Wane's arrogance and ego was badly shown up today with his total lack of respect for the opposition and he got exactly what was coming to him and well played Widnes who came back twice to deservedly win.

Leaving three of your four main pivots out of the game (along with the other changes) is asking for trouble and Finch almost carried the team single handedly to a win. If being out-coached by Dennis Betts wasn't enough for Wane to leave his ego at the door next time, he's not going to last very long. Unfortunately what I've read of the post-match comments don't bode well with his "we didn't underestimate Widnes". He needs to eat a bit of humble pie and hold his hands up for today otherwise he'll have used up all his goodwill with a lot of the fans.

He didn't underestimate then as far as I can tell, he just had faith in the players he put out to do the business and they came up short. They were capable of winning but were there own worst enemy at times with ill discipline.

He won't rest as many players again because he now knows he can't, but he also knows a bit more about how some of the players coped in a tough game.

Unfortunately I'd say the result shows he did, especially given the number of changes to key positions. As you say, he probably won't do it again. Lets hope so.

For all he knows the likes of Mellor would be fine in a tough game if he had someone like Lockers leading the team. With so many changes he doesn't really know any more than he did before.

I think the point W/L/A is making is that instead of saying what he has in the post match comments he should just admit leaving three of your four main pivots out of the game (along with the other changes) was a mistake. Which it was.

I want to hear him say he isn't going to make the same mistake twice and acknowledge his part in the loss. Were he to do so not only would that be reassuring for the fans but it would rightly take some of the flak off the players. Finch was put in an impossible position and doesn't deserve to have to try and pull games like that out of the fire himself.

Wane just should not have done it and if he did think the players he put out would do the business what else is that but a complete under estimating of the opposition? The idea he thought we could win without Lockers, Tommy and Sam says as much about what he thought of Widnes as the capabilities of his own players.

I don't think he would rest those players had we been playing Warrington and so we must conclude that he did underestimate Widnes. I think it is unfortunate that Widnes had not won a game and Wigan had been playing very well. I am sure this will have affected his decision. I am all for blooding young players but they should be phased in. Jack Hughes fittted in well as a replacement for Carmont but I doubt he would have shown up as well had he amongst four other changes.

To bring a positive from the game it is good that the bottom club can beat a top club. We need a competitive league.

I think he underestimated Widnes as well as showed arrogance and ignorance towards them.

I don't think it's a reflection of his over all coaching ability, more his judgmental skills and planning.

He went into yesterday's game with plan A only.

Totally agree with this.

As I said on another thread his career as a Super League coach is six matches old. He's an experienced coach overall, granted, but surely coaching is the same as playing - the step up to Super League from a lower level is MASSIVE.

He's made a mistake. Put it into perspective and move on.

I think Wane is guilty of being naive and trying to hard to be his own man instead of learning what made us successful under Maguire.

I don't believe there is an issue, as I have posted on the other thread.

In terms of the significance of the loss, it hardly registers. The competition is all about the playoffs and using the rounds to test out new ideas and new players seems utterly sensible.

I have argued (and been criticised for doing so) in the past that the step up from assistant to coach is a big one, and that Wane is largely untested at this level. I still maintain that, however, he must be given time to do things his way.

Wigan WILL finish in the top 4 come what may. If you are going to "risk" points, then do it against a team who hasn't a cat in hell's chance of finishing in the top 4, that way it's 2 points lost as opposed to 4.

I just don't buy into this "disrespect" lark. Blooding youngsters is all about Wigan and nothing to do with the other teams.

If Wigan had lost by 50 points then I would say you may have a point. They didn't.

Agreed, in fact they were 36-18 in front at one stage.

What he did was not in the least bit sensible because chucking the number of young players he put in that side all in at once will have told him nothing. Leeds would not have rested Web, Sinfield, Burrow and a couple of others and they didn't do that when they won it from 5th. Sinfield played 27 games last year and Burrow 25.

As to your usual "it's all about the playoffs" to see that is total nonsense all you have to do is compare Noble to Madge. Noble spent 3 1/2 years telling us it was all about the playoffs and we were never a consistent side and won nothing. Madge comes in and we become one of the most consistent sides in the league finishing 1st and 2nd and winning a GF and CC. That is not a coincidence.



Doing things his own way for the sake of it is not very sensible if results like that occur. One of the main reasons I supported Wane's appointment was I expected continuity and that he would have learned from Madge. Instead of this he seems to determined to be different. The concern is the meticulous no stone unturned Madge approach seems to be in danger of going out of the window.



Blooding youngsters sensibly is the all about Wigan. What Wane did was stupid. The last time we had a coach who went OTT playing too many kids was Millward.

I have been thinking about the game and yes it was disrespectful of Wane and probably showed a bit of arrogance, but he nearly was right.

The team he put out should have and was good enough to beat Widnes. Being 18-6 up and then 36-18 up, no matter who your playing you should go on to win. Before the game I was all for playing the strongest side possible as were only 5 games into the season, but hopefully this will be one of the few mistakes Wane makes and I'm glad its in March and not later on in the season.

The gamble to rest so many players has backfired big time. Letting Stefan Marsh play and score against us was rubbing salt into the wound. It was the proverbial "bannana skin".

If we were playing Wire or Saints would we have done the same, would we hell. Why did they need resting anyway, only 5 games into the season.

Yes, the young lads do need blooding into the first team but one or two at a time, not four debutants all at once and in key positions. Compared to Widnes we do have a big squad but we already had three senior players out in Carmont, Fielden and Prescott. Resting another five seriously weakened the squad.

It smacks of arrogance, shows a lack of respect to the opposition and was tactically naive.

Instead of being top we are now 3rd and if Leeds and Cats win their games in hand we are potentially 5th.

Nil out of ten for decision making I'm afraid Shaun.

Oh but it is. The reason that we won under Madge is that he took our fitness and professionalism to another level. The basic premise that SL is all about the playoffs still remains.

Yes it does.

I think he has a point when he says we should have won with the team we put out. All respect to Widnes but they have been awful this year and it was down to our own errors and poor play that we lost

It just goes to show that, no matter how poorly a team may be playing, you cant underestimate any of the teams in SL

To be honest I was disgusted at the team that was picked yesterday, if your going to play youngsters, play them 1 or 2 at a time, to rest arguebly our 4 best players plus Liam Farrell is ridiculous. And surely if you are going to play the kids, play the captain to guide them through the game.

I totally agree, there's a correct way of phasing young players into the first team and to throw 4 of them in with no leadership or guidance is a shocking way to go about this.

Agree with the OP..Very poor leadership from Wane, and the post match comments have me slightly concerned also.

right, 2 things that have compelled to post for the first time in a long time.

firstly, what is all the mass hysteria? Wane was on a hiding to nothing yesterday whatever he did by the sounds of things. Maguire failed to rotate his squad last year and got a roasting on here (some suggest this was the reason we failed in play-offs), so if Wane played a full team, he would have been derided.

secondly, what seems to have been overlooked is tha fact Widnes won, not Wigan lost. I think our fans have shown a complete lack of respect if anyone has in suggesting that Widnes would have lost that game if Wigan had a couple more senior players involved? So i think that the posters on here suggetsing that Wigan showed disrespect are total hypocritres.

Gone are the days when a tema can go through the season unbeaten or even strive to come top of the league. Granted, all points are important and we should try to attain the highest position possible, but come on, the reaction on here has been absurd.

I reckon we would have got more out of the game yesterday than - as some have suggested - walloping Widnes by 50+ points (not even certain considering Widnes performance yesterday) and letting the youngsters get even more disgruntled at not having a chance in the lower Academt level.

I sometime sthink the people disappointed with yesterday's failure to get 2 points are the ones who the only thing they look forward to in life is to gloat to a Wire or Saints supported that we are top of the league for a few days. Big deal. It has consistently been proved that as long as we play consistently well, be there or thereabouts and come into some devastating form September time, we will be ok.

end of..move on. Guaranteed Wane wont throw in that many kids next time.

Perhaps Wane did underestimate Widnes. But far worse in my eye's were the team blowing an 18 point lead and only playing for 20 minutes of the match. The fact that we didn't maintain that intensity irks me more than anything. We've yet to play for the full eighty yet this season, and yesterday was the worst example of that yet.

Wrong on so many counts i don't even know where to start

This is 5 mins of pish!!!

all wrong

and there was me looking back at the half-cocked team that went to Newport three years ago getting shouted at for being a bit concerned....

anyway, (1) Wane underestimated/disrespected Widnes who were always going to go for the biggest scalp they could get. (2) The squad wasn't up to it. (3) where was the defense FFS! It's not all Wane's fault that they put 37 past us. (4) the place for trying out newbies is in the reserves or the friendlies BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS ! ("There were a few debuts because I needed to know about these players." WTF?!).

It's only 6 games in, & there's no need to panic, but if we don't put a telephone number past London next week, a little more than knee-jerk "Wane out" nonsense needs to be considered and someone should have a talking to.

Let's just hope everyone learns from this & it doesn't happen again.

As any young player a young coach will make mistakes and it's how he comes back from a bad one yesterday that will show Wanes true ability. I'm sure he knows he's made a mistake even though he won't publically admit it and now his job is to make sure he doesn't repeat it.

I still think the early signs are that he's doing a cracking job. With a first choice side we've played some very good and structured attacking rugby whilst defending strongly when it's been needed. He's got more out of a couple of new signings then people thought possible and he's pushed the games of guys like Goulding and McIlorum on a level or 2. He's also blooded a couple of youngsters in the right way and coped well with some injury problems.

Learn the lessons and move on.