I agree. 65 minutes of utter rubbish and they still got back into it. Shows how right I was about Wigan being lucky in the Grand Final. One half back and we would have been fine, both and we'd have won. Same again today.
Their defense is incredible. But once they get tired they simply cannot do it legally, it's physically impossible to keep up the intensity that long. So they go high, they go in late, they flop, they hold down. And today the penalty count reflected that. Wigan are good going forward but expend so much energy in defense that their attack isn't as cutting as it could be.
Saints were very rusty, disorganised and disjointed. Didn't look like they knew each other at all. We didn't seem to have any attacking moves and it all looked panicked and off the cuff. On the hour mark they showed a stat showing we'd made 0 breaks. Sums our attack up. Leon is essential and can't come back quick enough.
I still think there is plenty for Simmons to work on in attack, but most of his work will be in defense. We were very narrow throughout. The mistake was maintaining this in our own 20, which meant any Wigan width resulted in an overlap. There were also far too many missed tackles. And the age old incompetence at the back in dealing with kicks. Wellens, as much as I love him, is a total liability. He's far too slow, which means both wingers have no confidence in him and are always compensating for him. The fact that neither can deal with a high kick means its a massive vulnerability for us.
We looked ten times better when Wellens was off the pitch. It's a controversial decision, but it's one the club has to make and make soon IMO.
