Matt Peet has named his squad to face Leigh Leopards on Saturday 29th July 1pm Kick Off 1 Jai Field 2 Bevan French 3 Toby King 4 Jake Wardle 5 Liam Marshall 6 Cade Cust 7 Harry Smith 10 Liam Byrne 12 Liam Farrell 13 Morgan Smithies 15 Kaide Ellis 17 Kai Pearce Paul 20 Patrick Mago 21 Iain Thornley 22 Brad O’Neill 23 Abbas Miski 26 Harvie Hill 27 Junior Nsemba 31 Jacob Douglas 32 Ryan Hampshire 34 Tyler Dupree https://twitter.com/wiganwarriorsrl/sta ... 88449?s=46

Matt Peet has named his squad to face Leigh Leopards on Saturday 29th July 1pm Kick Off 1 Jai Field 2 Bevan French 3 Toby King 4 Jake Wardle 5 Liam Marshall 6 Cade Cust 7 Harry Smith 10 Liam Byrne 12 Liam Farrell 13 Morgan Smithies 15 Kaide Ellis 17 Kai Pearce Paul 20 Patrick Mago 21 Iain Thornley 22 Brad O’Neill 23 Abbas Miski 26 Harvie Hill 27 Junior Nsemba 31 Jacob Douglas 32 Ryan Hampshire 34 Tyler Dupree https://twitter.com/wiganwarriorsrl/sta ... 88449?s=46

Isa missing. I assume he will go with the same 17 (apart from Isa) and bring in Dupree.

K P-P to start at 2nd row with Nsemba taking the bench spot

The big debate will be to stick with French at 6 or not. I do think it could work but not how French is playing the role. He isn’t taking the ball to the line enough and he is stifling himself by constantly moving the ball on. I’ve been saying that for weeks and it hasn’t really improved.

It’s now or never in terms of making the change. We can’t keep changing such a pivotal position, so we do it now or go with it until the end of the season. I would make the switch but I’m not somebody who says it has to automatically be Miski to make way. I don’t think Marshall has been at his best throughout the year and I’d have it as 50/50 as to who misses out. I’ll sit on the fence and go-

Field
French King Wardle Miski/Marshall
Cust Smith
Ellis O’Neill Dupree
KPP Farrell Smithies

Subs
Hill Mago Byrne Nsemba

I don't think I've ever seen Miski score a try that Marshall couldn't have scored, but I can't say the reverse. That said, I agree Marshall hasn't hit the heights of last season.

It won't happen but if anyone moves to the wing it should be Field for me. French is a better 1 than he is and he's probably a better 6 than he is.

I think we've made a rod for our backs a little after magic by swapping them round again.

Agree with that but Miski is better in terms of coming away from our line. I’d probably go with Marshall ‘if’ we make the change but I don’t think it’s as straightforward as Miski definitely being the guy who should make way. I don’t think we’ll change it anyway tbh.

Fully agree. It was ripped up way too quickly, based on a shocking team performance. Defensively Field struggled but he had next to no protection and if you’re not together as a team then a guy like that becomes a sitting duck. I’d have been happy to switch them back with Isa in the team, helping to protect Field, so his loss is a bit two fold.

I’d stick with French at 6 personally, think he has the attributes for to play in the halves and if we get good go forward it will open it up for him even more. We seemed to have moved on from Cust so I don’t see a better option imo.

We have 2 similar home games in the next 2 weeks against good sides but who may have an eye on the cup final.

I’d stick with French at 6. I don’t think it’s been as bad as people are making out IMO.

Give it another 2 weeks and if it still isn’t great consider a change over the cup break.

As for this week Dupree will be in for Isa and Nsemba or Cust for Shorrocks.

I’d probably go Cust as he can cover multiple positions and Junior may only get 10/15 mins.

Miski IMO has been undroppable of late.

Put Hampshire in place of Cust.

I'd stick. He showed decent form and quite a bit of improvement against Wire. The semi final was a one off in poor conditions, a man down and where we defended for much of the 2nd half. I think he just needs time. You don't become a top half back in just a few games. He has the requisite skills if we allow him to settle there with the added bonus of being one of the best defensive halves in the comp.

It's a win/win for me as, if he works out over the rest of this season, it's problem solved for next. If he doesn't we have Keighran coming in or a full off season to bed Field/Hampshire in.

Edit: Btw, there's a good statistical analysis on the other forum regarding French at Wing/Fullback/Stand off that seems to support French at stand off. I won't reprint it here but the conclusion is that French isn't the problem. It's that the pack is misfiring largely due to missing personnel. That's something I wholly agree with. Someone added this statistic which is really telling:

Average points conceded per game with Havard & Ellis in the team - 10.1
Average points conceded when only one of them plays - 21.3

That's staggering even before we factor in the loss of yardage going forward without one or the other and, in particular, Havard.

Looking forward to watching Dupree, him and KPP provide some athleticism and tackle breaking ability in the pack to go along with the grafters.

Yeah, looking at Duprees stats and the big one that jumps out is the number of tackle busts he has compared to our other props, I think he has around the same of the rest of our props combined.

We will soon knock that out of him

K P-P starts 2nd row, Cust Mago Nsemba Dupree on bench, rest as you'd expect

Not a bad squad out. Big bench hopefully see our forwards do their fair share of carrying us up the middle

Well balanced 17.
Looking forward to it. Hopefully the conditions will help us move the ball around.

A lot of over playing but been awhile since I’ve seen our forwards make meters. Mago and Dupree making a big difference. Not too late for Mago

Infinitely better side when we attack with some ambition, structure, multi-layered running lines, etc.

Who the hell is this woman who is summarising the 1st half? She is completely ignorantly biased towards Leigh and completely disrespectful to Wigan. Is she a Leyther fan or summat? Diversity eh

Been very sloppy but i like that we are trying things off the cuff. Like the look of Dupree already. Plenty of grunt about him, loves a collision.

Well played Wigan. It feels like Dejavu when you played at LSV.

I see Asiata tried to put Dupree out of the game with a trademark low-leg tackle, though Channel 4 made no comment about it.

Now that was a performance!

The game pretty much sums up the frustration of those of us who have a pop when we fall below the expected standards. Was a tough first 20, we dug in and defended exceptionally and took our chances well then Leigh just fell apart. It’s still not right with French at 6 but looks like we are stuck with it. If the forwards do a job on other teams it won’t matter as much though. I thought Peet’s comments were directly at Byrne being soft and just awful effort/technique to get square on and just let them walk through us under the sticks. Byrne’s the only one now who needs to sit out. Well done to Miski, what a day/week for him.