I thought on Friday we fought well but were nowhere near clinical enough. Defensively we muscled up quite well considering how dangerous Leeds can be with ball in hand. I don't know how much the loss of Aiton affected them. He's one of the best hookers in the league but Leeds are also probably the team best equipped to deal with the loss of a hooker because they are so adept at creating opportunities through offloads. It's not really relevant anymore with Aiton out for the season.

In the first half the attack was pretty sloppy, especially when going from left to right. Initially I thought Bowen was looking off the pace and getting caught in possession too much but some of the passes he received from Smith were very sloppy. All things considered Smith had a poor game. With ball in hand he just doesn't seem to offer anything. Occasionally he'll create a try with a good pass or a well placed kick, or break the line, but it's only ever occasionally. He's our most experienced half, he's an England international. What we're getting from him is nowhere near enough. I can understand that he might be very important to the organisation of attacks, but our attack certainly didn't look very organised on Friday. It's been the case frequently throughout this year.

Our front row was okay. There's no point expecting any of them to be world beaters. Leeds' 'middles' in Cuthbertson, Peacock and Garbutt all made over 120m, while our front row was Flower 80m, Clubb 53m, Mossop 52m, Sutton 38m, Patrick 25m. Our props don't do much with ball in hand but I thought defensively they were very good and prevented Leeds from offloading as they would have liked.
Our back row, as you'd expect, was were we made more ground. Farrell and Tomkins made good ground and if it weren't for Farrell and Williams we'd barely have been able to cross the try line in the last few weeks. Both seem to be finding good form and creating an understanding.

While Bateman isn't much of an attacking threat in the centres he defends brilliantly (something Tomkins really didn't do at centre). He kept Moon quiet all night and I thought Gelling did a good job on Watkins.

Charnley and Manfredi were solid. I do think we don't get as much out of Manfredi when he plays on the left. I'd have stuck him on the right and played Charnley on the left side, although with Burgess back this coming week it probably won't matter.

Bowen looked dangerous but I hope he isn't overworked. We know he's not in the shape he used to be and the Cowboys didn't think his body was up to the high intensity of the NRL. We might not reach the same level but certainly our early games in the Super 8's have been high in intensity and with Wire up next it will be a real test of Bowen's fitness.

Leeds are definitely the best team in Super League so far. The others teams will have to hope they can reach that level by the end of the season. They are looking good for a clean sweep and with Sinfield and Peacock going at the end of the year they have extra emotional motivation that I feel will give them an edge when it matters. We are going to have to play smart and hope that a few players have been leaving a little bit in the tank on purpose so they can really turn it on over the next couple of months.

I came to visit here to see what your opinions were . Didn't even finish the first page .. Is the standard start to a post after a loss 'I don't usually bag the ref but ......' .. or something along those lines ?

It was a great game to watch . One thing I would suggest though is that the people that sing we hate the Leeds scum check the teamsheet and find out where some of their heroes were born and bred . It can't be much fun for a player when the supporters of the team you are playing for are shouting that they hate the residents of your home town.

And I don't suppose it's much fun representing your own country and having your own home fans booing you either like Sam Tomkins has to put up with at Headingley. Still it takes all sorts eh?

Not saying we will but certainly more confident that we'll win the title after that game than before it.

Agreed having watched the game back again. The Leeds tries came from 50/50 calls and the odd bounce of the ball, although I do still think they deserved to win. We have yet to put in an 80 minutes performance this year, I can't help but think there is a great team somewhere in there. We're just letting ourselves down at times with silly penalites and naive attacking play. O'Loughlin's penalty 1 minute before half time being a prime example! The next 3 games are winnable and that should make us considerable favourites for 2nd IMO.

I really hope this Millwall fiasco doesn't come back to bite us !

Good point. I believe our season's success depends on getting a home tie in the semis. It seemed particularly reckless, not to say stupid, to jeopardise that by playing a 'home' game at the home of football hooliganism. Winning Super League is a bigger 'marketing' opportunity for the club than any nonsense in South London. Let's hope Catalans have declared their season over by then.

If I remember correctly it was not the Leeds fans who were booing. It was another group of supporters in the Southstand that Wigan fans assumed were Leeds fans.
Having said that as far as Leeds fans are concerned they are most likely booing him after the 2 finger salute he gave them at Wembley.
But back on topic it will be a great final if both Leeds and Wigan make it.
I still have grave concerns that the loss of Aiton will prove costly.

Happy to believe you about the booing. If only it were true. The game he was booed at Headingley was England versus the Exiles in June 2011. A full two months before the Challenge Cup Final.

Which might help explain to you the two fingered salute. I was at both games and that is my recollection. Of course I may be wrong. It has been known.

The boo-meisters got aerated by ST's period of holding down, before (I assume) he got told to pack it in. Or at least not to make it so blindingly obvious. The V-flick was in response to the abuse (mainly from Whinos) he'd been getting all season.

(I fully expect it to resume next year)

V-flicks at fans (whatever the provocation) is something we don't want to see from any player, and the RFL should sanction it accordingly, whether from Sam T or anyone else.

Likewise, booing England players is disgraceful. But shouldn't be illegal.

You and me both mate.
I agree with you that if playing for England no matter what club they play for the English crowd should get behind the english players.
Although McGuire had his fair share of boos when playing for GB.

At Wembley? I remember that, it was the 50,000 London fans booing him.

What about Williams' so called knock on. He ran it on the fifth, was tackled in the centre of the field, dropped it backwards towards the Wigan posts and the pushed it along the ground towards the Wigan players. How was that a knock on?

Thank god I'm not going mad! Stood at the ground going off my nut about that but nobody around me seemed to disagree with the ref.

Crazy call but still the second most laughable of the evening after one in the second half were a Leeds player looked to be break dancing on top of Manfredi in centre field whilst he tried to play the ball but didn't get penalised.

[urlhttp://www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-warriors/wane-rfl-admit-video-calls-were-wrong-1-7416290[/url

SHAUN Wane says RFL officials have “held their hands up” and admitted video referees made incorrect decisions in their loss at Leeds...

“We like tempo games, the faster it is, the more it suits us better and teams don’t like playing against us.”

I'm starting to think I agree with those who say (both here and in the NRL) that we have way too much of the VR, and going back to a snap decision on the field in real time would be an improvement. Games like the Leeds one, where several try decisions, going both ways, looked dubious, only increase my conviction.

And, to be fair, in the NRL, where they have two refs, there's even less excuse for going to the VR all the time.

Wane is clearly cracking under the pressure when he said that the RFL officials have “held their hands up” and admitted video referees made incorrect decisions in their loss at Leeds

IMO the VR also failed to pick up the shove on Briscoe that led to a try or is that one of the decisions that Wane was alluding to?

Did Shaun complain about the video ref or referee when we beat Leeds whilst we were awarded 12 points through incorrect decisions on the night in round 21 when we won by 2 points?

This man is an embarrassment to our great club and the sooner he is relieved of his duties the better

He is clearly trying to divert his failings as a coach by getting us all to believe that we have been badly done to and thus buying him some more time to save his neck

The VR's got it wrong and have admitted it.
No doubt SW was asked about it at the pressy and he replied as quoted.

As for the Leeds game at our place, no one mentions the two tries Leeds scored with forward passes during the play leading to the touchdowns. That "obstruction no try" had a forward pass if not two in the play prior to McGuire touching down.
There were forwards passes all over the place in out home game v Leeds yet not one was blown up by the ref. Same with the Widnes game at the DW, not one forward pass blown by the ref in the entire game.
The refs and VR's need to improve and massively.

The Monday review session of the referees at Red Hall after the game at the DW agreed that the obstruction try had been incorrectly disallowed. The split was 2-1, Bentham thought it was a try, Silverwood had given no and the second video ref, I think this was Ian Smith, said no try. Ian Smith's call was incorrect and he was dropped as video ref for the subsequent week.

The difference is that Leeds didn't go on about this the following week, they let it go. If the head coach of a club is still complaining about decisions five days later despite his team losing by more than two scores (and it was only that close because Leeds let up in the final 20) then he is failing to focus on the really important matters at hand. So yes I think, to say the least, he is rattled.

Mr Wane wants to keep his trap shut (I think that is the correct terminology), what is wrong is you can get a very important game over judged by the video ref which can include errors.
But what makes the sport look amateurish is because a fair percentage of SL matches are not televised, this is why I come back to my statement regarding keeping his trap shut. If the match a few weeks ago at home against Salford had been on TV I am pretty convinced that at least one of the late Wigan tries that won the match would have been chalked off.

Why do people think the VR system isn't working in SL. The change to forcing the ref to make a call really helped in the NRL. Firstly it took pressure off the ref, as though forced to make a call they know it will be reviewed. Its also taken pressure off the VR, who used to spend an age looking for the smallest reason to disallow a try, but now has to find clear evidence in order to overrule the on-field ref. It seems to work much better in the NRL (although there are still the inevitable mistakes). Why isn't it going as well in SL?

Why indeed? I used to like the current system in the NRL, and was pleased when it was introduced here, like you. But a large number of the matches I've watched this season, both in SL and the NRL, have made me change my mind.