Luke Waterworth was #9. He's a player I have posted about quite a bit over the past three years. His distribution from dummy half is probably the best I've seen from a Wigan hooker since Martin Dermott.

I thought the young lads did very well against some pretty good experienced players. The big let downs were mainly the more experienced players, Mossop and Tautai were absolutely garbage and Charnley looked dodgy. Hopefully they are just rusty. Flower bucked the trend and was very good.

If Leigh dont come up this year there is something very wrong. They look to have a strong side with some good balance. I thought Chase was poor but he wont be like that all the time.

I like the look of Joe Bretherton. Big handy lad him, didn't look out of place at all.

Some very good players there! I really don't know how tautai keeps getting a shirt the guy is rubbish! He would struggle to get into half of the championship packs, thought gelling was very quiet too! Also charnley looks a shadow of him former self! Flower is a joy to watch! Good old fashioned prop! That was a tough challenge for our boys! Really don't know how you lot let Hanson go he was class today! But that 9 surely should be seeing some game time spelling mcillorum this year in some games

Overall I'm pleased with that run out against a good looking Leigh side. Our young lads handled their experienced pack easily, just too many penalties conceded gave them field position time after time. Goal line defence a bit wanting at times, but otherwise a decent performance, and I can see a good few of those lads not looking out of place in SL this year, if needed.

Very good post.

I'm a big fan of Jack Wells from the few games I've seen him play for the 19's and he looked good today. As mentioned Waterworth and Bretherton played well and I'd expect both to get debuts this year. With the ball Tierney looks just the job but my hearts in my mouth when high kicks go up.

It's like a broken record but Tautai isn't up to the job of pulling on a Wigan shirt for me. He wasn't on his own but his daft error and stupid penalties in the second half were just a continuation of his Wigan career to date. I don't know what the issue was with Sam Hopkins at Wigan but he looks a far more rounded player. He's one I could see another if club throwing an opportunity to at some point.

Tautai again was garbage think 3 of their try's came from his penalties or knock on's , thought Powell did well , a good hit out , suspect it's all or nothing for Leigh this season , strong side on paper . Compliments to them on the state of the pitch , car parks etc it is a fine facility where plenty of football and rugby are played , Oldham Athletic Oldham Roughyheads take note

Surprised no one has mentioned Marshall, looked good to me! As others have said, Flower put an awesome effort in when it would have been easy for him to take it easy. Towards the end I would have liked to have seen more sense from Gelling (needless pass on first tackle which was knocked on, surely he is aware he was dropped for this kind of thing) and Powell (kick in third tackle to Leigh hands) and the pack not rushing to scrum with about 5 to go, especially when the pre season seemed to be focused around developing leaders. However, a good run out and we stood up better than I expected given the team we had out

Agreed. Time must be running out for Tautai. He seems incapable of maintaining his discipline, and offers very little that is positive in return. I see almost no storming breaks from him or monstrous workloads. After a whole season of this last year, and more of the same today on the first game of the year, you can't help thinking that he isn't what most of us are looking for in a SL forward.

Yes, agree about Tautai too. That big lad who came for Leigh looked impressive. I didn't think Powell really advanced his case as a first-team half. Still, first game of the season and all that. Marshall took his chances well.

I read at the end of last season that Marshall was too old for the 19's and hadn't been offered a pro deal so I was (very pleasantly) surprised to see him yesterday. Anyone know what's happening with him?

Out of all the 19's players I saw last year he's the one that excites me the most. I think he's a terrific talent and could press Charnley for a place in the long term given a shot. He always looks a very confident lad to me and some of the trys he's scored for the 19's have been ridiculous.

I wouldn't be too harsh on anyone from yesterday. We were playing a far more experienced team. I thought we defended pretty well considering the penalty count.

Tautai was a liability but stuck at it and by the end was doing okay, so fair play to him. Flower was the stand out player for Wigan. Tierney was very good with ball in hand, but oh dear, he does give you the jitters in defence.

Of the youngsters Bretherton and Marshall did well.

I enjoyed the game. It was competitive and for Wigan only Charnley and Flower would expect to start, so it was practically the reserves. Leigh looked rusty too with Chase looking particularly so. They deserved the win. I would expect to see more first teamers next week against Salford.

When both teams were warming up I was struck by how big the Leigh pack seemed compared to the Wigan lads, I know some of the newcomers in the Wigan pack are only young but apart from Bretherton most of the rest were of a very small build and not to tall.

As for the match Wigan started very well, up 14-0 and then for some reason the Wigan disease kicked in, we went from not giving a penalty away for the first 20 min to giving them away one after the other for the rest of the half which meant we didn't see much ball for the rest of the half. Mossop came on after 20 min until half time and I am not sure if he came back for the second half and to me he didn't give much pack leadership to the younger forwards. Tautai after playing his 20 min in the first half spent the whole of the halftime break stretching and running across the pitch on the half way line,why I don't know unless he was scared of sitting down in the dressing room and seizing up completelly

Wane will probably be satisfied with good hard run out but to me we really lacked creativity in the backs, but we know that should change once Williams and Smith are back.

We only had one half back on the pitch and Powell was playing his first game there in many a long while. He was solid, nothing more, but I don't think we could expect anything more given the circumstances.

Tierney offered the only real spark in attack.

I thought our pack matched Leigh well, especially the likes of Moi Moi, Hock, Hansen and Paterson. Micky Higham ran well and caused us problems as well, but we coped. I think if we'd had half backs playing we'd have probably won, though Leigh might argue that they missed Brierley.

Yeah he wasn't offered a pro deal originally but when the reserves structure looked like happening he was offered something to stay on.

I thought Tautai was o.k first half. He didn't get much of a rest and came back on before half time. Then in the half time break the physios were out on the field with him, having him stretch and run. For whatever reason he lost the plot in the second half though giving away needless penalties from which Leigh took full advantage.

The young lads stood up well particularly, Bretherton, Wells and Waterworth. Liam Paisley however had a debut he will want to forget.

Enjoyed the day, met up with The Wiganosopher who kindly brought and signed a copy of his book. Also met up with charli coroli. It's good to get back on track for the new season.

Still cant work out why Wigan let Hansen go, best player on the field today by a distance, ran hard and was punishing in defence. well deserved MOM

He went for the Dr's millions...

They didn't let him go, he chose to leave - for more money and the chance to captain his Dad's former club.

And Wigan replaced him with John Bateman, so I'd say that worked out well for us.

I'd have him as a squad player or even as a prop because he's probably better than a few that we have currently, but whether HH would want that on a reduced wage is another point (in fact I think Wigan did offer him a chance to return last autumn but he chose Leigh, probably wisely).

A lot of ex-Wigan players in the Leigh team today. I thought that Spencer went really well. i was a bit disappointed when we let him go because a lot of these young props need time to mature.

Good to hear. It would be a shot in the arm for the lad if they mentioned it on the website and gave him a squad number.

I really hope he gets a couple of chances this year because o could see him being a real surprise package.

Makes you realise how essential it is for there to be proper pathways in place otherwise who knows where he would have ended up or maybe even stopped playing rugby.

Very true and it needs sorting. The lad by what you say has been signed on because we've got some reserve team rugby for him to play but even then it's only 7 or 8 fixtures randomly spread out. That's not enough for him to progress.

Agree with the comments about Tom Spencer. I thought he was superb and looks to have really filled out and grown into his size.

If I am honest I had totally forgotten about him, didn't realise he had left. A real shame as he looks to be developing into a quality young prop. Would welcome him back on that showing.