30 minutes in and we are throwing all our attack at the Giants right, where they have an international centre and wing.

The left side has a lad making his debut and Foster. Is it just me that is worried by our game plan?

Yeah it's poor. Not helped by having Powell on the left who is average at best at 6.

Fair play to Huddersfield with their kicking in the 3rd every set. At least they have a game plan.

Agreed. I don't know about 'the Giants have no half-backs', but I'd take Ellis over Powell any day. Good pass for the try, too.

Wigan are totally devoid of ideas, Hudds are moving the ball far better than Wigan and apart from Williams there is not one halfback in the Club.

Woeful, did not deserve the win. This team is so much better than what they are producing.

Never been a fan of Wane but thought he had earned the right to coach the team this year, on this seasons showing so far he needs to improve massively. Shocking game plan tonight.

First half was the problem. I think we took them lightly and tried to barge through the middle on every attack. Dom hardly touched it in the first half. When it did go to the right Gelling was trying to cut back inside every time. Lesson learned i think and got away with.

Sam Powell continues to look like a competition winner for me in the Wigan first team. I doubt he'd get in the Leigh team at half- back. Surely he should be out on loan and Ryan Hampshire should be the reserve number 6?

Just on route back and I'm just glad to get the win because that wasn't pretty. You can't win a game of rugby league unless you're prepared to make the hard yards down the middle and in the first half we weren't! Thankfully the likes of Bateman and Tautai (fair play to him tonight) sorted that second half and earned us the right to play a little (even if we still kept having brain fades).

It was far from vintage but it's another win and come the end of the season we may well look back on these two scrappy wins as big moments for us.

Looking like another dull as dishwater start to the season, it seems it takes 6 or 7 weeks to get going.
Maybe we should use the pre-season matches for the first team to warm up rather than the reserves.

All we can hope is that we continue to win whilst not at our best. We always start slow but we don't always win whilst doing it so that's something to build on.

If we can get 6 or 7 wins in the board in the first 8 or 9 games we'll be a real shout of topping the pile.

I agree with the OP by Jonh about not attacking their left side defence.
Almost the first time we did with a clear break we scored. The game was 43 mins gone.
As for Powell, why critisise him? He only gets to play 20 mins each half off the bench. Then Waney starts him and he struggles with what is asked of him.
Trouble is Wane won't rotate his halves.
Our problems tonight were caused by Shaun Wane IMO.
Still, he's the coach of the winning team.

No arguments here, if we've won 7/9 we'll walk the LLS, it's just the lack of entertainment for the first couple of months that's hard to take.

Fully agree. I sat Frozen to the core for the first half of that game wondering if I'm right in the head for turning up! The second half was a little better but until Sam Tomkins and Williams are back I doubt we'll be a thrill a minute.

Yep, fair's fair, Tautai had a good game. Bateman was his usual busy self and Gelling made some telling contributions but his standard brain farts. Him and Lockers were the only players to show a bit of class tonight, the rest... meh.

you won the game when not at your best....

Useless and horrible to watch.
The two centres are the worst pairing I have ever seen in Wigan shirts.
Powell and Tierney cannot pass a ball if their lives depended it upon it.
It's like being back in the 80's. Lots of effort but zero skill.
God help us if Bateman left.
Anyone paying paying to watch the friendly next weekend want their heads seeing to.
I'm trying to think of anything positive but can't.
Our signings in the last four or five years have been abysmal. The quality of our attack is second tier at best.
We have zero and I mean zero attacking options with amateurish attempts of skill.
D middles edges are total utter shoite. Less weights and wrestling and learn some basics.
Pathetic.

Ryan Hampshire can't even get in the Cas team

If Leeds had done that as they have on numerous occasions Sky would have been "champion team" this and "never know when they're beaten" that. Instead, their anti Wigan agenda leads to them picking a loser as MOM, something that I can't recall happening in any of Leeds' numerous smash and grabs.
Hemmings' intro started with "injury ravaged Giants" blah blah and you just knew that Carney would also toe the line. I'm loving it!

I'm very surprised you put class and Gelling in the same sentence!

Gelling has hidden attributes.


Mostly in his britches.


You have got to like him though.

What I particularly liked was when we got penalised for brushing an arm on a Hudds player jumping for a high ball and the Sky team were all over it. A fair decision of course, except about 30 seconds earlier Tierney got bulldozed off the ball as he tried to take a high bomb and the Sky team were banging on about how it was a fair challenge.

Thanks, just what I wanted to hear.



No doubt we'll need to be a lot better to give the Broncos a decent game, though.

Gelling had a very good night aside from a silly offload to Isa (which Isa dealt with but was mysteriously adjudged to have knocked on). He set up our second try and made a great break for our winner which got us in the position. I'd guess he also made the most meters out of all our players by a distance so I wouldn't be all doom and gloom on him.

I'd have him just behind Bateman as our man of the match.

You should never post after a few beers but last night I couldn't help it because I was so angry after a truely awful display.
Well I've sobered up and I still feel the same.
Last season we were rank bad but had a couple of strike players who got us out of trouble on numerous occasions namely Bowen and Burgess. Now they are gone we have got absolutely nothing to offer.
Powell and Smith together is partnership made up in a Saints fans head as joke on the Wigan team unfortunately Wane thinks this is partnership that can "do damage". Useless is being kind to them in terms of their ability. In terms of tactics neither can even start to explain the meaning of the word.
Gelling and Sarginson or Can't pass Won't pass think that kicking on the 2nd or 3rd tackle when they run into a dead end are good tactics. Neither can kick and both are inept at best in terms of basic skills required for a centre. I like a bet and will happily take any bets that neither Manfredi or Charnley will score 20 tries this season. For tactics why don't we put a couple of more middles on the wings and just accept we don't actually need any wingers?
Let's think about tactics in our forwards. Well let's use our smallest forward to make the most yards mainly from first receiver. The rest of the forwards can come in as second and third tackler do sod all with the ball and we can sub them every 20 minutes or to keep them fresh. If it wasn't serious it would be a good joke.
Williams is the only footballer we have at the club.SOL was a footballer but now he has joined the growing ranks of middles so on that point I unfortunately exclude him. IL KR and SW are to blame for this. Our recruitment since KR has arrived has been truely appalling. You can exclude the Tomkins from the recruitment because effectively they were not new blood. What are the tactics they use in deciding upon new recruits? We have a squad full of middles of whom only 2 seem capable of playing for 80 minutes. What are the tactics behind this?
The tactics of the club will now be to big up the Brisbane game because IL knows he needs the cash from the game because season ticket sales are down and you can guarantee that attendances will fall this season because of the dross we will be playing.
God only knows what tactics are discussed in training. It's probably on how to wrestle and 3 man tackles it can't involve any use of a rugby ball.
I think some of the other posters on here have been exceptionally lenient in their views on last night and historically I would also have defended the team irrespective of the performance but last night was a nadir in terms of lack of quality throughout the squad.
My tactics are to bet against Wigan on the handicap until the bookies wise that we are actually crap. Next week Brisbane giving 2 points is like printing money.