Re: Wakefield : Thu Apr 01, 2021 11:47 pm  

I think the half time criticism was warranted but misplaced.

Our completion rate was 62% at half time. That’s not the fault of the coach rather down to too many individual errors. It puts pressure on the whole team and generally means we start sets deeper in our own half making it harder to gain ground.

The main difference in the second half was we made less errors allowing the team to build pressure and subsequently play a bit. 5 tries in 40 mins whilst missing a full back, two wingers and a centre shows there’s not much wrong with the attacking structure.

It’s a simple game, players just need to get the basics right.

Hardaker was my MOM, he looks to have picked up a yard of pace from last year. Isa showed some pretty good centre play for a SR. There were some good performances all round.

I’d like to have seen more from Bullock in his first spell though the second was better. It was a shame for Hanley however it was a solid performance overall.

I still feel we are missing an extra grown up at prop. We have the makings of an excellent pack in a few years time but IMO are overly reliant on youngsters.

Re: Wakefield : Thu Apr 01, 2021 11:51 pm  

Trainman wrote:

I think the half time criticism was warranted but misplaced.

Our completion rate was 62% at half time. That’s not the fault of the coach rather down to too many individual errors. It puts pressure on the whole team and generally means we start sets deeper in our own half making it harder to gain ground.

The main difference in the second half was we made less errors allowing the team to build pressure and subsequently play a bit. 5 tries in 40 mins whilst missing a full back, two wingers and a centre shows there’s not much wrong with the attacking structure.

It’s a simple game, players just need to get the basics right.

Hardaker was my MOM, he looks to have picked up a yard of pace from last year. Isa showed some pretty good centre play for a SR. There were some good performances all round.

I’d like to have seen more from Bullock in his first spell though the second was better. It was a shame for Hanley however it was a solid performance overall.

I still feel we are missing an extra grown up at prop. We have the makings of an excellent pack in a few years time but IMO are overly reliant on youngsters.

Totally agree.

Bullock seems to need taking off and an @r£e kicking to make an impact.

His first spell was really poor.

I’d give Clarke a run without doubt next week.

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 12:33 am  

jonh wrote:

No structure in attack...can’t defend.

Lam out.

As I said at half time.....laughable comments.

I can just see some “fans” reeling as they scored both off the cuff and some fantastic structured tries and shut out Trinity.

Excellent performance despite the individual errors in the first half.

The problem with some of the idiots that populate this board, Jon, is that they have yet to learn that a game lasts 80 minutes.

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 12:36 am  

sergeant pepper wrote:

Depends on what the opinion is on. If someone doesn't like the way a team plays rugby then that's a personal opinion and massively subjective.

Slightly ironic statement that you're belittling "fans" because they don't agree with opinion btw.

No, he's belittling them because they don't know their a*se from their elbow.

Exactly what was it about the rugby played in the 2nd half that you didn't like?

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:38 am  

The thing that confused me with people slamming the team at half time was that I thought we played pretty well in that first half. That was always going to be the time of the game Wakey came after us and they threw everything they had at us. We defended our socks off, the young forwards turned the game and we gained control of the match going in to half time. The hard work of that first half set the game up for us.

I’ve never been convinced by Lam and I’m still not overly confident he’ll bring trophies home this season but any talk of him being shown the door based on that first half was pretty ordinary.

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 10:33 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

The thing that confused me with people slamming the team at half time was that I thought we played pretty well in that first half. That was always going to be the time of the game Wakey came after us and they threw everything they had at us. We defended our socks off, the young forwards turned the game and we gained control of the match going in to half time. The hard work of that first half set the game up for us.

I’ve never been convinced by Lam and I’m still not overly confident he’ll bring trophies home this season but any talk of him being shown the door based on that first half was pretty ordinary.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) it shows people up for what they are. I'm sick of the "I've not renewed my season ticket because of the rugby we're playing" brigade to be honest. It's utter nonsense. The rugby we're playing under Lam is at least as good as anything since superleague began, with the possible exception of a couple years in the early 2010s. For the most part it's a hell of a lot better.

People used to go on about Wayne's rugby being boring but at least the defence is magnificent. We'll firstly it wasn't always and secondly the defence this current team shows is among the best, most commited I've seen from any Wigan team of any era. It's only 3 games ago that we saw one of the greatest defensive displays of the superleague era for God's sake!

I'll also add to that the resilience we've seen to score 20 then 34 unanswered points in the last 2 games, missing almost our entire first choice backline, has been testament to that.

Attacking wise there is no comparison. Some of the attack last season and already this has been a joy to watch. French, alone, last season was worth the (proverbial) ticket price!

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:06 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) it shows people up for what they are. I'm sick of the "I've not renewed my season ticket because of the rugby we're playing" brigade to be honest. It's utter nonsense. The rugby we're playing under Lam is at least as good as anything since superleague began, with the possible exception of a couple years in the early 2010s. For the most part it's a hell of a lot better.

People used to go on about Wayne's rugby being boring but at least the defence is magnificent. We'll firstly it wasn't always and secondly the defence this current team shows is among the best, most commited I've seen from any Wigan team of any era. It's only 3 games ago that we saw one of the greatest defensive displays of the superleague era for God's sake!

I'll also add to that the resilience we've seen to score 20 then 34 unanswered points in the last 2 games, missing almost our entire first choice backline, has been testament to that.

Attacking wise there is no comparison. Some of the attack last season and already this has been a joy to watch. French, alone, last season was worth the (proverbial) ticket price!

That’s what I don’t get the entertainment factor week in week out has improved significantly under Lam and generally our defence is fantastic.

So these comments coming in a half where we actually played from a coaching point of view some very good structured attacking rugby, but individual errors failed to see us execute the play, are just bizarre.

We, had the balls stuck and were it not for player error could have put 3 or 4 tries on in the first half too.

In the second half we used the same structures and plays as we did in the first half, the difference was we were more composed and clinical. The way the team played in either the first or second half from a coaching point of view didn’t really change.

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:34 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) it shows people up for what they are. I'm sick of the "I've not renewed my season ticket because of the rugby we're playing" brigade to be honest. It's utter nonsense. The rugby we're playing under Lam is at least as good as anything since superleague began, with the possible exception of a couple years in the early 2010s. For the most part it's a hell of a lot better.

People used to go on about Wayne's rugby being boring but at least the defence is magnificent. We'll firstly it wasn't always and secondly the defence this current team shows is among the best, most commited I've seen from any Wigan team of any era. It's only 3 games ago that we saw one of the greatest defensive displays of the superleague era for God's sake!

I'll also add to that the resilience we've seen to score 20 then 34 unanswered points in the last 2 games, missing almost our entire first choice backline, has been testament to that.

Attacking wise there is no comparison. Some of the attack last season and already this has been a joy to watch. French, alone, last season was worth the (proverbial) ticket price!

I agree with keeping Lam but you rate this team a lot higher than I do. I'd take any Maguire or Wane side since 2010 (with the exception of 2017) ahead of this one in terms of who would win, as our pack is far too weak. We are more exciting to than most Wane sides though which is ultimately what I pay for.

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:38 am  

Grimmy wrote:

I agree with keeping Lam but you rate this team a lot higher than I do. I'd take any Maguire or Wane side since 2010 (with the exception of 2017) ahead of this one in terms of who would win, as our pack is far too weak. We are more exciting to than most Wane sides though which is ultimately what I pay for.

The actual 2017 side would beat this side IMO.

Re: Wakefield : Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:47 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) it shows people up for what they are. I'm sick of the "I've not renewed my season ticket because of the rugby we're playing" brigade to be honest. It's utter nonsense. The rugby we're playing under Lam is at least as good as anything since superleague began, with the possible exception of a couple years in the early 2010s. For the most part it's a hell of a lot better.

People used to go on about Wayne's rugby being boring but at least the defence is magnificent. We'll firstly it wasn't always and secondly the defence this current team shows is among the best, most commited I've seen from any Wigan team of any era. It's only 3 games ago that we saw one of the greatest defensive displays of the superleague era for God's sake!

I'll also add to that the resilience we've seen to score 20 then 34 unanswered points in the last 2 games, missing almost our entire first choice backline, has been testament to that.

Attacking wise there is no comparison. Some of the attack last season and already this has been a joy to watch. French, alone, last season was worth the (proverbial) ticket price!

Some of the rugby we’ve played under Lam has been nothing shy of shocking. Equally some of the rugby we’ve played under Lam has been nothing shy of scintillating with a defence to boot (ala the first half yesterday and the second half).

Like NK I’m still not convinced by Lam. 2 seasons of inconsistent drivel with the occasional scattering of scintillation just didn’t cut it for me. However I can’t sit here and type this with a straight face and say we’ve not been up to task so far this season. We took the kitchen sink from Leigh and Wakefield in our respectful games in the first half and dominated completely in the second. I’ve still not seen the full Wakefield game owing to the hospital not having strong enough Wi-fi to stream the game ( ) so I’ll steer clear of commenting on that too much but my over riding concern is this sitting back and letting the other team come at us and hitting them on the counter may not succeed versus the better teams such as - well the only better team currently in SL IMO - in Saints.

But the start has been promising. It’s shown us a few things in that we are dogged (still) and willing to do the tough stuff (still) and that we can play some incredible rugby, even with a few of our ‘star players’ still missing. I genuinely am looking forward to this season, it’s between us and St Helens for the lot IMHO and that’s not being big headed or over confident, I just don’t see a serious challenger from the rest of the pack (Hull FC maybe but I think they’ll drop off) to either of us.