What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 12:09 pm  

Big test of Matt Peet's coaching this week. His new-look team has had their first major test, away against tough opposition in hard conditions, and they were found to be very, very wanting.

Will it prove to be the same bump in the road that completely capsized Adrian Lam's last season at Wigan, or will the new guy be able to show that it was a blip on what otherwise remains an upward trajectory?

It's difficult to be optimistic after what happened last year, when somehow, a Grand Finalist team appeared to have forgotten everything we thought it had learned the previous season. Even the most experienced Wigan watchers were dumbfounded at the difference between the Wigan teams of 2020 and 2021.

But at least, Adrian Lam can always point to that first season when he got us to the Grand Final, and we were only denied victory by the bounce of a ball. Matt Peet has no such track record to fall back on.

On the upside, for all the dross that so-called Wigan team offered us last night, at least they weren't defeated by Catalan quite as embarrassingly as their 2021 namesakes were.

I'm not taking a great deal of optimism from that, though, because for me, last night's match should have been the perfect opportunity for Matt Peet's team to draw a clear line between this year and last and, in laying that ghost, prove to the Wigan fans that a new era has arrived. But instead, we saw a team that looked uninspired and underprepp'd.

Jonh called it a 'lazy performance', which was accurate as well as succinct. But it was also very worrying. Because if you can't use a fixture like that one to motivate you, whether you're the players or the coach, what can you use? If you miss an opportunity like that one to heal an old hurt wound quickly, has anything really changed?

I don't want to overreact to last night, but deep down inside I'm worried that it was a signal defeat. We've all had recent experience of a new era arriving dramatically, when Madge's team charged to Old Trafford during its first season having failed to get anywhere near it in the previous decade. Last night certainly proved that we're not in that territory. Not yet anyway

Am I worrying unduly? I wait in hope that others can persuade me I am.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 12:18 pm  

All depends on your expectations IMO. If people expect trophies, I’d be prepared for disappointment tbh but if you expect a better quality of rugby, a 3rd/4th place finish and some tough losses thrown in (mainly against sides with better packs that us) then last night wouldn’t have been a huge surprise. Let’s not get away from the fact here that teams have better (and looking at teams on paper) and more expensive squads than ours, so if this is a year of consolidation, finding things out and working towards filling what still is a couple of gaping holes for next year, then I personally can live with that.

As for the short term, I do think we’ll bounce back on Thursday. They’re not playing well and I do think we’re in a better place mentally this year. I think we’d have seen a different game in better conditions last night and whilst we may not of won, that weather, mixed with it being a big Catalans side we were playing, with a couple of cool heads to control it in Tomkins and Pearce was an absolute recipe for disaster.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 1:31 pm  

The result last night wasn’t a surprise to me but the manner of our capitulation was. And the fact that Kaide Ellis ran into that fight suggests that either he isn’t aware of the consequences of that action or that he is “thick”! Which all suggests that the team culture is not what it should be yet. I have Matty Peet down as a clever bloke and a thinker who can probably analyse an opposition and work out their weaknesses as good as any coach. But, for now, he is probably lacking in motivational skills and being able to transfer the game plan to his players - telling them to be expansive and to go for opportunities as they present themselves is fine if it is also accompanied by a strong game plan that will create those opportunities. I have seen enough so far this season to suggest that he can do the pre-game stuff both in the players’ heads and on the training field. I have also seen enough to suggest that they can overcome adversity as they did last week. So I am hoping that the biggest learning from this game will be a deeper knowledge of his players’ attitude when they are playing a bigger team in atrocious conditions. So to answer the question “what now” I would say a tweak is required but nothing wholesale. Clearly, as NickyKiss suggests, there are some gaping holes but we aren’t going to resolve those until later this year when Matty Peet has had a chance to decide who to keep and what positions to strengthen.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 2:14 pm  

It looks to me like team confidence has taken a big hit during the last two games. Players look nervous and basic unforced errors are putting us on the back foot. We gave Catalan field position through one of these errors at the start of the first half and didn't recover from it all half. Catalan just played simple tactics and pinned us in our own half meaning we coughed up more ball and increased the pressure. It's only a matter of time until a top side scores. It's great to see expansive rugby and a miracle pass to send someone in for a score but yesterday wasn't the conditions for that and Peet needs to use a different game plan to be more patient in those games against top teams. I think we'll bounce back on Thursday at home but we need to learn from our mistakes quickly. Another poor performance on Thursday and we could be in trouble.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 3:27 pm  

I don't think last nights performance was in the same category as last seasons hammering. When you look at the tries we conceded it isn't like we were getting ripped apart in open play. The first try was a poor individual error from Farrell.
The second was a bit of a fluke. Smithies deflects the kick but can't regather as Goudemand bumps into him unaware of where the ball is, then just has to pick it up.
The third is a horrific individual mistake from Cust.
The fourth yet another kick where their man was just ahead of ours.

That's similar to the Toulouse game, where we were conceding tries from kicks that we didn't deal with and individual mistakes. To me the last couple of games come across more like poor concentration and focus rather than being a poor team. Perhaps staying in France wasn't the best idea and it's disrupted the normal preparations a little.

With a bit of analysis and intervention from the coaches looking at how we deal with kicks it shouldn't be too hard to fix the issues we've had defensively.

In attack we've done well in the first few games. There might be a bit of an issue with our starting middles. Singleton, Ellis and Isa looked a bit weak against Leeds and we were under a lot of pressure but Leeds were toothless in attack. Catalans showed what a more clinical team can do. We'll have to change things as Ellis will be missing for several weeks, so perhaps some forced changes will bring a bit more balance to the team.

No need to panic right now. Hopefully Ellis' ban will be offset by the return of Havard in the coming weeks. We just need to stop switching off and making silly errors defensively and be a bit more honest in attack.

I still think we haven't found our best backline but I don't think Matt Peet is too keen on tweaking things. I really haven't seen anything impressive from Hardaker this year on the wing. If he does have something to offer it doesn't seem to be in that position. Bibby is very hit and miss. He's a threat with strong carries close to the line but doesn't work hard enough in our own half and he seems completely incapable of passing the ball. Maybe a few tweaks here and there will see us become more threatening over time.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:20 pm  

Get K P-P into the back row sharpish, Singleton needs to play like he did against Hudds week in week out not once every six weeks, hope Havard comes back like he was in 2020, ditto French, don't go back into their shells, only way we're going to be competitive is by playing rugby, we won't beat anyone half decent in a forward slug fest.
Pick two of Thornley Bibby Hardaker to play centre and stick with them, if they can't hack it give Halsall a go there, realise no.9 is a vital position and our current one is miles off what's needed.
Practice practice practice defending kicks

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:41 pm  

Limited squad, limited coaching team. The whole ethos this year is to be cheap and see what we can get away with. We’ve started from such a low base after the last year that we should see improvement but a lot of the old habits won’t die with key positions filled by players who are a bit stale or significantly past their best (Hardaker, Leuluai, Powell for example). If we lose in the week, we know the mentality of the squad could fold pretty quickly. I’m just not enthused by the last week’s jolly.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 5:18 pm  

The GF was Lam's second season. In his first we limped out the playoffs pretty much the same as we did in 2021.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 7:00 pm  

I will wait and see how the team responds against Cas, it was a very poor performce with a lot of basic individual errors but those are things that can be improved on. Cut down the errors and silly penalties and suddenly things will improve - keeping possesion and building pressure are key we need to go back to basics a bit to rebuild confidence rather than to keep trying micracle plays.

For me the message needs to be sent out that everyone is playing for their place in them team and if it takes one or two being dropped out of the squad (big names not withstanding) then that is what will be needed. One or two certainly need a bit of a kick up the backside.

Watching though I think teams have worked out a lot of Wigan's threats - the Farrell drop off play is so easy for teams to read now and the shift plays are also pretty easy to spot - Cats had them down to a tee every time. They also closed down Field very quickly which nullified his threat. That is where we need to go back to the basic of building pressure so we get the opposition on the back foot but that will not happen unless we get rid of the silly errors which are happening far too often for professional players.

Re: What now? : Sun Mar 13, 2022 10:09 pm  

Just got to win all these games between now and good Friday.

Nobody will take us seriously (rightly so) until good Friday where we need to at least compete with Saints and make a statement.

Last night was a statement game and couldn’t have gone much worse.

Integrate Havard and Bevan into the side, work out the back line and loose forward position and go from there.