They've been playing knock out football for about six weeks now, battle hardened to say the least, hopefully ticket sales will buck up now, next week deserves a good crowd, should be a cracker

It'll be standard play off stuff with the crowd. We'll sell about 9/10k and there will be about 15k on. We'll get pelters from across the game even though it'll be comfortably the biggest crowd of all the play off ties.

As for the game, it's a nervy one with it being Leigh but get our game right and we'll be ok. I remember once or twice us needing a good end of the season to get in the play offs and managing to then get through a round or two but then hitting a brick wall (usually at Headingley). We need to make sure we're that brick wall.

Facing up to the winners of Leigh/Salford was always my preferred choice. I'm just glad of the week off after watching those 4 sides knock lumps out of each other. Plus Josh Charnley wont be playing and their squad isnt that deep.

Their main strike player is out,they do have some outstanding players Ipape,Lam,Mulhern etc but we are at home and have more outstanding players French,Wardle,Marshy,Field etc etc.Put it this way I would be more shocked if we lost than if we won.

Saying that it should be a war of attrition a bit like the last 2 playoff games.
Looking forward to this with same amount of excitement as with worry,should be a good one.

Control Ipape we will be comfortable.

Easier said than done the way he’s playing at the moment.

They won't lose loads in the grand scheme of things with Hardaker and Hanley at wing/centre in some order and O'Donnell back in for Halton.

We need to control their front row. Ipape is outstanding, as is Amone and Mulhern is playing out of his skin. Do that and there is too much pace in the Wigan side for them.

10k sold before Leigh's tickets have gone on sale, should be a bumper crowd!

Hope you're right but looking at the ticket map I'd guesstimate 5/6k tops so far, the south/east are looking very sply populated

Just going off Wigan's social media post this morning, can only assume it is accurate.

It'll pick up over the week just like it did against Hull KR last year and be a respectable crowd but Wiganers do seem to have a habit of giving semi-finals a miss, be it Challenge Cup or SL. Always frustrating when a playoff game has a poorer turnout than the equivalent league game. Important the fans get behind the team this week and give them the support they deserve.

He misses a lot of tackles but is good with the ball in hand.

I'm glad he's okay but Charnley will be a massive loss for Leigh. Worth at least a try in any match.

Hit Hanley hard early on and he will go quiet too.

He used to….he’s really improved regards that this season particularly as the season goes on.

On current form he on my opinion is the best player in SL going into the finals series.

He missed 9 tackles on Friday.

Harry should be practicing his spiral bombs because Moylan doesn't want to know anything about catching a kick that's dropping from any kind of height

Jai Field and Kaide Ellis being shown in the stands at Old Trafford on Sky to advertise Saturday's game was definitely not something I was expecting.

They're always a bit misleading the missed tackle stats for me. If it was a guy sitting in the line, waiting for attackers to run at him, like a halfback would usually do, then that would be worrying but guys like Micky Mac and Morgan Knowles miss loads and it's because they're trying to get off their line and put shots on. I'd imagine most of the Ipape misses were because of that and had very little baring on Leigh then completing the tackle.

Plenty of other targets for Wigan though. Get traffic going at Lam and O'Brien and chase hard on Moylan and get him thinking about things. He doesn't look fully fit to me and is nervous taking kicks and running the ball in.

Weather could be a big factor over the next couple of weeks. We've been a bit fortunate in the semis and finals of the CC and SL over the last 12 months with dry weather perfect for Field, French, Wardle etc. Obviously the CC semi last year didn't go so well in torrential rain though I'm sure its something Peet will have learned from.

Forecast for Friday is dry, as is Thursday and Saturday, so reasonably confident that torrential rain wont be an issue.

This,
and we should be targetting their right side of Mcintosh and Hanley, which is definitely their weakest point, both in attack and defence

I know they may need to juggle the backs a bit so Hanley probably goes other wing, with Hardaker into centre, which probably improves their defensive setup but that then leaves both wings and FB weak in defence and under the high ball

The 'week off' thing is always something you can take either way, isn't it? If you have the week off, you can be regarded as either nicely rested or at risk of losing your rhythm, whereas if you play the week before, you can be seen as either battle-hardened or tired. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, really. As for the game, I give Leigh an outside chance, but I'd certainly expect Wigan to win, by 10-12 points.

Yeah, the week off debate is as easy to win as the 'is it better to go to Catalans on the day or to go a couple of days before' debate. Nobody knows the answer and without looking at a load of data, over a period of multiple seasons, you couldn't put up an argument to say you're definitely correct either way.

Realistically, different teams probably need different things at different times. I think from a Wigan POV a rest is likely to be a good thing for us currently because of the amount of games the players have had and because of the emotion of some of them (Cup Final, Penrith etc) but no way of proving that either way, even if we won by 50 or lost by 50 on Saturday.

We will be good to go.

Having a week off is 100% an advantage. No risk of bans, head knocks, injuries, fatigue. A chance to rest the body after a gruelling season.


If Leigh beat us everyone will bring up the lazy week off narrative but if they do beat us it’ll be because they played better than us on the night.



Leigh’s good players are amazing, Lam, Ipape, Amone, Asista, Mulhern, O’Donnell. I just think they have 1 or 2 passengers that we can get at and get our points.

Fancy us to progress but it’ll take all 80 minutes I feel.

My stalker Rob will no doubt come on tonight after a few beers and accuse me of wanting to suck up to strangers on a forum but I have put the same on Redvee. I genuinely want Wigan to beat Leigh on Friday and by a good score. Naturally I don't want them to win the comp but Leigh have very quickly become one of my most hated clubs

Beaumont and his behaviour is the biggest factor. The man is an absolute tool and has no class whatsoever. His tweet after we lost to Warrington on Saturday just summed him up, not sure why he felt the need to have a pop at Salford in the same tweet either

Despite what I want I think Wigan will win comfortably anyway. Despite being a better team, for some reason Leigh make it easier for them by rolling over and having their tummy tickled most times. Charnley missing is a big loss for them too.

I'm hoping for a Wigan v HKR final which is what it should be. 1 v2, the two best teams in the comp.