All in the Pear Tree last I looked!

I just never thought he would make it!
I'm in the east stand and I was urging him on, thinking he was going to get caught.

Sooooper try!!

It's after games like that I am so gutted I have to drive back to Chester and can't go to the pub instead!

Green was fantastic as was Lockers and Micky Mac and Richards had his best game for a while on a big night for him but the most pleasing performance came from two young forwards IMO. I thought Crosby and Burke were exceptional against a big and experienced Catalan pack. They look the real deal at the moment and thats great to see.

Great night.

Given what's gone on in the last couple of weeks that's the 1 pub I'd rather drive back to Chester than go in!

Leon was gaining on him untill the 30 yard line, Paddy started to pull away after that. What made it even better was his TL kick after his try.

its great that we have players coming back to give the lads a break, but i cant understand how you have such a downer on Eric when he hasnt even played yet (especially given how poor preccy was when he did turn out, and how decent a 2012 eric had).
we may have a good young pack, but the game we lost (hudds) was down to us not being able to compete with the size of their pack over a full 80 mins (in particular crabtree). a second row of faz and tuson may be good at backing up, but it lacks grunt and power. having H and Eric back is going to be key to bolstering that part of our game (esp as we are also missing the physical impact of Gaz - even if we are not missing his indiscipline).
the kids are doing well now, but as has oft been said, we need everyone fresh for sept. we also dont know how the inexperienced players will do under the high intensity of play-offs, so old heads will be important to have around. it will also give us experience and size if we want to rest lockers and use Lloyd/Faz/Tuson to cover loose.

I have to say, well done SW for being able to spot the potential and integrate them into team.
Next step is to do the same for the backs (get Murphy his mojo back, and get some game time for the likes of manfedi, williams and hampshire).

Because based on his performances for Wigan since he has been here he is IMO downright average at best.



There is nothing wrong with your logic about wanting to rest players, needing some size etc but for me Lauaki simply isn't the answer. When he gets tackled it's all arms flailing about and very showy but for such a big man he has very little impact when he runs it in. I reckon Dudson for example is already a much better player. If you reckon we need to add some size to the front row then we need to bring in a Pongia type player not rely on Lauaki.

As to the back row there is no doubt we will be better off with Hansen back so I hope I didn't give the impression I was saying otherwise. We will also be better off again when Goulding returns. So IMO the players to come back who will improve the side are Mossop, Hansen and Goulding. I have always liked Prescott as a player but am just concerned he will come back and be out again injured.

its always interesting to see how people view a players performance in a season (and there is no correct answer). i havent analysed these in much detail, but from 2012, here is the raw data for the forwards.
eric had a pretty decent year. good tackling, decent yards/carry and very few errors. I know that stats dont tell the whole story, but i think you are doing eric a dis-favour (eg just compare his stats with HH)

TK - MI - % - C - M - Av - E - P - RC - YC
Ben Flower 317 - 17 - 95% - 129 - 879 - 6.8 - 5 - 4 - 0 - 0
Chris Tuson 346 - 15 - 96% - 117 - 746 - 6.4 - 5 - 4 - 1 - 0
Eric Lauaki 330 - 14 - 96% - 229 - 1619 - 7.1 - 6 - 12 - 0 - 0
Gareth Hock 427 - 36 - 92% - 331 - 2238 - 6.8 - 32 - 24 - 1 - 0
Gil Dudson 141 - 2 - 99% - 66 - 494 - 7.5 - 0 - 3 - 0 - 1
H Hansen 584 - 24 - 96% - 260 - 1658 - 6.4 - 10 - 9 - 0 - 0
Jeff Lima 501 - 14 - 97% - 378 - 2910 - 7.7 - 15 - 10 - 0 - 0
Lee Mossop 433 - 13 - 97% - 248 - 1958 - 7.9 - 5 - 14 - 0 - 0
Liam Farrell 516 - 9 - 98% - 271 - 1908 - 7.0 - 5 12 - 0 - 0
Mike McIlorum 746 - 48 - 94% - 483 - 2210 - 4.6 - 13 - 28 - 2 - 0
Paul Prescott 139 - 3 - 98% - 92 - 708 - 7.7 - 6 - 2 - 0 - 0
Lockers 581 - 32 - 94% - 364 - 1894 - 5.2 - 17 - 18 - 0 - 0

Watching the highlights on Wigan TV, Bentham says "Forward" after Lockers passes to Tuson for his try, then says "OK" when he scores

ahhh, so bentmam is a pie at heart.
the words he obviously had to stop himself from continuing with were " ... to the try line young man"

to be fair. he did a decent job last night. first time in ages we've had a ref who actually called forward passes and dealt with trouble when it happened. he let the players decide the match, which is always good.

If the stats of Lauaki and H are comparable then it only goes to show, as you say, stats [idefinitely don't [/itell the whole story.

I thought he was inconsistent with policing the high shots. We got pinged for two pretty innocuous ones and I felt he let at least two blatant ones go the other way. IIRC there were also a couple of obvious shoulder charges from Les Cats as well which are now illegal of course. Les Cats were also offside by yards numerous times.

I am all for less penalties for minor transgressions but I don't think that should translate to being inconsistent.

What was Elima binned for? Was that a shoulder charge?

I thought it was Pelissier who was the offender and Elima was binned for dissent (having been warned only minutes earlier).

Was Pelissier put on report for that?

i thought he was pretty poor to be honest and IMO the niggle that crept in was due to his poor officiating, however i dont understand why the Cats players were the ones getting niggly other than they were on the wrong end of a good pasting

He missed several high shots from Cats players, missed some Wigan forward passes, let Cats lay up offside for almost all the game, and never dealt with the bit of niggling from both sides that led to the hit on Sam and ensuing melee (cant call it a brawl)

I think he was, can't remember.

from the BBC report

"In the final 10 minutes, Eloi Pelissier looked to have put a fair hit on Tomkins but the Wigan full-back's team-mates disagreed and a melee followed. Referee Phil Bentham subsequently showed Olivier Elima a yellow card."

Two things possibily contributed to the superb performance Friday night.
First was the pace at which Wigan played the game in both defence and attack.
Second was their fitness levels which were far better than the Catalans.

In defence Wigan were putting three men into each tackle almost for the full 80 minutes. This prevented Catalans from offloads out of the tackle and also made them fatigue early due to the ferocity of the tackling. The game was very even and ferocious for the first 20 and was still tight up to 30 gone. Our pack had more than stood up to the Dragons forwards and had energy left whereas the Catalans were out on their feet in the final 10 of the first half.
The game was won in the 20 mins either side of half time when the score went from 6-0 to 28-0.

Attack wise Green and Smith are improving each game. Their kicking game is better than we've had for some years.
Catalans were often taking their first ptb inside their own 20 mtr area. That's a long way to go with only 5 tackles left. Not too many kicks went straight into hands on the full. Seven tries against that quality opposition is a great performance topped off by keeping them to nil which really does take some doing in modern day Rugby League. The teams fitness levels appear back to two years or so ago when they looked very fit indeed.

SW is missing seven out of his starting seventeen yet the replacements have certainly looked quality Super League players. It was excellent from all 17 who played.

[url=http://marctaylor.eu/rugby_league/2013/wigan_v_catalanA few match pics here[/url

Got to agree with the comments about the defence on Friday

i said the the bloke that sits at the side of me that some of the Cats players looked out of it, with about 20 minutes of the game left

Steve Menzies looked absolutely k********, and i wouldnt mind betting felt almost 40 for the 1st time. There was another player who took a tackle during the 2nd half and you could see he was physically gone

several times we noted that the cats players were very slow back after a Wigan kick chase. i reckon on at least 3 occasions that 5-6 players were still coming back onto the 3rd tackle

Did Elima not get done for dissent, as he spoke to him a couple of minutes earlier and sent them back an extra 10.

When Sam got hit it seemed that Menzies was doing all the chatting to Benthem.
When he brought the card out I thought it was Menzies that was going off.
It was obvious from the hit though that neither Menzies nor Elima had whacked Sam. Turns out is was Pellissier but he stayed on the field.

Tackle was deemed fair by Pellissier, Elima sent off for dissent.