Quarter Final Aftermath : Sat May 12, 2012 3:42 pm
First of all, Wigan were excellent in defence today and completely covered anything we had to throw at them. Our attack was also poor which probably exaggerated that. We had very little in terms of dummy runners in our set plays which meant Wigan's defence could happily drift across and snuff out any threat on the edges. On the flip side when Wigan attacked their second row's ran some great lines which allowed space for Finch and Tomkins to exploit around our centre channels and for me that was the difference today.I don't think we are too far off Wigan personally. They're structure in defence and attack is superior to ours and that's what makes them such a consistent and efficient outfit, credit to their coaching staff for that. I'm hoping that with the introduction of Nathan Brown next year he will start bringing some of the organisation and structure that Maguire has left with Wigan and Wane is carrying on. I think we have the players and the ability to beat Wigan, but without direction and purpose it will always be an uphill struggle. Wigan's aggressiveness was also a big factor in the game, their line speed was far superior in defence and made it very hard for us to create any momentum after the first 15 minutes. Although, big bad Gareth Hock backed up about 10m when Soliola got in his face.
With regards to Saints I thought so players played very well and some had shockers. Makinson had a great game today, completely solid in defence and showed some great flashes in attack when returning kicks and working out of our own half. He made about 4 or 5 very good runs, the pick of the bunch his 70m scoot. Gary Wheeler had a very good game defensively and did well to stop a few Wigan threats but didn't go well at all in attack, made quite a few errors in key positions and took the wrong option a couple of times. Wellens put in his usual 100% effort but in general was fairly ineffective, a combination of his lack of foot speed and Wigan's drifting defence meant he posed no threat at all when on their goal line.
As for the not so good players, I've reserved judgement for a while on two in particular to give them a chance but today amplified their short comings. Lance Hohaia and Michael Shenton bring absolutely nothing to the table and were completely and utterly average today. Lance seems content in shipping the ball on and not taking on the line, it's a real shame because when he does he looks dangerous. His kicking game is also poor and constantly gave Wigan the front foot on returns, perhaps time to give Gaskell another go? Shenton sadly is going downhill, it's no wonder Makinson isn't a prolific try scorer, Shenton can't seem either beat a man or pass the ball. He constantly got taken with the ball in attack and he was poor defensively, Josh Jones brings more to the team than Shenton does.
All in all it was a disappointing day, we had the territory and possession to win but wasn't clinical enough to break down Wigan's well structured and organised defence. We need to bite the bullet and realise that some of the players aren't contributing what they should and we would be better off with younger, more enthusiastic players in the side. If Nathan Brown can bring some direction to the side and swap a couple of players around we will be challenging once again, unfortunately I can't see the current crop having enough about them to win any silverware this season.
