Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 9:50 am  

One of the most dour finals I have ever seen! the game was so slow, from play the ball's to scrums, and then the advantage play has become a farce, it again slows the game down.

Wigan just held on to the ball a little more, giving them more possession, the kicking in our game is making union look good these days, especially when it is on the third tackle? I thought Hull looked better with the ball, if they had not dropped it, at last they looked good passing.

The attendance was a farce, I presume they count into that figure the 17,500 Club Wembley Debenture Seats sold for every event at the stadium, take them off the figure the whole middle tier was virtually empty, I would say looking around the stadium more 63,000!

Not a great day for the game, it has been billed up that much.

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 9:58 am  

No1 Saint wrote:

There were some worrying signs though as a Wigan fan you should be a little concerned about , Pieman on Cherry and White mentioned it(being a bit one dimensional), even with the weather being so poor and the balls being problematic (which for me should just get fixed !!) the amount of possession Wigan had they should have been out of sight by half-time.

The thing is Wigan played pretty expansive rugby in the first part of the season, they came one dimensional when Shirley and Tomkins missed a few games and became "too structured" because of it.
If Wigan played to early season form they would have posted 50 points on Hull. Have Wigan put all there eggs in one basket in winning at wembley, because they look a level below Huddersfield and Warrington at the moment.

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 10:30 am  

Unless you were down there you couldn't realise just how bad the conditions were. It was heaving down. Wigan played the better wet weather rugby, just as Widnes did the other week v Wire.

BOTH sides defended really well, it's a side of the game that the vast majority of spectators seem to ignore, Harrison Hansen was superb in that facet of his game, how would have got the Lance Todd for me.

Anyway that's Challenge Cup #19 for Wigan, the third time we've nilled a club at Wembley and now become the FIRST town to hold the F.A. Cup and Challenge Cup in the same year.

Not bad for a little town eh!!!

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:40 am  

pies-r-us wrote:

Say what you want, and I’m not saying for one minute that it was a classic, it wasn’t, but be honest if you just changed the name from Wigan to St Helens on that game you’d be blaming the weather, the ball, recent injuries and the poor oppositions performance too, but when all’s said and done you too would just say “we don’t care, we won” and I couldn't blame you one bit.

Of course if Saints won I wouldn't care the quality of the game; what a stupid thing to suggest.

I'd be aware of how terrible the game was, though, and not look to be defensive about it like the Wigin lot are.

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 1:31 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

This is a zero sum thread for saints fans. No matter the score or quality, the result is Wigan won and we were out long ago.

I normally like to watch the CC final though even if we dont make it, I've been to a few as a neutral too. That game was terrible and I'm glad I didn't go watch it. Cant deny I'd have liked a Hull win but I'd have settled for a good game of Rugby

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 3:44 pm  

Its hard to have a good game in those conditions, questions have to be asked about how this ball performs in wet conditions, as we have our showpiece event for summer rugby in October!

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 3:55 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

Its hard to have a good game in those conditions, questions have to be asked about how this ball performs in wet conditions, as we have our showpiece event for summer rugby in October!

As I said elsewhere, the Wire v Widnes game was played in similar conditions and there was a similar amount of spilled ball. Just something else wouldn't you have thought that a stadium costing around £750 million would have a retractable roof, not to mention decent road access.

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 4:03 pm  

Impressed with some of Hull's young players, they really seem to have got that right.

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 4:49 pm  

Not the classic everyone expected but when I saw the weather forecast I saw it coming. I think most people would accept that the conditions did play a part. It's been cropping up for a while now about how poorly the Rhino ball's handle in the rain, And yesterday did nothing but pour down, non stop all day. The semi final had a lot of handling errors in poor conditions... but both teams managed to score and make a game of it, unfortunately (for the neutral atleast).. that didn't happen yesterday. If the young hull fullback had scored from that break instead of being tackled the game would have turned on it's head and a very tense end to the game would have ensued, Instead we got Hull knocking on every set whilst trying to throw it about a bit.

Ultimately Wigan didn't set the world on fire but they didn't need to. Instead of forcing the pass and losing possesion when tackled players just went to ground and kept hold. Hull where very poor with the ball in hand at times and constantly gifted us field position and whilst they defended well and shut our usual plays down with a fast line defence the team who played to the conditions better won.

Re: match on today : Sun Aug 25, 2013 5:32 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

As I said elsewhere, the Wire v Widnes game was played in similar conditions and there was a similar amount of spilled ball. Just something else wouldn't you have thought that a stadium costing around £750 million would have a retractable roof, not to mention decent road access.

wembley is a terrible location and the stadium isnt a patch on cardiff