I have to say I thought the Prop rotation was very poor, assume injuries played their part.

Very odd to bring Mago on at half time in particular.

I’m of the opinion Harry Smith is to Wigan as Jordan Lilly was to Leeds.

I'm a big Harry Smith fan, but the more the weeks go by the more I don't think he is making it at Wigan. I'm clinging to the pack being no good before I judge him but how long do we do that for?

I feel like we're shooting ourselves in the foot in defence with KPP at centre and Zak on the wing. Several times tonight KPP came inside (don't blame him as a SR they tend to defend 10 yards in compared to centres) meaning Zak comes inside also and a side with someone as fast as Eden will take advantage. It needs sorting because Saints will definitely take advantage.

I keep asking myself, are they limited players or is too much being asked of them and, in turn, does that over highlight their weaknesses?

Byrne once again showed his potential tonight. Mago should have been doing what Byrne did i.e stepping up and leading from the front. I say it each week - there's not many 22 year old props in SL that can do that and already have the same number of games under their belt as him.

Partington (a player I've been critical of) showed what we all know - he's a good player. If we only had him and not a couple of others like him, he'd stand out and be a real crowd favourite. The issue is, he's not a meter maker so when he's alongside Isa and Smithies, we struggle to get on top of sides. That in turn makes people point the finger and ask if they are good enough.

You stick either one of Partington or Byrne in with a McMeeken or Walmsley and they are flying.

About 3 more years, as that's what's left on his deal. Rightly, or wrongly, it isn't Wigan's style to let him go earlier.

He could do with a season on loan imo.

As a side note, if anyone thinks this is the same situation as last year - go and watch Peet break down the game with John Wells. It's on the Sky Sports app and is a great snippet into what we're working towards. You can see there's a game plan and, apart from last week, we're scoring points.

Don’t think Peet trusts Mago, particularly defensively.

I know it’s been debated on here but IMO his fitness is poor. Not so much tonight but a lot in the other games his defensive is lazy. Lazy arms out, no ruck control etc.

Really hate to say because I’ve previous seen it as a lazy comparison but he’s almost “Feka” like.

We should be keen to get him on after 22/25 minutes and inject himself into the game and lift us, then 10 minutes after HT then maybe 10 mins at the end.

Instead we were hiding him until the second half instead relying on the young lads.

Not good tonight at all. When we were 28-6 up I was wanting us to be ruthless and put them to the sword but we just went into our shell.

Young middles played well I thought but will have to watch it back.

Great to see Havard back.

We’re similar to 2020 where we are solid enough but just relying on the brilliance of our full back for points.

I do think we’ll improve though.

28-6 and the cue went on the rack, that was the biggest disappointment, just poor attitude thinking the game was over.
Please put K P-P back into the forwards, that right hand side is painfully slow.
Reckon if Westerman had been playing 13 for us we'd've scored 50, best forward on the pitch by a mile

A strange game really. I wasn’t at all happy at half time and I didn’t feel the second half was a vast improvement but at one it looked like we could win by 30-40 points. We called for more entertainment and a better attack and a worse defence is bringing that but take Field out of the side and you start to worry that it could go more 2021 than the 2020 side with Field playing the part of French.

As for individuals, Field you can’t really say much more about. Absolutely sensational and again tonight, like the Leeds game, he makes a couple of really good tackles that get overshadowed by his brilliance with the ball.

I thought Marshall has a bit of a mare first half but did bounce back. KPP was suspect at times and it might be time to get him back in the forwards. I was really disappointed with Isa’s first spell again and that has been the case most of the season. I thought Partington offered far more when he came on and if we select on merit, he should take that 13 shirt next week. I thought Smithies, Byrne and Havard were all really strong.

I’d probably give all the senior forwards a bit of a rocket tonight tbh. Powell was ok but no more, Faz much the same, Isa ordinary in that first spell, Bateman looked crocked at times, with Westerman racing away from him with ease in the first half and then doing a spell on the wing (which surely must’ve been due to a knock) and Mago just didn’t do long enough. I don’t know if they just don’t trust his fitness enough and if that is the case, it’s poor form but I still say even though he looks gassed, he could do far more minutes.

8 points up with minutes to go against 12 men and we take a penalty goal. Peet didn't look happy as he'd signalled to play the ball.

It’s taken about 12 years but the penny finally dropped for Westerman last year and he’s currently one of the best forwards in the league for my money. I was hoping we’d go in for him part way through last season and recall being ridiculed on the other board by a couple of people for the suggestion. The lad should’ve been this good in his early-mid twenties but has wasted most of his career. He absolutely destroyed us tonight.

A sure sign that the players are a special breed sometimes. Take a tap and take a minute plus out of the game, which in turn makes it impossible for Cas to score twice or take the 2, give them a short kick off and increase their minimal chances of a win by offering them the opportunity to go back to back with try’s.

Game management or lack thereof reared it's ugly head again

I enjoyed watching Joe Westerman tonight . He was outstanding and reminded me of what we miss in Lockers.

Yep, at best score and put the result to bed, at worst play the six out for a repeat set or make Cas play the ball from their own line. Crazy decision, somebody wants a talking to for that. Luckily we got away with it.

If I remember right, wasn't Westerman bracketed with Sam Burgess as the two great hopes of English rugby league as a rookie?

Yeah, I wondered. So, who decides that? The captain on the field? Tommy?

We can't defend short kick off's must loose the ball 75% of the time so keeping the ball in their 20 and not giving them the chance of good field position was priority imo .

I wasn't coincidence either that things started to go pear shaped when "Wee Tam" went off . Game management went out of the window right then

EW

Does it matter if he’s nice if he can play big minutes, easily get over 100m and put in the required effort in defence?

How can you honestly say we are not far off being a very good side when you look at the last 3 games?

Field carried us last night.

Our winger / centres combinations is atrocious
Cust blowing hot and cold
Still feel weak in the props
Bateman stealing a marquee salary
Isa offers too little in attack to play long minutes

Imo we are miles off being a very good side.

That being said I still expect us to finish 3rd this year but that doesn’t make us a very good side. The league standard is very poor.

He spent half of the timing pointing out the errors we made.

That doesn’t make it a “game plan”

I agree

We are nowhere near we want to be, I think everyone would agree on that. We are 30 points behind Saints nine times out of ten played unfortunately.

I like Matty Peet and do think he's going to need a couple of years to put his stamp on things and we should support him on this where we will hopefully be genuine contenders.

One of the difficulties is that Saints seem even stronger than last season, but sport is cyclical with us and them swapping around for success historically.

Tough to say. If his aim is to be a good Superleague player, who can knock out 100m + in games against Wakey and Toulouse maybe not but if he wants to be doing that against Catalans, Saints or for England verses the Kiwis and Aussies then I think he does need to find a bit more of an aggressive side. That’s not aggressive in terms of kicking off with people but being aggressive with his defence, with all his carries and generally just upping his intensity.

I’m not criticising him, it’s a sign of his class that he can breeze through a game and knock out 100+ metres. I just hope we see the upturn in intensity and aggression that we’ve seen in Byrne this season. If we do then Havard could be anything. I think the world of the lad and would be showing him tapes of a prime Stuart Fielden as what he shouid be aiming for.

That clearly indicated to me that no one on that pitch in a Wigan shirt was thinking. If we hadn't reclaimed the ball after the short kick-off, which is always a lottery, we could still have lost that game.

One of several things we are desperately in need of is a real captain.

By very good I mean one that can consistently win trophies. As I mentioned I think this is a final transitional year.

Our forwards are moving in the right direction. Mago seems to be the current player to be thrown under the bus but 2 weeks ago most people we raving about him, I am confused by how he was used last night. Ellis is a cracking signing in my opinion, Havard is class Byrn, Patington, Singleton and Smithies are all very useful although probably could do with finding more consistency. Not having a natural 13 is damaging us and I would like to see that addressed in the offseason. Isa, Faz and Bateman are all too similar. Moving KPP back into the pack helps with that but we still miss that link at 13. Faz and Isa don't have that in them and Bateman looks like he is trying too hard to be that player. I would be taking the 13 shirt of Bateman in 2023 give him back the secondrow shirt and let him get back to basics. A secondrow rotation on KPP, Faz and Bateman is more effective than we currently have.

I would be comfortable to see Ellis move to 13 but if we were to look at that we would need to recruit another Prop.

We are likely to be losing from the team Hardaker and Tommy. Both need replacing with like for like ie a centre and a half. We are also more than likely going to be losing one of French/Field so we should have the finances to bring in a Prop also.

I think with 3 replacements ie half, centre and Prop/Middle this team will be there or there abouts.

I see most of our issues can be resolved with the players we currently have, however the squad is a little out of balance in certain positions and we will have to wait to see contracts run down to resolve that. Our recent history isn't good when it comes to letting declining players go and I hope we have learned from that. If we have then I genuinely see us becoming a very good side in 2023 with only a few minor adjustments.

In regards to last nights game I also think Bibby was a big miss. He is another player that I think is very underrated by some of our supporters because he isn't a big name signing.