Marshy has an hamstring problem so it might not be worth risking him.

Every team should have at least 2 players who can kick with precision and with depth.
Today we had a free kick deep in our 20 at an acute angle on the left hand side of the pitch after defending for I think at least 2 sets of six. We’d been under the cosh for a while and needed some respite. We needed a good 30 metre punt into touch. We got a 10 metre plop from a left footer kicker in Cust. It screamed out for a right footed kicker to give it some leather or Cust to have the technical ability to kick long from the the left with his left foot. It just irritates the hell out of me. It’s a simple skill to acquire a good results but to gain excellent results it needs years of repetitive training. I never hear or see any young players want to acquire such skills. I never hear a coach compliment a good kicking game or even suggest the desire to develop such skills.

As a sport (in the uk) I can’t think of one player who kick with a consistent quality. Lino is the best I’ve seen for a while but his kicking into touch from a free kick is pretty average.
Strength, fitness and tackling ability are the “gods” of rl but kicking is an afterthought. It isn’t coached or I would suggest even encouraged.

Your knowledge of nrl is infinitely superior to mine so I accept your comments on Moses but would ask how many other players in the comp even get close to him?

I’m an owd fart Moto but a Bill Ashurst today with the 40/20 rule would be an absolute world beater.

Our effort in defence was superb and the intensity felt like the old days.

I still believe we are a number of steps away (we will find out in the next few weeks) but we are definitely heading in the right direction.

Agree 100%.
Build from a good defence gives you a chance.
We aren’t brilliant but I see incremental improvements most weeks so I’m quite happy. We feel like a team again.
I’d like us to move up quicker at ptb but overall our defence has had a stepped change in recent weeks

It helps that after defending multiple sets you know we actually have the x-factor to score as we did today.

Like you say.....incremental improvements.

It’s just good to enjoy a game once more.
I’m not expecting silverware this season but so far on the whole we are playing better than I expected so I’m a happy fan.

I won’t be too disillusioned if we lost on Friday but I’m expecting a good pop.

Hopefully they will concentrate too much on Field which will give French or Hardaker a chance to shine.

I’ve got a feeling Friday is the day when Cust will come of age. I think the atmosphere will spark him onto a new level. No rationale at all to that but I’ve got a good feeling he will step up.

You forgot speed.

I’m an owd fart too really but Bill Ashurst is a bit before my time, I know his son, but have only met Bill once, He is quite a guy.

great guy, speaking to him Saturday gone, he wouldnt be very good these days he said as he wouldnt be on the pitch 2 mins

I agree. I still do think that, If we could bag a mid season signing and bring in a forward who can make decent yards & defend like we do - we'd challenge anyone.

That's the missing piece for this season imo.

That was a good performance all round from your guys. Solid in defence, and devastating on the counter attack. We were always going to struggle without our strike players, but kept trying to put pressure on through a good kicking game.
Field and French are special players and look so dangerous at the moment. And every time we play you Farrell plays well!.
I dont think that Saints look as hot as they did at the start of the season. I think your match with them will be a cracker and reckon you will win it.

Good luck in the semis

Congratulations on a very good and clinical performance. Outstanding defence first half set the platform. My heart sunk when I saw our 3 key players missing but the other lads stepped up and and had a proper dig. You got a try with a foot in touch but I’m not sure that would have changed anything to be honest. The Gaskill no try could quite easily have been given Bateman did very well there haha. Would have put a different perspective on the game but again not sure the result would have changed, orals all ifs buts and maybes. Johnstone would have probably got 3 had he been on but he wasn’t so that’s that, no qualms about the result you deserved it and showed us how to play a cup tie. Great to see so many home grown players on the pitch for both sides it bodes well for the game going forward. Good luck for the rest of the season and hopefully next time we’ll have our full squad available.

I heard somebody say Fields foot was in touch for the try on 77 mins at 30-6. I had a look at it and it was close but there was green grass between his boot and the line when I froze it. I don’t think the comeback was on to be fair either way



It was never a 36-6 game and Wakey played exceptionally well in that first half. Lino was outstanding and luckily we turned up with a proper knock out game attitude. The three absences were big, absolutely no doubt about it. We had 4 first 17 players out as well but they weren’t key players like those guys are and the squad is pretty deep here.

Exciting times for Wakey anyway. Get the ground sorted and keep your key players and there’s no reason why you can’t keep progressing. Poaching looks to be doing a really good job.

Agreed. Didn’t realise which try it was but that definitely wouldn’t have made a difference haha. You’ve got a good squad and you can see you’re very well coached. Should be a good semi final but I’m tipping saints to edge it they’re pretty much untouchable although they do rely on walmsley so much. Keep him quiet and you’ve got half a chance.

I only got to watch the first half and it was a familiar feeing watching Wigan - sometimes struggled to get out of their half but showed great guts and quality in defence then have the game breakers when chances arise in broken field.

Sounds like second half was far more dominant overall.

Should be a brilliant GF and semi final - I’m very nervous about both!!!

Was great to see French getting really involved, the way he was trotting alongside Field for our first try bodes well for when he's fully match fit.

Bateman and Field were outstanding and good to see that Mago is looking fitter. Leuluai is having his best year in a while.

Also great that Zaks kicking has improved.

More than anything just pleased to see far more attractive and effective rugby - a complete 180 on last year. Well done Matt Peet and co. I don't think we can compete with Saints in the forwards which will make it very difficult to win against them but we couldn't have realistically expected more improvement than we've seen thus far.

Great to see us actually utilising offloads!

Such a strain on the defensive line and our star players thrive broken field not just constant block plays.

Hopefully we'll see Mago and K P-P working in tandem in the not too distant future, they could cause carnage with their off loads

Whatever you think about the quantity of Mago's work, he certainly showed the quality of it of it there, especially with his two-contribution assist. He looked gassed (as usual!

) after his off-load, but when play briefly broke down, he saw some space, ran into it, and delivered a perfectly-timed pass.

So, credit to Field for being there, and the coaching staff.

Been away so had to avoid the result until yesterday. I thought it was a fantastic performance. What I found particularly pleasing was the way we absorbed the pressure in that opening quarter. That was something you see from all the best teams in any sport; a resilience and resolve when it's backs against the wall and it was good to see we have that in the locker. We'll certainly need it if we're to have any designs on silverware.

Lots of outstanding performances again but it was a whole team effort. Faz, Bateman, Field and Tommy were top drawer but others had excellent games too. Cust keeps improving week on week, Havard had another strong game playing long minutes and Mago, whatever you think of his minutes, showed exactly what he brings to this team. He was a completely different point of attack when he came on in a way that no other front rower in our team is.

Glimpses, too, of just how effective a Field/French combination could be. It's imperative we get that firing to its full effect as it's what sets us apart from the rest of the league.

One other point worth mentioning: we've had many discussions about moving players out of position. Yesterday showed what a versatile team we have. At one time our entire backline was 'out of position' to some extent yet it looked totally assured. That will prove invaluable as the year wears on.

Probably the best performance of the season so far.

I've been wanting Cust to take on the line more and on Sunday we saw him doing that. He asked questions of the defence he hasn't really asked before which held them up and created space for others.

Was great to see French looming up on peoples shoulders and looking for work, I do however worry about his carry on the early tackles. It is a part of the game we rely on to get us rolling forward early in the sets and with him on the wing he generally gets dominated in that type of contact, pushed back and generates a slow play the ball. I think we may have to ask his centre to do more of that work rather than him on the win.

Have to disagree slightly John, it's the main thing I've been pointing out from day one about Cust.
Hes took the line on really well, close to the ruck mainly at times which has created a lot of space for others.
He challenges defences like George Williams did early days (possibly before he started to go sideways too much imo) and I keeps defences honest around the middles (whilst he's still.a.threat because at least 2/3 times a game he "Nearly" gets through) and the others benefit from the space around.

It's a little like what Lockers did for us for many years.

I agree Jukesy. Playing into the line that way is often a thankless task but it's absolutely essential to break up defences. It's noticeable that we're doing it much more this year with Mago, KPP, Tommy, Bateman and, as you say, Cust all challenging the defence to make decisions. All too often last year we passed too far in front of the defensive line making it easy for them to simply slide.

John, I had a similar conversation regarding the early sets with French on the wing but it seems a simple solution to just switch with the centre on the early sets. In addition you get the bonus of having French further infield where his footwork could be used to better advantage. I imagine this is part of the 'two fullbacks" idea Kevin Brown has been alluding to recently.

When he first came I thought he did that well, with his direct running but for about a month he seemed to just be directing traffic around him.

Both Tommy and Cust noticeably in my opinion were more direct and took the line on as you say keeping them honest.

I hope he continues to do that as it stops the defence just sliding across and making it easy to run the outside players towards the touch line….aka the best defender in the pitch.