Some of the reasons I've read and heard for Wigan's defeat in the last few hours beggar belief.

The biggest factor was, in my opinion, DISCIPLINE.

The number of times that we gave away soft, stupid penalties today when we had them on the rack, including in the build up to their try, was unreal. Without being disrespectful to Leeds, we lost that match more than they won it.

For everybody who is blaming the ref, the crowd, the weather, etc.

Pop quiz:
Who's the most penalised team in Superleague?

Teams don't rip us open, or roll over us down the middle. If they score against us, it's because we give them easy metres and back to back sets. It's getting progressively worse as the season has gone on and it needs stamping out asap.

Not much you can do about accidental offside for the late try in my view. I've said though we lost today in the 5 mins up to half time. 6-0 to 6-4 in that period after Coley's daft kicking ball away was the killer for me.

I meant the one down their end with a few minutes to go. Right on their line, half their team still not back onside and we got done for holding down. They looked dead and buried at the time, went for a long quick and built from there.

I can't remember to be honest.

Not necessarily a bad thing!

We lost because the couple of times we had chances to throw it wide and get a try but we made wrong decisions for example the one where tommy did a forward pass to Sam, if we had thrown it wide it was 3 vs 1. There was one or two other times we messed up by not taking the chance to go wide. We played a 95% perfect game but we didnt stomp Leeds when we had them down. Roberts instead of going with his hands for the late knock on he should of kicking it into open field because there wasnt anybody back for Leeds bar one maybe two players. Then Gleeson missed a vital tackle and that was that.

We had a couple of decisions that were a bit iffy but Bentham was all round imo. That sin bin might of killed us in the end in such an energy sapping game but we cant blame the ref when we had the chance to take it out of his hands.

This will give the players such a dissapointment that they wont want again. I hope this drives us on to grand final success.

After watching it again on sky+ I agree.

Then there was Paul Prescotts stupid penalty five minutes from time after Sams great kick, and then Sams poor kick that gave Leeds the last bit of field position.

It's called professionalism, and we need to do something about it.

Paul Prescott

We do seem to be slipping, it will be interesting to see how Madge responds and indeed if any players fall victim to what clearly needs to be a kick up the backside.

back to the paint drying!

The OP has a title on this thread of "Why Wigan lost......" Erm, pardom me for stating the obvious but dudnt we score more points than you?

Do you mean like the semi final defeat to catalans did in 2007? Or the cc defeat to leeds in 2008? or the the cc semi defeat to warrington in 2009?

Mr Pedantic I've fixed the title just for you.

I notice how leeds get absolutely no credit for this on here yet it was the special effort by peacock which caused the poor kick.

It was a big play by leeds. Not a poor play by wigan. It didn't give leeds field position. Leeds earnt that position.

Maybe at the end of the season you can win some big games and have opposition fans blaming themselves and giving you no credit.

Or ALL your Challenge Cup losses since 1999.

I did notice - also noticed you have deleted a perfectly fair posting too.

No I haven't.

You've not my read my match report then? - [url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=862=#FF0000wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=862[/url

I think the OP has it right.
You just gave away too many penalties especially offside at the play the ball and reefing the ball out.

Bentham had a great game today.

The frustrating thing about the penalties is that it is the same players giving them away time and again, probably Coley, Bailey and O'Loughlin have given more away than the rest of the side put together.

Despite all the improvements made by Maguire this is one facet of play which does not seem to have improved and is always more likely to cost us in a big game than any other factor.

Saints, narrowly followed by Wigan, with most of the penalties being technical infringements such as lying on or offside. So while you are giving metres away, you're testing the referee better than most sides. I'd rather have a slower ruck when defending for the whole game and give away a few penalties, than I would no penalties and a quicker PTB throughout the game. One of the reasons Wigan are playing so well is their control of the ruck, giving your defence more time to rest and reset. The high penalty count is a consequence of this, but looking at your position in the table, surely it's worth it?

If penalising 2 off the ball challenges after not penalising the 1st two! Sin Binning a commited challenge but not dealing with a kick to the head or a high shot that saved a try!

Then yes had a stormer.

I thought that he was 'reasonably' committed but he lifted his arm as he went through with the challenge. This for me was why he got binned.

Jamie Peacocks determination to get to Sam was massive. He forced Sam to the side and a rushed kick that hit McIlorum which gave Leeds the ball. HAd Peacock not done that the ball would have been deep in Leeds half and Wigan would be inthe semi finals. The irony is accidental offiside. had that been normal offside it would have been a pen and Leeds would have gone for goal putting the match into extra time.

It's Wigan, followed by Huddersfield.

The control of 'the ruck' is a myth. Wigan aren't holding down the player longer than everybody else (with a few exceptions - see yesterday's game). What our players actually do is slow down the tackle process by getting two or three players to wrap up the ball and keep the ball carrier off the deck, so that our line is effectively set before the tackle is completed.

It may look like it's worth it but we've got progressively worse at giving away penalties as the season progresses and it is one or two players in particular.