Wouldn't worry too much about Clubb, he's got a ban coming for the next game!

"Too late!", they cried.

This made me chuckle

Embarrassing thread. One minute we are praising our young forwards (Smithies tackling record, Partington/Byrne aggression) and a week later it's the worst forward performance in our history.

No lack of effort from our boys. They were just thoroughly outplayed from the first second of the game. Saints produced the best 40 minutes of RL I've seen this year. We were up for it, not shy of any effort but Saints were red hot and blew us away, which we all knew if they played like they can do that would happen. Credit the opposition.

Salford next week will be tough.

Pretty poor performance but I don't read too much into it saints were red hot tonight I also don't think you could beat them twice leaving the gf for the one to win.

Im not saying that you lost deliberately but I would not be so worried. Saints will go into the gf maybe a bit overconfidant? I can imagine saints would want salford in gf over you lot still.

Exactly this. I sat back at half time and said sometimes you just have to tip your hat and say well done to the opposition. That was a fantastic display of RL and in that form Saints would have given anybody a good hiding.
I actually thought Clubb’s challenge was fair. He was committed to the challenge and no way he could pull out. He also tried to wrap his arms around so not a shoulder charge. No issues for me.

If he doesn't, he may get in trouble for putting undue pressure on the ankle of Percival in the 13th minute.

I said the same to two guys in the queue for the ale at half time. Saints went 39 minutes without making a mistake and played some decent stuff so sometimes it just is how it is.
Clubb has become a passenger and even playing with injuries it is hard not to be critical of his performances. Nowt wrong with the challenge

I have got to disagree with the effort statement. We stood back and let them run at us rather than meeting them close to the ptb. Line speed was woeful. To allow the likes of Tompson 10 meters plus meters after the tackle was criminal, it had the hallmarks of a game lost before kickoff. The deficiencies in the squad have been obvious all season but the nature of our defence has gone some way to covering for that, tonight just exposed the problem. What do we tell the little uns in training? Get in his face and stop him gaining momentum. That is what Saints did to us and in return we ended up on our backsides time and time again.

I know players should play for pride but once the game gad gone it must be in the back if their minds that they have another chance next week.


The final will be different again

Not sure how you work that out, assuming you're referring to the late hit. It's just a penalty. Not a shoulder charge, not high, he was committed but it's high force after the ball has gone hence the penalty. The video ref would have come in if it had been any more.

See my previous reply, above.

Fair enough Levrier. I think the effort was there, it just wasn't smart. We were flying out the line and trying to put in big shots, but the footwork of Thompson in particular was too clever for it. That left big gaps, low numbers in the tackles for him to chew up metres. We didn't get into the Saints half for 35 minutes and that saps your energy & second half it would appear "a lack of effort" but it wasn't (for me anyway) we had just been outplayed. Saints were at 90% completion and made one error towards the end of the first half. Perfect RL.

We needed to play smart. Slow the game down. Kicks into touch. Play them out wide and stretch them left to right as opposed to trying to tackle their pack. When we pushed it out wide we scored. If they are flying out the line, kick in behind and turn them around. We were never in a million years going to match their pack.

That's my take on it.

Just watched it again to make sure it's how I remember it. Percival puts himself in a dangerous position by trying to spin round and fall forwards when Clubb has his foot held still pointing backwards. Clubb is holding it still in a natural position. If Percival stays on his feet, or falls backwards (as would be natural) we get no issue there. I'm glad Percival didn't get injured as I was expecting it when it happened.

Tony Clubb 2 carries for 11 metres.
Ollie Partington 5 carries for 20 metres.

For starting props those are absolutely disgusting stats.

Fair enough, it all depends how the disciplinary panel see it though. Percival didn't seem too impressed with him

1- We didn’t move in in defence, where Saints were up on us.

2- We made no yards when taking drives, forwards getting tackled 1m over the advantage line due to catching the ball too deep.

3- Forwards had no support runners, which allowed them to be bullied.

4- Forwards never offloaded, which never tried to tire Saints out.

5- Lockers and Powell weren’t right, I’m wondering how honest they were to Lam with regards their injuries. Lockers seemed to just let players run past him, seemed off the boil as did Powell.

6- Smithies should have started instead of Lockers.

7 - Clubb needs to drop this hard man act, it’s not 1970 and the game doesn’t allow players to do it. He’s acting like a poor mans Paul Forber.

That was diabolical on every front. Yes Saints were good; undoubtedly, but to not consider how poor we were on every front is putting your head in the sand to the extent where you might as well give up.

When the score line and stats are so one-sided, it’s not just one team being superb, it’s also the other team being so poor.

There was nothing positive to find in that game. Tactically we were a mess. It’s nearly Oct, 80mins from a GF and we’ve still only had ONE complete attacking performance all season.
In attack we lacked movement, structure and ideas. SR kicking it out on the last, interceptions you name it, it happened.
Our D lacked all what Wane installed. No aggression, no fight. No line speed no desire to crack their forwards.

To be honest, I’m sadly not surprised. We’ve had enough in us to beat most teams...but we’re no where near Saints.

If we don’t do something fast we’ll be turned over next week.

Farrell 76m
Smithies 64m
Lockers 46m
Flower 45m
Isa 31m
Partington 20m
Byrne 19m
Clubb 11m!!!
Powell 7m

This is why we didn’t get into their half.

Walmsley 122m
Thompson 180m
LMS 134m
Knowles 104m
Taia 90m
Ashworth 79m
Amor 77m
Peyroux 51m
Roby 42m

Did Partington get injured? Didn't seem to play much

Total yards made by all 9 Wigan forwards = 316 metres
Total yards by the TWO starting props for Saints = 302 metres

Pitiful. Cowardly. Spineless.

And possibly tactical?

Well, if the pathetic pack figures were made up for by metres from the back, maybe. But with the exception of Williams and Gildart, It wasn't.

Only if the tactic was to get steam rolled and bullied by their pack then it worked a treat.

Yes, we have lulled them into a false sense of security so that this week they will all go to Majorca on the pi$$ and rather than play us in the final they will be locked up in a Spanish jail. Genius. Of course they will have to take Salford with them.