Cup Number 20!

Having just watched it back I stand by my initial comment.

For much of the game we lacked any direction.

That isn’t just on Smith it’s on Cust and O’Neil too and non of them took the responsibility on.

Smith however did come up with key plays at key times which got us the win and that a sign of quality.

One player I thought had a poor game on the day was Singleton however I thought he went well particularly on his first spell.

He was at least as worthy of the MOM award as McQueen, if not more so.

your initial comment is wrong

I disagree, but we are all entitled to our opinions.

Agree with all that Itchy, I thought our back three were all very good, despite they all made a few errors. But their contributions in both attack and defence were great. And you could say exactly the same thing about Harry Smith. And as others have said, faIr play to Jon Wilkin (not for the first time) for talking some sense.

And like you, so pleased for Marshall after his cruel luck earlier in his career. So pleased for the lad for whom it clearly means so much. The lads at the back of the coach on the way back were all singing "Liam Marshall, he's one of us!". And that's what it's all about, really, isn't it?

I agree even if your opinion is wrong as is my opinion of yours is (so to speak) (I think)

I am also very happy for Liam Marshall with the luck has in his career to score the winning try in the semi and the final a dream come true for the lad I bet.

He came up with some key plays the kick was superb for the final try in particular.

He bombed 1 opportunity on about 70 minutes.

His knock on resulted in a try and also his poor kick and decision to do that kick when his outside backs were not expecting it set up field position for the last Huddersfield try.

He has been fantastic since he came into the side this year and has proven my wrong as I genuinely didn’t think he would nail the 7 shirt but he has.

I think is either team had a dominant half yesterday they would have won, but then again if my aunty had testicles she would be my uncle.

Ultimately he did come up big when it counted and fair play to him for that and those moments of quality probably won’t us the game.

My opinion is totally inconsequential though and what is exciting is that he is only going to improve from the experience of playing and winning such a big game.

Who is Jamie Field ? Brian Noble reckons he played well for us.

Noble was genuinely hard to listen to.

I turn the volume off it he is commentating and I’m not at the game.

I think Jonathan Davies is excellent and insightful, Noble though is terrible.

Utter garbage mate and you can put that in your sig. Easily the best player on the field and not by a small margin.

Fair enough, that’s your opinion. I don’t want to focus on the negatives because he did come up with the key plays but they happened.

After watching it again I would have given it to Smithies (over McQueen) who I thought was superb. The 2 high shots probably cost him that chance too added to the fact we were behind at the time it was decided.

Huge effort in defence and the offload was fantastic for Smiths try.

Smith and Smithies are without doubt the biggest 2 improvers under the stewardship of Peet.

I thought Child had too many involvements in the game, super league refs need to follow the NRL and put the whistle away for the big games and let it flow. In saying that the refs had no part in Wigan's very poor execution, our failure to perform basic skills put us under immense pressure in the semi and final. Wigan had flashes of individual skill and Huddersfield executed the basics very well.

Myself and most of the people I spoke to on the day felt a bit hollow with the win due to Wigan's low standard of play for most of the game.

every try is from a defensive mistake Marshall try the full back was out of position to let him in.
So i think you are being a bit harsh on Smith saying he did this wrong or that as every player makes a mistake in a game what some players do is win the game -Smith & Marshall won that game for us with a big help from all the other Wigan players as without them we prob have lost.

not really ball was shifted from 1 side to the other and kicked across, hes not getting from 1 side to the next in a 5 seconds

I disagree a full back follows the ball from behind his defensive line he did but was a tad too slow.
I know it was a brilliant play by Smith but all I am trying to point out that if there are no defensive lapses no tries would be scored.And if that would be against wigan I bet that some people would point out the same as I have, Field was out of position etc.
All I am doing is defending Wigan players as some folk like to point out mistakes too easily but this happens on both teams hence we have a winner-Wigan this time.