am i the only one who thinks we may never see Sam in a Wigan shirt again?

Its the CC sam will be playing big money earner for the club to progress

sam wrote in the MENA that he could have played against bradford but they decided it would be better to give him one more week to come back fully fit.

Hatty said we're struggling to play as a team recently. Yes I do think that's acceptable, it's an opinion, which is what forum's are for. Is it justified? Well let's have a look at our form in the last 5 games:
Wakefield (a) - After 70 minutes we were losing against 9th place. Two late tries and a penalty won us the game
Widnes (h) - After 65 minutes we were losing against 11th place. Two late tries and a drop goal see us win by 1 point.
Warrington (a) - Beaten by 10 points against 3rd place.
Castleford (h) - Beaten by 14 points against 12th place
Bradford (h) - After 75 minutes we were losing against 10th place, nicked a winning try in the last second.

Now while it is good that we ultimately won 3 of those 5 games, none of the wins were convincing, and we've only played one top 8 team in that time. Not the form of champions, far from it. IMO it's because we looked knackered, and we seem to lack ideas near the opposition try line. We also only seem to galvanise ourselves when things are really against us. I think when S.Tomkins and O'Loughlin return we should look a lot better, it is worrying how much we rely on those two players, especially given one of them is almost certainly leaving after this season, but then again that's not a lot different to Leeds with Sinfield and Warrington with Briers, and both of them will surely retire before long.



I don't really know who you think has been slating our youngsters. If you mean no one should be able to criticise the performance of the team because there are some youngsters in it, I disagree. We have hit very poor form for a team of our calibre. I think we'll manage to beat Widnes on Monday, but that then leaves us less than two weeks to put things right before the cup semi final, which could easily be against the winner of that Warrington/Huddersfield game.

Point is, not everyone is going to agree with you, and as long as they aren't abusive, that should be acceptable. To be honest though I've seen you post worse than that about some of the young lads, Jack Murphy in particular.

Yes.

He said in the south stand bar on friday after the game that he expects to be back for the Widnes and sounded positive he would be so i think wel see him play.

Tomkins,
Charnley, Goulding, Gelling, Richards,
Green, Smith,
Flower, McIlorum, Crosby,
Hansen, Farrell,
Tuson.
Bench, Mossop, Dudson, Powell, Thornley.

It does seem that Sam will play so Hampshire misses out.
Mossop on the bench after a lay off.
Powell in as Green has not been so good the last two games and Mic Mac will need interchange. Thornley in as he can play centre, wing or 2nd row and is in better form than Hughes.

No Burke?

wrong...theres at least one other

Sam will definitely play on Monday, according to an interview with Wane on the skysports website.

Probably.

If we do not get Sam back, then like Wane said we need to be "white hot" i dont want to see a repeat of our narrow victory at their gaff, plus their assistant coach was spotted scoping out our plays etc at the bradford game with his black folder so they are preparing for us which has made me think this one could be closer than i originally thought.

Cutting the errors back is vital in this one, the last 2 games error count have been unnacceptable.

Coaches watching other teams plays!!!! Whatever next!

I wonder if they can get videos of all their opponents games. What I great idea, I think I'll contact the clubs too see if they are interested.

Id even go as far as getting DVD's instead of videos!

RG only has Betamax..

I thought it was Phillips 2000.

Bit O/T i know, but i recall seeing my first video machine at school, about 1972, they had to wheel it in on a trolley!!

Lockers will be playing, should be a pretty strong team for the first time in a while.

Where did you hear that Lockers is playing?

From the horse's mouth I suspect. JTB is an expert moiderer

I can see Wigan smashing Widnes by 30 or 40 points.

Usually accompanied by finger wagging

It's steeped in tradition:

EDWARD
[iHis name that valiant duke hath left with thee;
His dukedom and his chair with me is left.[/i

RICHARD
[iNay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird,
Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun:
For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom say;
Either that is thine, or else thou wert not his.[/i

March. Enter WARWICK, MONTAGUE, and their army

WARWICK
[iI come this night with moiderous intent.[/i