Re: widnes v wigan : Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:33 pm  

who needs flankers? wrote:

Correct. I'm doing an awful lot of agreeing with you recently Bren. It feels a bit odd.

At least there isn't relegation to worry about. I can't understand why Wigan would want to rest that many players. We are only a month in, and it's not like it's the Challenge Cup final next week is it?

I suppose we were all guilty of a bit of silliness in the off-season, when all we had to argue about was stadia, planning laws and the political whim of a fat bloke from Bratfut.

As for the Wigan decision to 'rest' so many players - I can imagine the whispered conversation between Big Nige and Shaun Wane: "It's getting a bit embarrassing mate - we need you to take one for the team.."

I suspect that if we hadn't emphatically slashed all over their opening weekend cornflakes, Wigan wouldn't have had to take a turn in the barrel.

Re: widnes v wigan : Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:35 pm  

who needs flankers? wrote:

I can't understand why Wigan would want to rest that many players. We are only a month in, and it's not like it's the Challenge Cup final next week is it?

It was total disrespect to Widnes and a reckless decision by Wane, maybe trying to be a bit too clever for his own good. Must be brave or stupid, i think the latter.

Also agree with Bonzo, we played the best 17 wigan players and widnes played half the first wigan team, total mockery of our sport not playing your best team.

Re: widnes v wigan : Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:01 am  

deeman forever Cas wrote:

It was total disrespect to Widnes and a reckless decision by Wane, maybe trying to be a bit too clever for his own good. Must be brave or stupid, i think the latter.

Also agree with Bonzo, we played the best 17 wigan players and widnes played half the first wigan team, total mockery of our sport not playing your best team.

One could argue that Wigan actually saved us the embarrassment of being beaten by their reserves.

Re: widnes v wigan : Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:56 pm  

To my mind Wigan's 5 most important players are Tomkins, Leuluai, Finch, O'Loughlin & Richards. They chose to rest 4 of those which seems a bit over the top.

Can understand the policy of resting the odd player occasionally to try and keep your squad fresh but 4 all at once is asking for trouble - and it reaped its reward.

That said, with the number of players Widnes were missing through necessity Wane would have reasonably expected to still win the game.

It would have been nice if Tomkins and Richards hadn't played against us seeing as they did most of the damage, but the way we played that day their stand ins would probably have carved us up almost as much........

Re: widnes v wigan : Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:22 am  

The decision to rest a few players clearly backfired but talk of it being bad for the game seems wide of the mark to me. Wigan gave a few more youngsters a chance which most see as a good thing and the result also went some way to showing that you do actually have to turn up every week and can't just expect to win which is good for the competition.

I'd like to think that both Cas and Wakefield will win more than enough games by the end of the season to not be worrying about 2 of the points Widnes got to have come against a weekened opposition.

Re: widnes v wigan : Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:59 am  

Bethman wrote:

The decision to rest a few players clearly backfired but talk of it being bad for the game seems wide of the mark to me. Wigan gave a few more youngsters a chance which most see as a good thing and the result also went some way to showing that you do actually have to turn up every week and can't just expect to win which is good for the competition.

I'd like to think that both Cas and Wakefield will win more than enough games by the end of the season to not be worrying about 2 of the points Widnes got to have come against a weekened opposition.

So would I. However Widnes are a new team, hit by injuries and with the bit of quality/experience indicative of the potential to get better. Apart from the admittedly major factor of IMs absence can we find enough reasons to suggest we will improve more or quicker than the Vikings?