Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 6:42 am  

Been a while since we had stats like this so May as well enjoy them

Singleton 11 carries for 97m

Bryne 8 for 81m

Farrell 12 for 122m

Bateman 14 for 119m

Smithies 10 for 73m

Mago 12 for 132m

Havard 9 for 87m

Ellis 16 for 128m

Cust, Miski, Bevan, Halsall all over 100m and Field 200m

Interesting that yet again Powell didn’t register one carry, will be interesting whoever plays at hooker if they run or not.


Think Byrne Singleton Havard Mago Ellis is a really solid 5 props.

People say we lack size but

Singleton 6ft 2 108kg

Mago 6ft 2 113kg

Havard 6ft 3 102kg

Byrne 6ft 2 113kg

Ellis 6ft 3 106kg

All can play big minutes bar Mago but he gives a bit of Xfactor. Was good to see Ellis offload yesterday hope we see more of it.

Yesterday was the first time them 5 have played together. Fingers crossed we can keep that settled.

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 6:50 am  

Yeah the Wigan pack is as good as anyone in SL now. If Saints pick up another key injury the door will be wide open……

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:08 am  

Terrific numbers across the board there and even that doesn't tell the whole story. We were excellent on the back of those metres too. Offloads, crisp passing and good attacking shape throughout the match.

I made a point on the Good Friday thread that none of our players even came close to their best whereas Saints had several at or around theirs. Yesterday we had season's best performances (Makinson, Paasi) from Singleton, French while he was on and Smith and others at their usual top standard (Roby, Percival etc) in the likes of Field, Faz and so on. The result was a drubbing for Wakefield who's players performed nowhere near their best. That's the nature of any team sport.

Where Saints have it over us at the moment is their ability to do that more often and in the big games. That's where the challenge lies. There's nothing wrong with our potential or ability. We have match winning players all over the park. They need to be able to do it when it matters and I back Peet to get us there.

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:01 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Terrific numbers across the board there and even that doesn't tell the whole story. We were excellent on the back of those metres too. Offloads, crisp passing and good attacking shape throughout the match.

I made a point on the Good Friday thread that none of our players even came close to their best whereas Saints had several at or around theirs. Yesterday we had season's best performances (Makinson, Paasi) from Singleton, French while he was on and Smith and others at their usual top standard (Roby, Percival etc) in the likes of Field, Faz and so on. The result was a drubbing for Wakefield who's players performed nowhere near their best. That's the nature of any team sport.

Where Saints have it over us at the moment is their ability to do that more often and in the big games. That's where the challenge lies. There's nothing wrong with our potential or ability. We have match winning players all over the park. They need to be able to do it when it matters and I back Peet to get us there.

Peet had clearly noted the issue on Friday and where we will need to get to if we’re to challenge Saints, when he said he’d discussed us not having any ‘dips’ over the course of the 80 mins. That is where Saints are so good, they play for 80 minutes and never have a real lull, certainly not in big games anyway. We went toe to toe for 30 mins on Friday and whilst that’s nowhere near enough, I felt it was our first 30 mins of doing that against them since the 2020 Grand Final. We now need to work towards increasing that. The easiest way to do that is to take your chances when they come along and that gives you a mental lift and energises you.

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:08 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Terrific numbers across the board there and even that doesn't tell the whole story. We were excellent on the back of those metres too. Offloads, crisp passing and good attacking shape throughout the match.

I made a point on the Good Friday thread that none of our players even came close to their best whereas Saints had several at or around theirs. Yesterday we had season's best performances (Makinson, Paasi) from Singleton, French while he was on and Smith and others at their usual top standard (Roby, Percival etc) in the likes of Field, Faz and so on. The result was a drubbing for Wakefield who's players performed nowhere near their best. That's the nature of any team sport.

Where Saints have it over us at the moment is their ability to do that more often and in the big games. That's where the challenge lies. There's nothing wrong with our potential or ability. We have match winning players all over the park. They need to be able to do it when it matters and I back Peet to get us there.

It shows you can make metres against Wakey...Not so easy against the big boys..

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:19 am  

saintnickle34 wrote:

It shows you can make metres against Wakey...Not so easy against the big boys..

So what you're saying is it's harder against the better teams than the lesser ones? Better go have a lie down after working that one out. You must be exhausted.

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:28 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

Peet had clearly noted the issue on Friday and where we will need to get to if we’re to challenge Saints, when he said he’d discussed us not having any ‘dips’ over the course of the 80 mins. That is where Saints are so good, they play for 80 minutes and never have a real lull, certainly not in big games anyway. We went toe to toe for 30 mins on Friday and whilst that’s nowhere near enough, I felt it was our first 30 mins of doing that against them since the 2020 Grand Final. We now need to work towards increasing that. The easiest way to do that is to take your chances when they come along and that gives you a mental lift and energises you.

That's the challenge. We had moments in that game where we could have changed momentum significantly but, unlike Saints, didn't take them. The first bombed try for example. We then scored the next chance and could have been 10 up at that point (I know it isn't as simple as that, but you get my point). Even allowing for the bombed try we don't reset after scoring and immediately allow Saints to respond. Credit to them for that but equally that's an area of improvement we need to make. Then Batty going into touch on the first tackle when we were in a good attacking position and Saints coming all the way up the field to go ahead. These are all instances where we didn't challenge Saints to do something extraordinary in order to score. It's all fixable but we need to play for every minute of the 80.

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:35 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

That's the challenge. We had moments in that game where we could have changed momentum significantly but, unlike Saints, didn't take them. The first bombed try for example. We then scored the next chance and could have been 10 up at that point (I know it isn't as simple as that, but you get my point). Even allowing for the bombed try we don't reset after scoring and immediately allow Saints to respond. Credit to them for that but equally that's an area of improvement we need to make. Then Batty going into touch on the first tackle when we were in a good attacking position and Saints coming all the way up the field to go ahead. These are all instances where we didn't challenge Saints to do something extraordinary in order to score. It's all fixable but we need to play for every minute of the 80.

Playing them as often as we will do this season will help the progression IMO. I don’t think Peet will let their heads drop as they seemed to under Lam and hopefully we just keep seeing improvements game on game. I think we need a couple of real quality additions in the outside backs to nail those moments you get but that’ll be for next year, so for this season it’s all about the players we have conditioning themselves to the intensify they need to reach to match them in an energy battle and you never know what could happen in a one off game like a semi or a final. The first thing I think we need to look at is making sure we have centres in the team who can nail a pass under pressure. I don’t think we’re a chance against them this season with a second rower and Bibby in the centres. We’re not going to go through the middle of them, so we need to make sure our skill is good enough on the edges.

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 1:13 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Playing them as often as we will do this season will help the progression IMO. I don’t think Peet will let their heads drop as they seemed to under Lam and hopefully we just keep seeing improvements game on game. I think we need a couple of real quality additions in the outside backs to nail those moments you get but that’ll be for next year, so for this season it’s all about the players we have conditioning themselves to the intensify they need to reach to match them in an energy battle and you never know what could happen in a one off game like a semi or a final. The first thing I think we need to look at is making sure we have centres in the team who can nail a pass under pressure. I don’t think we’re a chance against them this season with a second rower and Bibby in the centres. We’re not going to go through the middle of them, so we need to make sure our skill is good enough on the edges.

Not trying to pour scorn on what you or Phuzzy are saying as you make some valid points. I agree that there is a lot of improvement in this Wigan side and Good Friday showed that. However not sure you can use that Saints performance as a barometer. If everything goes according to plan we will have Grace, Sironen and Matautia back for the semi final. That completely changes our left edge in both attack and defence. I'm not even including Hopoate in this argument.

The point I''m making is that our pack will be much better come the SF. Lets not forget also that Knowles only played 20 mins last Friday. So whilst you make pertinent points about your 5 props rotating well, our pack too should be even better in a couple of weeks.

Re: Forward watch : Tue Apr 19, 2022 1:27 pm  

Stu M wrote:

Not trying to pour scorn on what you or Phuzzy are saying as you make some valid points. I agree that there is a lot of improvement in this Wigan side and Good Friday showed that. However not sure you can use that Saints performance as a barometer. If everything goes according to plan we will have Grace, Sironen and Matautia back for the semi final. That completely changes our left edge in both attack and defence. I'm not even including Hopoate in this argument.

The point I''m making is that our pack will be much better come the SF. Lets not forget also that Knowles only played 20 mins last Friday. So whilst you make pertinent points about your 5 props rotating well, our pack too should be even better in a couple of weeks.

Not really sure what you’re trying to point out that I don’t know already. Saints are a better side and were missing a few players (We were missing a few as well btw). I’m not overly concerned with the semi final, I’m talking how we improve over the next 12 months plus and close the gap. Getting anything from the semi would be a surprising bonus but hopefully we see some progress and we keep seeing that as we go along and keep playing you guys.