SW has explained on Wigan TV why certain players won’t play.

ST - foot injury
Flower - Achilles injury from last season, not worth aggravating it on the Ipitch
Bateman- illness
Sarginson - Back spasm

All plausible reasons and it’s sensible not to risk anyone unnecessarily. We’re going well but there’s a long way to go yet and I’d rather we had a full strength side out in the GF play offs than at Widnes in April.

Got a bad feeling about this, chuck 2 points away tonight and it could bite us in the come the business end of the season.

18-4 to Widnes discipline shocking

2 Points, who's next.....

Phew !

I couldn't make the game. Did Tautai play well, or just pop up with the winner? Would be great if he's started hitting form

Tomkins, Bateman, Flower & Faz rested. Escare, Hamlin, Ganson & Navarette got good game time. Escare scored a cracker and 2 more league points in the bag! Seems this Shaun Wane bloke might know a bit about rugby league.
Budgie could be out for a long long time and is the only negative from tonight’s game.

Tautai ran hard and caused them problems. Looks like he's getting his pre contract form back.
Some good tries scored in teh come back. Escare's was a belter!

As busy as I’ve seen him in a long while I felt, even before the winner. It was such a frustrating performance overall. We were in total command at 4-0 and it flipped on an appalling penalty give away by Isa and Navarette on the last tackle which they went and scored off.

Credit where it’s due for the never say die attitude again but I want to see us put a first half performance in.

Sarginsons back spasm was last week. With Bateman ill he brings back Tomkins so he had obviously decided to rest him originally while doing so at the same time as leaving other key players out as in Faz, Sam T and Flower. Other teams seem far less afraid of the plastic pitch than we are and have hammered Widnes at home this season. We always seem to make a lot of changes and in the past we have a lost and drawn games there and only just scraped a win tonight. I doubt leaving players out tonight will have any bearing at all on who we have available in the playoffs. It's April and a games rest when there are something like 20 odd fixtures left (league, S8's and cup) isn't going to make any difference and as I said he could have used his bench to rest players in the game had we been cruising. The best that can be said of tonight's game is he got away with it.

For anyone who could not go to the game it's worth paying for Wigan TV just to watch Escare's try. He reminded me of Jason Robinson!

That bloody pitch is a menace,

I’d love to see him in tandem with a creative player like Tomkins going forward but I honestly think he’ll be back out the side next week. Wane made a point of saying he’d done some good things but was rusty in others and has things to work on.

Our halves made so many wrong choices it beggered belief (in the first half especially) and I’d have thought it was those two in particular who ‘have things to work on’.

Last night has me pretty worried about the HKR cup tie. We just can’t get going in games first half and in a high pressure cup game it’ll be tougher to come back. Hopefully that knock out element will help give them some focus.

Morgan may get Burgess's wing spot but I agree with you overall about the halves. However, did my eyes deceive me or did Williams actually make a break late on and run past someone? Marquee stuff indeed......

You’d think Davies will just come back in but I really think we need to go back to that Escare option on the bench.

I’ve defended Williams this season because he’s had some really good performances mixed in with some bad ones but that was one of the real bad ones last night. In the first half when he needed to keep it short, he’d throw a wild pass out to the wing and when he needed to give the cut out ball he’d go short or go himself. It’s so frustrating because he’s just so talented.

Far be it for anybody to say SW got the selection right eh? It’s not about resting players, it’s about not taking unnecessary risks. We lost Shorrocks for a full season due to a knee injury on that pitch and we lost Gregson with a knee injury for the season on that pitch. Now it looks like we may have lost Burgess long term with the same injury as well so it appears last night’s selection may well have a bearing on the play offs and I totally understand the club’s reluctance to take unnecessary risks.

He did have a good game, and it was his offload that put Escare away for his try too, if I remember rightly.

I’d keep Sam at fullback and play Escare at #7, with Powell and TL rotating at #9. Wane seems to notice faults in his play that we don’t see, though. His try was classic halfback support play a la Shaun Edwards.

I’d love to avoid criticising Wane because there’s times when the bloke can do no right in some people eyes but his treatment of Escare has been ordinary this year IMO. Out of our options in the fullback, halves and hooking roles he seems to be the fall guy and I don’t get it. When he’s played he’s offered a real threat with the ball and even if it’s just as an impact option from the bench, he should be in the side.

Yep, I’ve defended Wane a lot over the years but I don’t get how Escare can be left out at times, especially given that after 12 games, Powell has created nothing. His defence is unquestionable but he seems bulletproof where SW is concerned. I’d love to see Escare given an opportunity.

Waney can't leave out Escare after that game and his try. OK he was out of position for their try scored on the wing but if he's rusty as Wane said then leaving him out will not help him improve.
WE got away with that win but the RFL need to look at Widnes and the injuries their pitch is causing.

Waney can't leave out Escare after that game and his try. OK he was out of position for their try scored on the wing but if he's rusty as Wane said then leaving him out will not help him improve.
WE got away with that win but the RFL need to look at Widnes and the injuries their pitch is causing.

Sadly I think he will or he’ll do what he did with Hamlin and give him ten minutes next week and when he doesn’t offer as much in that ten minutes as he did in an extended spell (or full game in Escare’s case) he’ll be left out the following week.

Wane gets more right then wrong and in terms of wins and entertainment you can’t knock him this season in most respects but as the years roll by (and the injuries have dried up) he gets more and more Brian Noble esq in his team selections.

The halves again weren’t up to much surely one of them and at this point I don’t care which need a spell out and let either Sam or EScare have a bash in there,wigan have to start as well playing from the off once again a better side would have closed them down and had done with it,Widnes thankfully weren’t that side.

Good game though plenty to get excited over I’m not a fan of resting players I always think it disrupts the teams flow for weeks after the game Wane makes the change for but onwards we go.

Did Hamlin get decent minutes here?