So we play them next week. What does everyone think after tonights performance.

I'm not sure it will be as easy as I thought, they looked well organised considering their preparation and I thought their contact and defence was quality at times. I would be really disapointed if they score more than 10 points though.

Give them a few seasons with Nobby and they could be a half decent team.

I thought they did well first time out, waned a bit second half having had no pre season and I thought the final score was a little harsh.
I think we should have enough to beat them though.

Thats what I thought when he took over. He will bring in some decent players and will turn them into a mid table team, they cannot go straight to the top.

They did well, but I personally feel they'll fail to back it up after tonights performance. They had the crowd with them tonight as well as a huge adrenaline rush running through there system from it being there first game, they won't get any of that on Friday.

If we can get off to that all important good start, we should then be able to kick on and rack up a good score. However if we suffer from stuttering start and allow them to get on top of us and get good ball in good position it'll be tough, but I just don't see them being able to backup after tonights performance.

Plus I think McGuire will want to show Noble just what a team under his leadership can do.

We have to go wide early against them. I think we could out wrestle them if we had to but why bother! If we get good early ball to Tomkins, Gleeson and Carmont we'll have too much for them.

and theres no snow on the pitch to slow you down

I agree, definitely the way to go will be out wide.

What really impressed me about Celtic tonight were there frontrow, yes they tired towards the end but for the first 60 they were superb. Hopefully there frontrow won't cause us to many problems if we play fast around the ruck and keep them moving, also if we can slow them down a little it'll help.

Pot calling the kettle black, I think so.

I'd take Snow over rain!

Never seen a side as bad as Wigan when it lashes down.

It certainly won't be the banjoing some expected prior to tonight. I thought they played well for the first 60mins; their stand-off Witt looks to be quite classy, even if he's got a strange kicking run-up technique. The scoreline did not do the Welsh/Aussie side's effort justice.

Expect Wigan to win by about 20 with better positional play and a more expansive game.

I thought the Crusaders pack in general was pretty good with O'Hara, Bryant and Chan especially impressive but they looked like they lacked speed and a couple of killer runners.

They won't be easy beats next week but we should be ok.

i would expect wigan to win by 40 to 50 points they wont play like that again and in the second half they only got in leeds half twice

Slightly OT. but

How overweight does Danny mcguire look?. He has a right belly on him at the momment?. greg eastwood looks well over weight also. i would go as far as saying his gut is up there with Piggys last year.

dont rate that eastwood but delaney looks good

I would expect that we will be totally professional against Crusaders next week and not underestimate them at all. If we think all we have to do is turn up then we will be in trouble. We really need to start as we mean to go on here. Too many half ar$3d performances last year against teams we thought we would trounce really cost us.

i hope they give you a game but i cant see anythink but a big win for you

Noticed McGuire looked a tad over,,,,As far as Eastwood goes he always looks the same,even when playing for Brisbane you could park your bike in him....But will be a good one for the Rhinos....

This is an obvious statement but for Wigan to be successful is we have to make the DW a fortress again like we did in the early naughties those where the times we got to the Finals and Crusaders is the perfect start for us to try and make the DW a fortress again not an easy team to play but i'd say the best team to play its better than starting against Wakefield last season and Warrington the season before a 20-30 gap win hopefully will see us really push on confidence wise. P.S excuse the grammar

But we all know these are the sort of game that Wigan do "tend" to cockup big style,,,HKR (twice) & Cas spring to mind in previous seasons,but not saying it*s a cert to happen this time,1 thing is for sure Nobby will have them fired up for this one...

As a fan I think it's fair 2 demand that we tonk them
next week. After all if we expect a top 4 finish then the Crusaders are the type of team we need 2 be heavily beating! They have all sorts of off the field problems and it's time we took advantage. It's also time we laid down an early marker 2 say we are serious challengers. It may sound cocky but we as fans must start 2 demand results as we do have 'the team' to achieve this type of result. At the end of the day ask yourself if there is a crusaders player you'd take over a Wigan one??

Let's hope Madge and Wayne are true 2 their words and the lazy attitude shown in seasons gone by has been banished!

I truly believe in the talent we have and I know if we play a smart game and don't underestimate them we will come out as victors.

It's all about attitude isn't it. If the lads turn up and put as much effort into the game as they did the Wire 'Friendly' we'll be fine.

There was some great signs in that game in terms of attitude for the season. The lads looked fired up and hunted in packs in defence which is something we've not done outside of proper league games against big sides for a while.

They beat us last year, and they were robbed over the two tries by Lenny Henry tonight.

Even though we are traditionally poor early doors, we ought to put 20 on them.

20? I hope we put more than that on them.

We did that far too often over the last three seasons with various teams and if we do it again v Crusaders all the pre season optimism will evaporate in the space of 80 minutes.

I think MM will put what he feels is his strongest side out and will want the professional performance. If he gets the pro performance we will get the right result.

Dave