Going forward I agreed, in defence I’d say only Houghton and Roby get close.

His work rate is exceptional and whilst I agree he lacks the punch in attack I think he is still an asset if you combine him with an explosive type hooker that we haven’t had at the club since I can’t remember when, Mark Smith probably.

Most of the Props are also all playing in packs that make big meteres and again that isn’t us, or hasn’t been for a few years. A bit more go forward from the Props makes life a lot easier for a 9.

Yes, this has been my stance since the Powell debate started. HPowell is steady and works his socks off
However, he’s not good enough to be our main hooker and at best he’s worth a squad place to cover injuries etc. I’d take any of those listed ahead of him.

Powell is one of those players who I feel guilty criticising, but though he often gives 100%, effort alone is not enough.

It's true, there are probably only a handful of hookers in the competition who are better, but it's one of those we need.

I reckon we'll finish mid-table this year at best. To return to the higher tier, we need much greater guile and invention from our pivots. Given that we'll be losing George too - and still have not announced a replacement for him - I reckon that finding a new no. 9 is as much a priority now as a couple of new props.

My point was that most clubs have a hooker that’s better than Powell (not just a handful) and I agree, it’s hard to be critical of a lad who puts in as much effort as he does.

Only for the rest of this season.

I agree, I think Sarginson is a good utility back. I suspect that he's on a wedge after returning from the NRL though, and he isn't worth it. Let go, or re-sign him on relative peanuts.

Sarg was one of the standouts tbf..along with Greenwood and Hardaker and a spelled SOL.

Sarginson tried his socks off, he would make a very good utility back/squad player.

I’ve been a fierce critic of Powell but he did alright yesterday particularly with regards effort but effort has always been his strong point. The best way to summarise Powell as to why he isn’t good enough to play 9 for us is that hes not crafty enough.

Even as a Sarginson backer he had a nightmare. Three errors from his first three touches and a shocking miss on Ryan Atkins for his try.

I thought Greenwood was poor as well tbh. He needs to find more aggression in his defence although he’s always a threat with the ball.

Hardaker had his best game in a Wigan shirt until the kick to touch and Lockers rolled back the years.

Sarginson didn’t drop the ball at the play the ball. The referee made a mistake and it resulted in Warrington’s first try!
He did make two mistakes but he also ran 60 metres to score a perfectly good try and worked hard throughout the game.
Gene miles, he ain’t, but there are about five in the team who are worse.

Spot on this. Defensively, Greenwood has improvements in him, as has Bullock who was very slow at marker for the Clarke try.
I’ve got no doubts whatsoever that Hankinson would have made the tackle on Atkins. He’s every right to feel aggrieved at not keeping his place and should come straight back in next week.

Sarginson didn’t drop the ball at the play the ball. The referee made a mistake and it resulted in Warrington’s first try!
He did make two mistakes but he also ran 60 metres to score a perfectly good try and worked hard throughout the game.
Gene miles, he ain’t, but there are about five in the team who are worse.

Apparently we we have signed Mitch Clark from Cas for next season, but already some on the Cas forum are suggesting letting him come now on loan til the end of the season, with Sarginson going the other way.

That would be an interesting development.

I'm not in the Save Sarge camp. I feel he's a mistake-machine (and always has been), and while he scored his no-try yesterday very effectively, being able to go 60 yards should only be what you'd expect from a Wigan three-quarter.

The question is, if he goes and we get a solid prop in return - which we are crying out for, could we live with Hankinson at right centre for the rest of the season?

I've not seen enough of him to be sure. Big call.

Please let that happen

I must have been at a different game then.

You probably were

he lost control of the ball

Even forgetting about the handling errors, his one to one tackle attempt on Atkins was a shocker and he did exactly the same against Saints in the first game of the season when Niqama went through him. It’s a real area of weakness for him.

Catching, tackling and passing are his areas of weakness. Maybe he should consider playing some other sport, perhaps union?

I think somebody mentioned Sarginson is probably out of position with his best position being full back and I’d fully agree with that. He was outstanding at the back end of 2016 in that role and it really suits him because of his work rate and it hides that poor sliding defence he seems to lapse in to now and again.

His issue is there’s no fullback role at Wigan for him and I’d say for a club like ours he has enough talent to be considered as a utility bench player or first back up at fullback or in the centres. In terms of squad balance I think we’d be better off without Escare for 2020 and use his money to bring in a centre, with Sarginson then backing up but that’s ideal world stuff.

Lam I think would have offloaded Escare this season if the club could have found a new club for him. At he moment I'd consider Escare the biggest "waste of salary cap" at the club.

It looks that way. We can’t afford to carry two fullbacks in the squad when you have a guy like Sarginson who could offer back up in the role. I guess it may be down to his off the field incident but I’ve been surprised to see no game time whatsoever for Craig Mullen either. He’s another that could fill in.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with guys like Escare and Sarginson going forward as well as the wing situation. The squad looks unbalanced at the moment.

The squad as you say is unbalanced I don’t think Escare has a long term future at Wigan nor Mullen it wouldn’t surprise me if Sarge got an contract though

On the right terms for Wigan I hope we keep Sarginson. We need to look at the centre spot in the longer term but short term we have bigger fish to fry. We need a rebuild in the front row and we’ll need a very good replacement for Williams. If we sort those areas and they can move players on to accommodate a new centre then great but with our current props and minus Williams, we’ll be lucky to get any higher then our current 8th position come 2020.