Morning Wiggunners.

After a weekend of not using the internet (only do that at work, after all), there are predictably too many long, long post cup final threads to bother with. As I expected, there are plenty of bad losers, and plenty of bad winners. Which is disappointing, but hardly surprising.

So, to distance myself from all that, I thought I'd pop over here to say well done to Wigan. I thought it was a great final. I was gutted to lose, and it was a particular shame for some of our players who put in a huge effort. I thought before the game that we needed to drag Wigan into a fight (not literally, necessarily) and see whether they had the stomach for it.

We did, and they did. There were some "interesting" decisions floating around from the officials, but I always believe that the winning side tends to be the one that makes the most of the breaks it gets. Wigan did that, Leeds didn't quite.

In conclusion, well done Wigan. Better side on the day, but perhaps not by as much as most people thought.

Thank you!!



Your so right and yes a few decisons went are way and such is the game but I don't think the Leeds players have been given enough credit for their performance. I think Leeds put in one of the best shows they have all year. To see the Leeds end almost empty before your players hadn't left the pitch was a sorry sight.

Good Summary, I'm sure most of the sensible posters didn't think it was going to be easy and I was amazed at how some of the media and bookies were ruling you out, although I think there were other reasons to us struggling against you twice already this season (injuries in the first game + Fixture congestion for the second) it is pretty clear that your style of play makes it difficult for us against you. I can see that as an average fan so not sure why the media and bookies etc couldn't.

I don't but too much into the "interesting decisions though!" of the three (overly) highlighted ones I only believe there was an issue with the forward pass. Charnley never played at the ball leading up to Tommy's try and burrow did. THe try itself was pretty clear and only the fact that it was classed as BOTD made any controversy. There was a clear forward pass for one of Hall's tries and Ablett never played the ball for his other one so it swings in roundabouts. There were bad decisions for both teams but unfortunately those shining lights at the BBC only chose to highlight the ones that apparantley went against you.

All said it was a good game (much better than I thought having watched the recording back) and We just shaded it over the 80 mins. Rob Burrow made the difference when he came on. We didnt contain him well enough and he capitalised. I can't see for the life of me why Mcdermott has him on the bench with Sinfield at SO.

thank you el Diablo for your congratulations to both sets of players as it takes 2 committed teams and both sets of fans to make a game that is close and enjoyable. As you say there will always be the odd forward pass, knock on, offside or incorrect PTB that the referee will miss as they are only human and they allow the game to flow as much as possible. Leeds were unlucky, they had the chances but just could not find the final pass where as Wigan did make the most of their luck.

If Leeds carry on playing like they did then there is every chance we could meet again in th GF play offs or even the final itself.

On interesting decisions, the only one of the "big 3" that I'm utterly convinced was wrong was the forward pass to Lima. However, there were others like it, and there are others like it every week. It became a big talking point when Lima pushed off two tacklers and scored. So let's focus on that.

The Leuluai try, as much as I prayed for it not to be given, is in fact always going to be given, and I'd have been pretty furious if such a try were ruled out for Leeds.

The Charnley/Burrow incident was tricky, as both players played at the ball, but both missed with those attempts and both subsequently made contact with it. I've watched the replay several times and come up with a different verdict every time. To say it was clearly a wrong call is overdoing it somewhat!

To be honest, I think the fact that he isn't too keen on Leeds may have obscured from me the fact that Mr Davies isn't too keen on Wigan either! I was a little perplexed to see the TV coverage later and on and find that he had been more bitter than I was!

The worst decision of the day was the failure to penalise the lift on Delaney in the first half (I've seen the word "spear" used, which it wasn't - people will get carried away, it was an illegal lift and should have been penalised, that is all) but let's not pretend it was the key factor in the outcome of the game eh.

Not the best refereeing performance, but that works for both teams.

Thank you El Diablo. Some sense at last. A close final that could have gone either way. We got a bit of luck but probably just shaded it.

Finally a rational Leeds fan.

Unfortunately, rational posts seem to be in short supply on both sides over the weekend!

Nice thread El Diablo, at the end of the day it was a great spectacle for Rugby League. I know someone from Liverpool who watched it on TV had never seen a game of RL before in his life and he absolutely loved it, you can tell from the excitement generated on places like twitter during the game that it did the sport loads of good.

I'd had a bad feeling all the way leading up to the final since Sinfield knocked that goal over against Cas and I actually thought we were going to lose, up untill Tommy scored that try.



As for the refereeing decisions, as has been pointed out many times on here, there were just as many for both sides. Lets hope that means thats the last big final Mr Bentham will ever get. Silverwood is the best ref in the comp by far and he should be getting every single one of these games untill someone else bucks their ideas up.

Well said ED,

Last week many Wigan posters here were concerned that Leeds would be no push-over, and so it proved to be. We may have been confident, but not many here wrote leeds off, or really saw them as "under-dogs". You have had a really weird season, you have some terrific players, who just don't seem to be playing to their ability consistantly, or being used correctly.... Why drop Burrow on a wide pitch, unless he was carrying an injury? The little bugger really caused problems, your MOM for me.

Great posts El Diablo, nice to see a Leeds fan who isn't moaning etc (and I know not everyone is). And I agree with all you said about the refereeing desicions. It's just such a shame the refs could end up eing the talking point of what was a great game, and both teams deserve recognition for that.

So refreshing to read a rational post. Well done El Diablo

My lord I never thought I'd say this I agree with virtually every word a Leeds fan has said.



I was at the 2005 GF with a Leeds fan and he left after about an hour because of the score

Not all of us wrote leeds off, i slapped alot on leeds with +12 start on the handicap and im a Wiganer! i expected the bookies to offer +4 or even +2 with the recent scores, i felt +12 was the bet off the year before the game!

Very true.

Now that the heat's gone from the situation a little bit, we should be able to discuss it properly.

Well played on Saturday. As much i hated watching the last 50 minutes of the game, it was an enthralling final.

Sat with my grandson and we could hardly speak as it was so tense.

It was horrendous, the looks between me and my mates there showed that we were all just as worried.

I went the toilet at Half Time and felt sick with nerves right up until Leuluai's try.

Too much information.

It was completely irrelevant to the post actually!

I'm relieved to hear that. Nerves can do terrible things.....