I think that when they do the video review of the game it'll all be about that last two minutes. To me it looked as though we were preparing for extra time. There was virtually no chase on the Hardaker penalty which gave Lomax an easy thirty meters on tackle one. He shouldn't really have got more than twenty metres had the chase been good.

Anyway it's all done now and a great game to end the season even if we're not happy with the result. I just hope next season we see more games played with that intensity from all teams.

That is the key point whether the decision was correct or not. We switched off after 78 minutes during which we were superb.



After a defeat like that I just want the next game and I presume the players will be the same. We don't need any motivation now, it's all there. Bring it on.

Right decision for me. I didn’t expect him to get it but had we kicked to the corner and knocked on or missed a drop goal attempt and ended up losing I bet half the people complaining would be saying we should have gone for 2. It’s fine margins in sport and we got very unlucky last night, hitting the bar on the conversion, Hastings high shot which I thought came off the shoulder, and the bounce from the drop goal attempt.

Wrong decision. Kick to touch, head in field go for DG. Win.

It’s that simple.

I understand the rationale for going for it, waste the clock etc but it was a huge, huge unnecessary risk to take when the DG had a far better chance of success.

Our game management when it comes to decisions like that is poor IMO. But it’s done.

Do I blame Zak for the loss? Absolutely not. Do I blame French? Absolutely not.

lack of specialists cost in the end....a full back would have booted the ball out......a winger would have scored.......a kicker would have converted.......lack of money told in the end

Bit harsh there i think French expected ball to come back off the post but it bounced the other way giving Welsby a chance to get in front of him and shepherd him off the ball

No it isn't that simple at all. Going for goal was the right call as it is all in your control,BUT you have to kick it dead if you miss. If you go for touch then every play up to the drop goal has to be perfect,there are so many chances to knock on or forward pass. Then when it comes to the kick there is a chance you can still miss due to kick pressure. So it isn't as simple as you make out at all.

Right or wrong, it is no use anyone making a big issue about it it would not have affected the result of the game.

The game was lost as a result of the decision by the referee to award a harsh penalty against Hastings for a "high tackle" and the mistake by French in not dealing with a situation from a high kick.

How can it be the right decision if you thought he wouldn’t kick it?

If we kick it in touch and drop the ball first play then wevare still better off than what happened as at least we have a set defensive line which stops saints making the 60/65m they did in that set. Well imsuppose you can call it a 100m set with scoring.

If Hardaker had kicked it which not for one second did i think he would have as he was never gonna reach then i would still be saying it was the wrong call.

3 grand finals gone now with poor game management.

I thought that

Exactly right

Lack of money? we had two specialist wingers injured, and the dream team, best player at fullback.

Now you can argue that we were unlucky to have the wingers injured, but it was nothing to with lack of money.

Because it would fit in with someones anti IL/!KR agenda?

At what point did French have the opportunity to boot the ball out - due to the freak bounce of a rugby ball I’m not sure he ever got near it

Exactly, anyone who has played the game, or even just messed about with a rugby ball, knows that sometimes it can take a weird bounce that makes it take longer to get to it. Everyone is talking about that but they all seem to miss that Leuluai and Bibby totally switch off rather than chasing back after Makinson's DG attempt. Leuluai would have comfortably beaten Welsby to that ball if he had chased back IMO. He had a 10 metre head start on him when the ball was kicked. Just a momentary lapse in concentration when he was knackered but that's the bigger error than French being beaten by a dodgy bounce IMO.

As a team we didn’t chase Hardakers penalty attempt and that have Lomax an extra 30 yards he shouldn’t have had and put Makinson in the position to have a pot shot.

I’ve not really got involved in any of the chatter around should he have gone for 2, should he not, was French at fault or not, was it a penalty on Fages or not, was Welsby offside or not because they’ll drive you mad. The game was an amazing spectacle and it summed up the phrase that ‘nobody deserved to lose’ to perfection. We didn’t get many bounces of the ball but I thought the slightly better side won.

Just a quick question that we were debating yesterday. How does the one minute rule work for taking a goal kick or penalty?

Is it one minute from the offence or one minute from when the kicker receives the ball to take the kick?

When should the referee stop the clock?

1 min 20 secs from the offence (it changed to 1 min 20 secs at the same time we brought shot clock in). It's also 1 min 20 secs for a conversion attempt now before time goes off.

Another important change that came in at the same time was that during the last 5 minutes of the game, time goes off immediately after a penalty attempt that goes out of play (whether successful or otherwise), or a conversion attempt. So if Hardaker misses and puts it out of play, time goes off immediately for the 20m drop out, potentially giving Wigan time to get in DG position. If he kicks the penalty, time goes off immediately and Saints would have some time to have a go at the short 10 kick off and resulting set.

Then that extra 20 seconds that Hardaker didn't take proved very costly!!

Told ya

Yes, I thought it was one minute, it was only when you and AJ questioned it that I thought I'd "ask the expert"

He gets a prompt at 1 minute. I suspect he probably thinks that warning is when time goes off (as it used to be) rather than just letting him know he should kick it in the next 20 seconds so the club don't get a telling off/fine. Even at SL level the players don't tend to know the rules to that level of depth.

There is no anti IL/KR agenda as you keep saying.

Just supporters giving an opinion on what they think they sometimes get wrong!

Its called free speech!

Except it isn't "sometimes" it is literally all the time.

Touche