I agree with this, Tommy was having a really good season before the injury, for me I’d be looking at having him on the bench at the very least and then you have the option to rotate the halves and even one of Tommy or Cust can drop in at hooker.

I’m with you in terms of him not being as quick as those but he’s surprised me just how quick he actually is. I’d have thought French would get him on Saturday. Maybe French took a while to get going due to noticing LMS has played basketball in the build up!

Welsby had a 10yrd head start by the time French had turned around so he did well to get back and get a challenge on him

Not sure what you mean when you say you thought French would get him? Do you mean stop him scoring or catch him because, whilst he didn't manage the former, he most certainly did the latter.

Whilst everyone is saying French/Field/Grace is rapid,Welsby is fast,Makinson/Percival is pretty fast no one mentions Marshall who out paced Makinson and Percival in the semi.
So we have 3 very fast players Saints have 1,I personally would swap any of our three for any of their wingers/full back .

Welsby got French with a nice fend at the start - that's what gave him the momentum to get away.

He's one of those players who seems to glide around the field with more time to play than most others. Didn't think he was a realistic England contender at the start of the year - now I think he has to be in the spine somewhere. Probably best to stick with the Saints pairing of him and Lomax although Wane may decide to stick with Williams if he improves his form late on in the season.

Disappointing result for Wigan when it was in our hands twice but being in the contest right till the end is all we can hope for against Saints this year. I would be very happy If the same situation is replicated in the playoffs - we're definitely not going to beat them comprehensively that's for sure. Then it will all be about who handles the pressure best in the last 15 and I'm sure both coaches will refer to these earlier games when giving the playoff team talks.

3 game ban for Singleton.

We also have Matautia with a 1 game ban, late hit on passer.

Should have been sent off. WE WERE ROBBED!!!!

Also Sir James Roby charged with a high tackle but zero matches, IT'S A FIX !!!!!

That'll be the one Farrell cheated to win a penalty from

And did that late hit by Matautia result in a penalty on the day

It was for a late hit on Field after he passed to French for the first try. I've seen it back and no complaints really. He's copped for a few similar type bans so needs to refine his technique.

Fair enough I’ll take the try

Why would it ? A try was scored so advantage was played.

And that’s why I said I’d take the try. I just couldn’t remember a penalty for a late hit

The Matautia ban is for the tackle on Field in the lead up to the first try?! Wow, I'm really struggling to see how that is a 1 match ban, it's a nothing tackle on someone (very effectively) taking the ball right into the line to commit a defender. Bizarre.

There must be 10-15 of those every game.

I've criticised Sione for some of his tackles this season but come on now.

8 bans from the weekends games. We’re back in ‘everything is a yellow, red and/or a ban’ territory. It’s all come from your game last week, when at least one and probably two red cards weren’t handed out, so we get the outrage over the week and then they flip back to early season decisions. We’ll have this for a few weeks now and then they’ll cave in to all the moaning and nothing will be a red/yellow/ban again and that cycle will be repeated until such a time the whole refereeing and disciplinary system is overhauled.

Sad but true.

We need the best players on the pitch and not up in the stands.

Something really bad (like some of Napa and Kane Evans antics this year, Powell crusher too) should get 1/2 games.

The product needs to stay as strong as possible and every club already gets enough injuries.

Sort it out with fines they’d soon stop it.

It's a farce. If this was amateur rugby league, clubs would not be able to fulfill their fixtures.

Well, it can't have been that bad as nobody picked up on it during the game. It is virtually impossible to pull out of some of these tackles, slowing the offence in slow motion does nobody any favours.

Not surprising to hear, but Singo wouldn't make my starting 17. Three games, with Ellis back (hopefully), is a god send imo

Ellis & Byrne to start. Mago and Havard on the bench. Also start Smithies and move Isa to bench instead of Shorrocks.

But some of these so-called offences don't even warrant a trip to the disciplinary and if they do there is absolutely no consistency in the action the committee are taking. Powell gets a long ban for a crusher, which I agree with, whilst Fash commits the same offence and does not even receive a ban! It's ludicrous.

A lot of positives to take out of saturday IMO. We played pretty poorly for the majority of the game, much like in the cup final, with an error strewn display. However, this time we weren’t able to pull it off and Saints were deserved winners.

We looked really comfortable after 40 mins, considering the amount of ball Saints had due to our errors. I think if we have an even share of ball against them, we win. That being said, important lessons to be learned, and we would rather it happen at Magic than in the play offs.

I walked away from the game really positive about our chances for further silverware this season. I am convinced we will meet them in a one-off game in the play offs and it might just be the best game yet between the two sides this season.

The less said about the refereeing calls the better. We definitely had some really poor calls against us (no try before half time, Welbsy try and the Singleton red).

What was wrong with the Welsby try?.