Wire fans saying he is on a big contract doesn't equate to a massive salary. Wigan will pay what they think is a fair amount should King stay beyond this season.

A lot will depend on Wires position on him going back there. Presuming Powell will be in charge and they don’t want King back, they’ll really want to get him off the salary cap. That may mean they pay him up in some way or continue to pay part of his salary. As pointed out Wigan will pay him what they feel he’s worth and any shortfall won’t really be their issue. Funnily enough, it’ll become more of an issue for Wigan the better he plays (or if things go west at Warrington and a new coach was brought in).

Kings are on large salary which Warrington are contributing to. I can see another loan this next year, so Wire can contribute again then sign a normal contact with Wigan in 2025.

Assuming his form is good that is.

Obviously early days but how do you think the King/French combination is going?
I think the only pass from King to French that resulted in a try was a forward pass albeit from a good break on KIng's behalf.
Only 3 games in but I'd be very disappointed if this pairing didn't significantly improve over the next few weeks.

I think it will take a little time to bed in. French is player that needs only a little bit of space and most of the early ball has gone to the opposite edge.

I’m looking forward to them developing a bit of an understanding on his offloads which is a real strength of his.

After a poor couple of seasons I don’t think King is doing anything at the moment other than get back to basics and rebuild some form.

I think both Field and French will benefit off his style of play once they develop an understanding.

It will come and it’s not just from French it’s also developing the understanding between Fields and King. King carts the ball up the middle and similar to Mago the offload is there and Fields is or was usually at the end of it. It doesn’t seem to have happened yet as but it will I’m sure. At the moment fields seem to be favouring chiming in the line on the edges to score tries. The pre season try vs Salford was just a glimpse of how they can work together. Also seen a few cheeky kicks been put through by King

Catalans (H) - 09/03/2023

Singleton: 32m - 6 carries
Cooper: 67m - 9 carries
Ellis: 39m - 7 carries
Havard: 87m - 15 carries
Mago: 65m - 8 carries
Isa: 24 m - 4 carries
Farrell: 70 m - 13 carries
Smithies: 66m - 10 carries

Catalans:
Bousquet: 55m - 10 carries
McMeeken: 96m - 10 carries
Garcia: 59m - 7 carries
Seguier: 70m - 13 carries
Goudemand: 50m - 12 carries
Chan: 45m - 4 carries
Dezaria: 43m - 6 carries
Manu Ma'u - 140m - 13 carries

Where do you get the stats please?

Quote ="jonh"Where do you get the stats please?'" Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793

Quote ="jonh"Where do you get the stats please?'" Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793

Quote ="1872_WiganRLFC"Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793'" Cheers.

Quote ="1872_WiganRLFC"Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793'" Cheers.

so using the above just in terms of average carry

4 catalans forwards averaged more m per carry than out best forward (Mago ave 8.13)

Just makes a massive difference in terms of go forward, but probably more importantly being on the front foot, fast play of the ball, defence not set, likelihood of a penalty / set restart for not square / offside etc

McMeeken was enormous for them. Great player

Just added the average metres per carry - as pointed by the previous poster, the averages just show how poorly our pack performed last night compared to them

We can and have won big games and even finals without our props making big yards.

What we cannot do though is not have our backs and secondrows who we rely on to make those meters come up short too.

Only Field and once again King posted good stats, Faz was way down on normal and Wardle really needs to improve in that area.

French is wasted in that role as it’s not the type of player he is which again for me champions the idea to move him to 1 and Field to 6.

Miski is a Wigan winger in regards doing the meters as is Marshy who like others came up short last night compared to normal meters made.

Faz has had a worrying start to the season for me. He seems down on his usual attacking numbers and defensively he is grabbing at people and they’re getting away from him. The lad isn’t a machine (although he’s close) and I just wonder if he has a knock or the captaincy is weighing heavy as he tries to settle. Maybe I’m just picking up negatives in what has been an average start to the season for the team.

Coming back from a serious injury means he will take time to get up to speed. But the only way to get up to speed is by playing.

I noticed a bit of arm-grabbing by Faz too. I suppose we rely on him so much. What concerned me the most was that, say what you like about the shortcomings of our forward pack, the truth is we had plenty enough field position to win the game, but our attack was so predictable and disjointed. And if you're coming off second-best in terms of forward power, why persist in trying to barge over from short range, as we spent so much time attempting?

whilst i agree that we have won and will win many matches by not utilising our props as metre makers, i feel there are times and places (one being last night) that the tactics should change a little

i dont think anyone felt that last night was a game to play open / expansive rugby. It was a night for doing the basics well or even dead boring rugby. 5 drives from the forwards and a good kick and apply pressure to the opposition. If we start our 6 in a decent position, then look to play a little then. It should all have been about controlling the ruck in both attack and defence with the pack, and thats what Catalan did. I dont think they played anything out of this world, but played the conditions / what was in front of them far better than Wigan did

I think where the way we use our props falls down is as mentioned when our backs and secondrows don’t make yards…but also when our props are not dominant in defence.

The idea of using the backs and edges for yards is to leave the middles do dominate the contact in the middle to win the arm wrestle.

For periods we did that last night but then failed to execute off the back of it, however for the most part we totally lost that battle which renders the props and the tactic pointless.

Quote ="1872_WiganRLFC"Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793'" Unless you're Paul vaughan for some reason they keep leaving him off the stats page

Quote ="1872_WiganRLFC"Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793'" Unless you're Paul vaughan for some reason they keep leaving him off the stats page

Salfords pack isn’t that big but their spine is playing far better than ours , and dishing up some fantastic RL

I can’t bring myself to type Cooper and Singletons stats

Unbelievable

So although we are in need of a second rower. It’s clearly more important we get a powerful forward. Mago’s frustratingly has the size but can’t keep hold of the ball. He still need to be in the match day squad for me as the reward of him making meters out weights the risk of him dropping the ball.

A serious question, why are we obsessed with the metres made by the forwards?
We are top for metres made by the team.
A metre is a metre regardless of whether it's Harry Smith or Liam Byrne.

However we are also top for errors made, which IMO is the major problem at the moment.