Me too. In the meantime i wouldnt mind Russell at full back with Sam 6 and Tommy 9. That would make a big difference imo.

Anyone else spot the pattern here?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Micky Mac but I don't think he offers enough creativity.

Yes get rid of that finch he slows the team down

I remember in the late eighties and early ninties the players used to start the season like muscle bound wrestlers,some of the players came out of the tunnel as if they had a grapefruit under each arm.
Early in the season was when they lost most of their matches,but once they had worked the excess weight training out of their system they used to finish the season like greyhounds.
So to me this may be what is happening now (Wayne was part of that bulking up era remember), also Wigan had two halfbacks in Greg and Edwards who could come into their own when Wigan moved into top gear.
Therfore the point about halfbacks is the main problem with Wigan,they are just not good enough. This is compounded when Tommy moves to hooker and Sean moves to standoff.
Just no creativity at all.

Reminded me of our win at Hudds last year. Nobody really fancied Hudds yesterday with a fair few key players missing, but they all stepped up, put 80 mins hard graft in and took the chances that came their way. I'd like to think that we'd never be daft enough to under-estimate a team like Huddersfield, but it seemed to be the case.

Hudds were lying on and messing about all game and is something they have always done for as long as I can remember. This is not what Wigan did under Madge which was far a smarter tackling technique and had to be coached and learned and is how they do things in the NRL.



He wasn't biased but did not pick up on lying on or offsides which is why we needed our captain to "Do a Sinfield" and to try and ref the game.

Discipline was an issue for me that not many have mentioned. We probably had at least our fair share of territory, yet how many times did we let Hudds out of their own 20 by giving away penalties? Answer - a damn sight more than they did to us.

Wrong. This is quite simply a myth that has attempted to work its way into popular conciousness by dull repetition. Wigan have adopted spoiling tactics in the tackle and at the play the ball with monotonous regularity. This nonsense that they somehow do it legally, whilst everyone else around them cheats is just daft and anyone save the most afflicted Cyclops fan can recognise that.

ALL teams attempt to slow down the ptb. Wigan do so by using the same methods as everyone else. This holier than thou stance just won't cut it.

So, was it Huddersfield "lying on" that caused Wigan to...

1) Place nearly every kick with lazer-like accuracy down throat of the defence, giving Hudds a good 5-8 meter start on their exit sets?

2) Drop the ball in key postions quite often?

3) Throw wild passes that hit the floor on more than one occasion?

4) Look unfit, slow & generally a yard off the pace?

5) Make our prop forward, who has only been back in training a matter of days, step round your fb & leave him on the ground in a heap to score the match-winning try?

And so on and so forth...I can't be bothered to type out any more.

As I said before, you were beaten by a better team on the day, that's the top & tail of it. And it's only round one for goodness sake.

But no, there will always be that certain sort of fan who will say the other side cheated, the ref did us etc etc instead of just saying the other team played harder, better and wanted it more.

Hudds deserved that victory, Wigan didn't, whether you like it or not.

I think 99% of posters on here would agree

Spot on. The negative attitude from Wigan fans defys belief at times both on the terraces and on this very forum. I really do believe that there is a few Wigan fans who think we have the devine right to win every game and for whatever reason wo do not win a match its either the refs fault or a complete knee jerk reaction and for certain players to be axed.

Just one game ffs and it was a tough one too. Bring on the Rhino's!

If you can find anywhere where I have said Huddersfield did not deserve to win you might have a point but you won't so you don't.

My observations are just that. Observations that Huddersfield were lying on whe defending and getting away with it and given they were it was up to Wigan to deal with it which they didn't.

What Hudersfield didn't do was slow the PTB down the way Wigan [ulearned[/u to do under Madge which is all to do with the tackle, not lying on, which is why it was rarely penalised (and which I have no doubnt is why it gets up other fans noses). Only a blind fan can't tell the difference between lying on and holding the tackle up. It only doesn't cut it with people such as yourself who can't tell the difference or more likely don't want to see it. As I have said Hudds had a game plan and stuck too it and it paid off.

Yes we need to improve in certain departments but its only one game and I think we can get much better and more dominant but we do need to sort the halves, we need a decent kicking game urgently!

Right so bending the rules is alright if you LEARN to do it.

So when your number one spends a lot of time holding players down when they have tackled him to get a penalty that is alright because he LEARNED how to do it.
Some would say that your use of dummy runners pushed the obstruction rule to the limit but then again if they LEARNED to do it , that is alright.
When Lima comes in asthe third man on a standing players knees that is alright because hebLEARNED to do it.

Go give your head a shake Dave.

All teams and players utilise whatever advantage they can get. Wigan have mastered it

"Physician, heal thyself."

Only the most blinkered Huddersfield fan would deny that they came with the intention to lie on in the tackle as long as they possibly could to slow the pace of the game down. It was a blatantly obvious tactic and one that was fairly predictable.

They did nothing wrong though. In fact they did everything right. They played to the refs whistle and knew exactly what they could get away with. That's exactly what they should have been doing and they did it well.

Wigan try to do something similar by keeping the players upright for as long as possible before bringing the player down. It's not the same as lying on in the tackle, but it has the same intention.

The question from a Wigan point of view is why the team were not as effective as they were last year at slowing the ruck.

Huddersfield did nothing wrong and got the tactics spot on, whereas Wigan were pretty poor at something that the very same players were good at last season.

i will never forget the moment when prop forward larne patrick side stepped the best paid player in the sl with consumate ease



an excellent performance from the giants considering they had 7 first teamers missing

an early wake up call for coach wane who has stated that he never saw that coming

Wigan should have been smart enough to see what Huddersfield were getting away with and then followed suit, that lack of thinking on our feet and inability to change tack cost us.
It's not as if it's a tactic that require's meticulous preparation. A message should have been sent down to do exactly the same as Huddersfield were doing, as soon as it became evident what the Giants game was.

Huddersfield were better and thoroughly deserved their win. To start blaming the referee and Huddersfield for lying on is just sour grapes. All teams lie on, or at least should do, for as long as they can and it is part and parcle of the game.

That's all I've been saying all along. Hudds do it. Wigan do it. Every team does whatever they can to slow the ptb down. Just as most teams try to hold the tackler up to achieve the same end. Wigan & Madge didn't invent that, loads of teams did it before & will continue to do so afterwards.

its game 1 of a long season its a bonus win none of the 499 huddersfield fans that were there expected hoped for maybe but almost the same wigan team put forty odd points on a 'stronger' huddersfield team at your place last year... it appears tha Nathan Brown learnt a lesson last year and did it different and wigan on the day couldn't adapt !!

You shouldn't have let Deacon (i think he retired) and Coley go Deacon, Finch and Leuleui is a far stronger midfield 3 than the other two plus mcilorum his kicking wouldn't have picked out our defence with lazer like accuracy as it did yesterday !!

Also both Tomkins terrorised us last year but ones gone and sam was 'put off' when gerry McG mullered him and never got quite as involved again.If i was been mischievous I don't think he fancied tackling larne when he broke through good player but full back maybe exposes him defensively ala high balls and tackling on occasions....

I don't think we had any option to let Deacon go. He should have been dropped before the end of last season because his defence was shocking and his input during games was getting less and less. I think the problem is more to do with Leuluai not playing like a halfback should. He can pass well enough, and did well to set up Tomkins' try but throughout the course of a game his passing and kicking isn't up to scratch, and he hasn't got the pace to be a direct halfback.

The tackle from McGillvary won't have had any effect on Tomkins at all. He's had worse than that and gone on to play a blinder. The issue wasn't him not wanting to get involved but having no chance to get involved. The forwards didn't do their job of drawing players in which made the job of the outside backs a bit harder.
The passing moves were far too predictable. When players were taking the ball forward it was obvious they would pass to the next man and the next man would do the same. It was like watching an amateur side at times.

Defensively though he was very weak. He missed a tackle on Lunt in the build up to Patrick's try which should have been made comfortably, and for him to get stepped by a forward isn't acceptable.
Matty Russell was faced with making one on one tackles in the testimonial game and he made brilliant tackles each time. Tomkins has no excuse not to make those.

CP
Matty Russell also got stepped easily the game at Leigh.

www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_4221773 COMPLACENCY!!! Totally unacceptable. We see it time and time again, yet players and management never learn. You never ever underestimate the opposition no matter what the circumstances. Wane spoke all week about this being a tough game, yet for what ever reason this message didn't get through to the players, not that they should have needed telling in the first place mind. I hope this isn't an early sign of the professionalism and standards slipping.

www.wigantoday.net/sport/wigan-w ... _1_4221773 COMPLACENCY!!! Totally unacceptable. We see it time and time again, yet players and management never learn. You never ever underestimate the opposition no matter what the circumstances. Wane spoke all week about this being a tough game, yet for what ever reason this message didn't get through to the players, not that they should have needed telling in the first place mind. I hope this isn't an early sign of the professionalism and standards slipping.