www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... 580&type=1 Regards , EW

www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.a ... 580&type=1 Regards , EW

Mossop and Tautai to miss put for me but pretty sure it'll be Sutton and either Patrick or Powell.

I thought Mossop showed a distinct improvement last week, still nowhere near his best but an improvement nonetheless. He was far more willing to drive the ball in and IIRC did the most carries of the props. So I'd give him a chance to continue the improvement.

I agree about Tautai. For me Patrick has actually been slightly better, so I'd go with him, Sutton, Mossop, Flower and Crosby.

I'd assume Gelling will play and Bateman move over to the left. I'd have a back on the bench, maybe an opportunity for Gildart has been missed.

Why do we need to be careful with Matty Bowen? Can he not play 1 game a week at the grand old age of 33?

Defensively I thought Mossop was a liability. He got brushed off by Peacock twice in the build up to the disallowed McGuire try and Burrow made a total mug of him for his try. He's constantly waving his arms at people during games at the moment.

He took more ball up I agree but there's zero leg drive and no aggression in collision. At points he looks like he's volunteering to surrender before he even hits the line.

Dodgy knees and at the age most players retire. Plus assuming Rocky stays next season he will be our reserve FB so needs experience in games like this.

Matty Bowen will definitely not be at Wigan next season Wane says he is not sure if Matty will go round again (modern speak) with another S/L team but it wont be with Wigan and he went in to say that Sam would be fullback next season. he also said that he had Rocky and Tierney as backup for fullback.
All this was in the M,E,N last night. I could not put a link up, something to do with my age or lack of knowledge.

Please note my posting says that Wane is still insisting that Rocky will be his back up fullback, I have now come to the conclusion that Rocky should bust a gut in any limited field time that he gets to put himself in the shop window.

That's the bit I agree with.

The problem that Hampshire has is that he ain't a fullback and never will be.
If I were him I would put in a formal transfer request before the Widnes game and tell Wane to shove his comments up his Harris.
Hampshire is a halfback who just hasn't been given a chance. For his sake I hope he is signed by Leeds where his potential may given a genuine chance to develop.

IL and Radlinski should give us an update on if we intend trying to keep Hampshire or if in fact he has refused a contract extension and then tell the fans why we gave Powell who is average at best a 4 year contract. I think we all know the answer is that Powell can "cover" hooker and can defend "big". Total utter shoite when we are talking about a 6 but hey ho.

We want a 6 who can scoot from dummy half and tackle his nuts off but accept forwards like Mossop, Crosby, Patrick who have as much aggression as my 3 year old grandson. I wonder why I am becoming disillusioned?
Apologies to my grandson as he has more aggression than Mossop.

I really feel for Rocky at the moment. Whenever he is given a chance by Wane it is at full back which is clearly not his position. I don't accept that he has been given a chance at 6, an outing with 5 minutes notice doesn't count in my book.

For some reason Wane seems to have some kind of problem with giving Rocky the chance that other players have been given. What makes matters worse is that Rocky is getting no game time whatsoever due to the lack of a reserve grade coupled with the fact that he isn't being allowed to play at Workington.

Rocky may not fulfil his potential but how will we know if he isn't given the opportunity. My fear is that he will turn out to be the player that most think he will, just not in Cherry & White. If this happens then it will be down to p**s poor management.

What happens if Rocky scores a hat-trick tonight, is influential in most of our attacks and makes no errors at all? Will that be Bowen out of the picture again?

Wanes response- 'Rocky didn't blow me away, he's got things to work on'.

In all seriousness I think Hampshire would keep his place. Wane was right to take him out of the firing line when he did because his form had totally gone but it's good to see him back.

I'm in the camp that says Hampshire is a halfback and a halfback only but that subject has been done to death.

What a great situation to be in. It's what is need in every position, competition.



I take a slightly different view. Hampshire is a superb player/prospect. He can fit in either position effectively, and the modern day fullback is essentially another half. Lomax, Dorn, Hanbury etc

Phil Clarke mentioned something the other week during a live match. The fullback apparently covers about 1.5 miles per game more than any other player on the field. Hampshire is a superb athlete and I wonder if that's one of reasons Wane prefers him at #1. if you look at any of the pre season videos you will notice him so far out in front on the famous Haigh Hall run and during the American training sessions.

Anyone else having difficulty with the WishFM feed online? Usually there's no prob, but it's breaking up so much tonight that I'm giving it up as a bad job.

I accept what you say Rogues, but if a player is adamant that he does not fancy the position the coach prefers him in, especially when the coach has never given the player a fair shot in the position the player prefers there can only be one outcome

Spot on.
SW doesn't deserve to "coach" Hampshire. He doesn't fit into his style therefore, I haven't got a clue why we don't let the lad go.
Tonight Williams was very poor yet again and Smith well he was Smith little spark and zero creation but both will play at Hull. SW wouldn't know how to play Hampshire to get e best out of him at the moment.

Current half back combination offers vey little in attack Wane should give Hampshire a run at stand off next week but doubt it will happen.

Zero creativity with ball in hand tonight almost a re run of the Salford bore fest.

Hampshire is not a full back in a million years hes an out and out halfback. you give your best players as much ball as possible hes pace to burn support play, engine to cover the field can make breaks from nothing, give him a chance or hopefully someone else will. look at his try percentage in the academy half to full back a remarkable dip from 30 to 40 a season to about ten. modern day utter bull, read bill ashursts comments about ryan the best half at the club a future international at half and why split George and rocky up he says would you split Edwards and greg. bills final comments were some people have a clue and some don't. modern day my .

I remember reading similar rants when Sam Tomkins was moved to fullback...

The fact is, whether FB is Rocky's preferred position or not, he is still capable of doing a job there. No 20 year old in the country can make demands about where they should or shouldn't be playing, and I hope any rumours of that being the case are wide of the mark tbh. Hampshire did very well tonight in the situations he has struggled the most with, dealing with the high ball. If our attack was stuctured with any depth there would be no issue with Hampshire at fullback as he would be perfectly suited in the deep-lying 2nd phase playmaker role (a la Sam). The issue is Wigan's attack is so pathetically flat and laboured it's painful to watch.

Bottom line, I don't buy the whole "he's never a FB in a million years" line that many like to churn out on here, but until we sort out our clunky and shambolic attacking structures it wouldn't really matter who we had playing there.

Agree, he was superb last night and along with Charnley my m.o.m. although he was fortunate for Charnleys try as he was about a yard offside from the kick through. There's a good reason why many coaches pick their most dangerous attacking player at fullback. I've said many times that Hampshire can play either at #1 and #6 and be effective for the TEAM. As for the Gregory / Edwards combination, Gregory was an experienced 25 year old when he came to Wigan. For those who can remember a bit further back, look what happened when Wigan tried to go with Holden and Edwards in the haves at such a young age.

The only reason I'd be wary of playing Williams and Hampshire at 6/7 together at the moment is whether they can be vocal enough to organise a team full of more senior players.

I'm hoping next year when Sam returns that will curtail that issue and we may see them together with Sam, O'Loughlin and Micky also on field as vocal/ organising leaders

1. Tomkins
6. Hampsire
7. Williams
9. McLlorum
13. O'Loughlin

The prospect of that spine gets me pretty excited

It's their defence that would worry me. I was watching Hampshire for most of the game last night, he was fairly vocal, and did quite well.

Rogues I remember the failed Holden and Edwards combo but that doesn't mean that Williams and Hampshire would also fail due to age and/or experience.
We probably will never get the chance to see if it could actually work because unless Smith gets injured there is no way that SW will ever drop Smith however ineffective he is.
As I have said previously I hope Hampshire moves on to pastures new to give his undoubted talent a chance to develop because for whatever reason SW obviously just does not fancy Hampshire in the number 6 jersey