Nsemba gets the week off, French to fb Hampshire at 6

I wonder of there's a hint there that Junior might just get an England call up? Presumably Walters gets an 80 min gig!

Really disappointed we haven’t played Farrimond as we gain absolutely nothing with Hampshire playing and just as I write this he messes up in defence and they score.

Absolutely horrible, one-sided performance by the fat guy in the middle.

I'm sick to my back teeth of these sycophantic see you next Tuesday's ruining every game, every week.

Absolute scum bags. Every single one or them.

Look a bit scrappy and loose but too be expected after the cup win, hopefully peet gets into them at half time bit of a rocket up the booty so to speak

That obstruction call in the first half was an absolute shocker and the Leeming one was very poor as well.

Take the two points and move on, apparently only the second team to win the week after winning the cup in the last decade, us being the other team after beating Hudds.

Well...2 points. Just about did enough. I think our season restarts after the international break in all honesty - weve had good luck having games against Cas and London between then and the cup final.

Very disappointed with Hampshire again tonight, offers less than nothing. I hope we see Farrimond next week

There’s just nothing there is there? No aggression in attack or defence, just no impact on his teammates around him and looks like he should just pack the game in such was his body language.

Very poor watch that, scrappy and dis-jointed - no one really had a good game (Thompson & Ellis probably out best players). Both teams were poor but still two points so onward. Ref never let the game flow and seemed to be operating a new interpretation of the contact with the head rules.

God the Sky team were bad - the guy commentating seemd to be two plays behind for most of the game and had major trouble identifying players (and WIlkin was just his normal self) plus the continual long shots of the coaches when the game was going on.

Poor all round.

Rocky Hampshire is NOT Wigan standard

Danson needs to get his hand in his pocket and sign Cleary as back up half

Time to shuffle him off,hes simply added nothing in the odd game he gets picked for for me hes starting to block the young lads queuing up to get a game now enoughs enough

The one thing you'd say in Hampshire's defence is that he's only ever been given the odd game, not really having the chance to get rid of any rustiness or play himself into form.

But he was totally anonymous today and was obviously very poor against Wire. If there's not a serious improvement against London (I'm guessing he'll play even if we bring Farrimond in) then that might be him done.

I'm really struggling to see how Byrne gets banned for weeks on end and, in the spirit of impartiality, how Watts got banned after the season opener, but that wasn't even a pen for the swinging arm Vs Leeming. Not even a pen FFS.

What did Walters get a pen against him for? Looking aggressive?

Marshall gets the ball stripped over the line because the tackler had the ball "wrapped", but Hill gets done for the same.

Wigan get done for crossing as Faz touches the defender, but on the Cas try that's fine.

The game is never going to be what it should, until fans & sky stop accepting these dire ref performances.

To be honest that was a bonus 2 points. We were always going to be flat after last week, delighted to come away with the points.

I’m now completely bemused with the high tackle laws. How can Cooper and Duffy get binned last week and Cas end the game with a full complement of players this week?

The one on Leeming was a swinging arm direct to the head, no mitigation as there was no change in height. Not even a penalty given.

The one on Miski was a shoulder direct to the head, been a red card all year.

The one on Eckersley was a swinging arm direct to the head and would have been ignored if Walters hadn’t come running in.

This 100%. It will be interesting to see what the MRP think of the incidents on Monday. Cain Robb will surely be in some bother for the tackles on Leeming and Miski. Miller should be sat down too. All 3 of those tackles have been cards of some sort this year. Real incompetent display by Thaler, and it's a shame for him personally as at one time, he was a very good official.

Real gutsy display to defend our lead when we poked our noses in front. We were so poor yet walked away with two points. There was an eery silence from the Cas fans at full time; they put in a huge effort last night.

Need to get somebody else in that can cover FB/HB/SO that is a better option than Hampshire, we need to cut Isa lose and scour the NRL/NSW/Queensland cup, or bring in Mason Lino or another

It’s more the VR than Thaler who is incompetent. The VR has the benefit of several replays before making a decision. FWIW I don’t think any of them should be cards but that is not the rules we are playing to and a different discussion.

Bilko on twitter sums it up well -

“If we do win League Leaders and/or Grand Final you'll look back on tonight, the Warrington match before the cup final, nicking the match at Salford in March. An ugly six points, without we'd be sixth.

London then a week off for all but England calls up could be timely.”


Was all about just getting a win last night.

With only 3 away games left to be joint top with a game in hand and a WCC and Cup in the bag is some effort.

The on field decision re cards is a lottery, like Coopers at Wembley towards the ones tonight are ridiculous in comparison. The thing that compounds that is the disaplnary outcomes are the same just inconsistent. Hiku in the semi, Tai week before Wembley are examples of how mind blowing it all is. When you start bringing mitigation into decision and you have an incident like Coopers, that's carded it's laughable. Especially seeing all three last night was worse than Coops and reviewed, one not even getting a penalty. Obviously I'm looking at Wigan incidents here and this will be the same for all clubs. It's a joke when fans seem to have a more common sense approach as one's employed to make decisions, very confusing to say the least.

Hampshire needs to go at the end of this season. Last season he was was a nice luxury to have, this one he is an obstacle actively blocking a highly rated young player and not even doing a good job in the process.

I don't even think we need to replace him, Eckersley and hopefully a more mature Sumner cover fullback and Farrimond covers halfback.

Just to round it off Walters will probably pick up a ban!

Anyone heard if Eckersley passed his HIA last night ?