It was a real mixed bag last night. For long periods it was bring predictable rugby. At other times you saw glimpses of class. Hastings provided 3 assists, French scoring 2 and setting up another from the quick tap, Bullock looked good, Smith showd some good signs. We just need to see improvement each week, which shouldn't he hard as we have not been good for more than a few short periods over the 3 games so far.

Thought Smith and Farrell were Wigan's best. Bullock was good too but not very difficult to improve on those starting props - Clubb a complete waste of space and Partington is powder-puff in the carry, no resistance to contact at all. Far too soon for him to be starting games.

Toronto running out of men turned the game, they weren't exactly worn down by Wigan. Early days, both teams will improve but got to worry about Toronto's depth.

That game should have been 30-0 at half time, Lam is out of his depth.

French is pure class attack wise, I’ll go against the grain and say French to 6 and Hardaker back to 1 when Gildart is fit for our strongest 13.

I think there where some good signs in the second half of what we can be capable of when everything gels but the first half was pretty garbage. I think as soon as Manfredi is back he has to come in and Burgess be dropped. Yes, he scored but his application at the moment is abysmal

Huge test coming up next week v Hull and if we play the same I can’t see anything other than a loss. Lam is well out of his depth for me and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again he feels very Keiron Cunningham.

Yes there were some positive signs but for the most part we were boring, predictable and frustrating to watch.

I’d say our strongest side is :

1 - Hardaker
2 - Manfredi
3 - Gildart
4 - Bibby
5 - Marshall
6 - French
7 - Hastings
8 - Flower
9 - Leuluai
10 - Bullock
11 - Farrell
12 - Greenwood
13 - Lockers

14 - Smithies
15 - Burgess
16 - Byrne
17 - Isa

Slightly different for me and in fact I’ll go for 2 sides I think are our strongest (strange as that sounds)

1. Zak - French
2. Manfredi
3. Gilly
4. Bibby - Zak
5. Marshall
6. French - Smith
7. Jax
8. Burgess
9. Powell
10. Bullock
11. Smithies
12. Partington - Faz
13. Faz - Lockers

14. Flower
15. Isa
16. Havard - Bryne
17. Smith - Bibby - Greenwood

Phil Wilkinson made a good point on his Wigan Today article. It was March 31st when Wigan had 4pts on the table last year.

i got a new phone yesterday, got it out the box and had it on me as i went to a meeting straight after lunch, while i was in there it started making some notification noises, needing updates and stuff, i hurriedly farted about as the bosses were looking at me, trying to put it on silent.

Couple of minutes later it started emitting:

'Don't call me shirley, dont call me shirley'

I got it out of my pocket, turns out i'd put it on Airplane mode.





Carry on

Manfredi, George Burgess, Flower and Powell could be in contention next week

I thought Burgess looked a lot more involved this week, yes he dropped that dolly of a kick but overall he looked a lot more eager and I thought he was matching Marshall for the hard graft clearing our line.
He may well of had another try in the first half except for that shocker of a pass from Farrell (same as last week).
Overall a big improvement from Burgess, maybe knowing Manfredi is almost ready is finally concentrating his mind.

I expected the win if im honest, cant see anything but a long season for the Wolfpack and the relegation battle that surely awaits them.

so im not going to proclaim the new dawn is here but the team did a job, made hard going at times but once they wore them down only one winner.

Hastings caught my eye, always chatting and directing the team round, can only improve things as the season moves along.

Same here, I don't get the ridiculous level of negativity in this thread. I wasn't happy at HT because it was obvious they were missing a few and I said we ought to put at least 30 on them, which we did in the end. The first half was very much about wearing the opposition down with very conservative rugby, we completed at 90% and didn't make any errors, and I think that was important after last week. As a paying spectator, I don't particularly enjoy watching it but I understand the tactic.

But when we turned it on, it was good to watch - Farrell's inside pass to French was almost impossible to defend. As well as Hastings and French having strong games in the backs, it was good to see Joe Bullock's contribution and I thought Smithies made good metres with ball in hand. On the negative side, a lot of ball watching within our 20m led to their tries and we couldn't stop their offloads. Not getting carried away, it's 3 games in with a lot of new combinations against weak opposition. Next Sunday will give us an idea of how we compete at the top end of the table.

A couple of people have mentioned the referee's performance. I don't understand how a bloke can ref one half in one way and come out with a completely different style of officiating after halftime. I don't know who the officials talk to at HT or whether they get reviewed by Ganson or the video ref, but the conspiracy theories being shouted out about Sky wanting to see an 'upset' seem as good an explanation as any. This sort of inconsistency within one game is very frustrating for the spectators and especially for the players. After Isa (legally) pasted their forward and Hastings blew up and got penalised, I thought the game might get away from us, but thankfully the team regained their composure.

Anyway a bit of positivity, at the end of Round 3 we're either going to be joint top or just two points off the top.

On that point I have been reminded that wasn't Isa himself clattered last season at Anfield, dropped the ball as a result and the very same ref gave the knock on?

It was Tauati, and he never made an attempt to get up etc. So even less reason to give a knock on.

What was annoying yesterday was that Springer had got to his feet, played/dropped the ball facing the wrong way and it was 7 seconds after the hit he blew.
He blew AFTER Springer had already done all of that.

Now if were going down that path, expect to see players knocking on at the play the ball and then getting injured to negate the knock on.

It may be a bit harsh, but any knock on BEFORE the referee blows his whistle has to be a knock on (or a penalty for the tackle, which last night it wasnt).

Yes very annoying, I thought I was right thinking he'd already knocked on before the ref blew.

The penalty was given for decent by Hastings.
He was still fuming from the forward pass incident.

The dissent was because hastings was arguing with the ref because hed allowed Springer to play the ball again and bot give a knock on

I actually think the ref got Hastings fired up and he controlled himself brilliantly and started to express himself more with his ability

Watching last nights game Toronto I don't think, actually played the ball all night. I know it's a common method these days, but I can't recall them actually touching the ball with their foot at all.

It was nice to see the half backs getting an opportunity to play behind a couple of forwards who were going forward.

This is bang on, it sometimes seems unfair but that’s what the rules state.

X2

I thought it was going to be Steve Hesford who you'd offended, and was ringing back to chastise you.
Carry on