Why do Wigan not give players a chance?
The squad consists of players who have played Super League and younger lads who have yet to be given a chance.
We've got lads at Workington, Tierney who is an Academy international, Doran who has played Super League and Greenwood who has also played a full season at Super League.
We also have Hampshire who must watch Bowen play and shake his head in despair that he's not been given a chance.
We have two players at Swinton, Lloyd who has played Super League and Lever who was Academy player of the year and Academy International but hasn't been given a chance!
Surely these players deserve a chance on current form of the first team at the moment!
I hate to say it but Saints have played their young players and are playing well.
It appears Wane has his favourites and he won't drop them no matter what happens!

Well, put it this way; it wouldn't be ideal. The time to blood the likes of Doran, Shorrocks, Tierney etc is into a reasonably settled team. To throw any of them into the current shambles would be asking the almost impossible. The difficult progress of George Williams, say, is proof of that (and we certainly can't/shouldn't be too hard on him). Would we want to replicate that in other positions in the backs?

I wouldn't be opposed to drafting in the likes of Greenwood into the forwards, though, because

a) He's done OK in the game time he has had, and

b) He could hardly be worse than some of the current shirt-owners.

As a Saints fan who's seen a fair bit of Wigans younger players it is Hampshire that is the pick alongside Burgess.
The forwards will take longer to make their way through although I've been surprised by how well Sutton has held his own on occasion. Credit to him for doing that.
Wigan could put any of the younger forwards in for a spell off the bench and they'd all be ok if, and it's a big if, they had 3 big quality yard making props to rely on.
Flower will make a difference and Mossop needs an injury free run. It's up to the others to back these two up because the back row is way too small to bully teams.
I think Wigan will struggle in the short term but when Flower and SO'L return they'll get parity with most up front and then the halves will have a chance of playing with some field position consistently.
We'll find out then if Smith, Williams, Powell or Hampshire deserve a shirt.
On a side note I think if there was a tea lady at the DW called Farrell or Tomkins she'd be in the 17 on current form.

I think the time has come to move things around a bit cos things are clearly not working as they are!!

Team I'd like to see for next week would be something along the lines of the following

1. Sarginson
2. Gelling
3. Tomkins
4. Gildart
5. Burgess
6. Hampshire
7. Smith
8. Mossop
9. McIllurum
10. Sutton
11. Connor Farrell
12. Tautai
13. Bateman
-----------
Doran , Crosby, Clubb, Greenwood

Removes the ineffective Bowen and Liam Farrell this season, and would hopefully be the last we see of the former, and the kick up the harris the latter needs, especially being dropped for his brother who has been far better this year!

Gives us attacking options from the off with sarginson, and helps us with some of sarg's positional frailties playing at centre.

Joel has been rubbish at second row all season, and only seems to play when hes at centre, and is also defensively stronger than gelling or sarginson so that sturdies us up.

Gives Gildart, Connor, Hampshire & Doran a chance in their proper positions, and also bulks the pack up a little more with Tautai playing second row!

Give it a try Mr Wane and prove you have a plan B and a few other tactics than the ineffective 'smash em up approach'!!!

I'm assuming the people picking Gildart didn't see any preseason friendlies? He's no where near ready. He's arguably not physically ready for playing at Workington for any prolonged period.
Yes we're struggling but putting these lads into an already struggling team could ruin them particularly halfbacks and forwards.

Gelling on the wing instead of Manfredi? Have you had a drink this morning?

Truth is, for all the criticism of Burgess, Manfredi hasn't exactly seized the opportunities he's had this season with both hands, has he?

Thanks mate, that's cheered me up no end!

I don't know if this is sarcasm or not but Manfredi really impressed me on Friday. I thought he did really well.

Me too, he was very good against Cas as well.

Likewise. I thought Manfredi was one of the few standout players we had on Friday.

Joel Tomkins has been tearing it up this season.

One bad game doesn't change that.

In the face of all this support for him, perhaps I should reconsider! He's certainly been enthusiastic; I remember that chase back to make the try-saving tackle with Bateman against Cas (?), when Bowen CBA. But I seem to recall a few dropped passes too, and he was responsible for the (very unnecessary) penalty which led to Burrow's try.

If the Cas and Leeds games were a better watch, I'd see them again to re-check his performances. But I'm sure Wigan fans can understand, I don't have much enthusiasm to do that.



What I am sure about is that a few dropped passes by wingers are far from being Wigan's biggest problem at the moment.

Smith gave away that penalty I thought?

Hasn't had a pass to seize with both hands either!

That's true!

I'd go:

FB 20 Hampshire
RW 22 Manfredi
RC 3 Gelling
LC 4 Sarginson
LW 5 Burgess
SO 6 Williams
SH 7 Smith
P 17 Clubb
H 23 Logan
P 23 Mossop
SR 14 Bateman
SR 31 Connor
LF 9 McIlorum

S 11 Joel
S 12 Liam
S 24 Tautai
S 28 Sutton

I don’t think Bowen is anywhere near as bad as people are making out but realistically Hampshire needs to be playing FB against the likes of Wakefield now if he is to take over the position full time next season. Plus if he can be safe defensively he would be the better option anyway.

McIlorum brings experience and a bit of direction to the side. I don't really think we can afford him off the pitch at any point whilst Lockers is injured. Having said that Logan is outplaying him at hooker currently so putting him in at loose makes sense to me. He did a good job there last year in the same circumstances.

Liam Farrell and Joel Tomkins being benched may well give them the kick up the backside they need, 11 penalties from Joel and 8 by Liam within 6 games is shocking. Bateman is an aggressive player doing pretty much the same job and has given away 4 in the same time. Connor Farrell has impressed me in all his opportunities so far this year so I think he would do us a good job there. I think having an extra back rower on the bench might just keep us a bit fresher, hopefully mitigating the chances of us running out of juice in the second half as we have been doing.

According to shaun wane both hampshire and tierney need to up their game if they want to play in the 1st team

If that is a true comment by Wane about Hampshire, it beggars belief - yet again. Maybe if he had picked him at 6 rather than trying to turn him into a Sam MK 2 fullback, he might see a different player. And Wigan did win the only game (against Huddersfield) that Rocky started at 6, even though he was only drafted in 10 minutes before the kick off.

In all honesty, it is maybe the coaching staff and IL and Rads if they are in charge of recruitment who need to up their game!

Grimmy's team is ok for me apart from the back row.
Connor, Bateman & MicM is far too small for my liking.

I'd try and "go big" with Clubb, Logan, Mossop, Joel, Gelling & Patrick as the pack.
They are big, fast and skillful. I'd put Bateman left centre and Sargy right centre, With Rocky as FB.

Waney's comments about Hampshire are odd.
Which super star who is on top of his game is keeping Hampshire out of the team, may I ask?
Hampshire started one game at 6 and we won it.
What more do they want from a 6?

It's the pack that needs sorting, 3 4 & 5 carries from three of our props in an entire game is utterly dreadful. That needs sorting. If it isn't and we give Saints the freedom Cuthbertson and Peacock were given then Saints could run riot.

Hampshire has 1 more assist than Smith this season despite playing 4 less games......

But yeah Smith is doing "just enough" no doubt.

Because Wane has his knife into Hampshire for daring to suggest that he would be more comfortable playing halfback.

It's difficult to know for sure where the problem lies without seeing what goes on in training.

Maybe Wane is not impressed with Hampshire's wrestling technique......