LeytherRob

I got it on desktop but works fine on my phone

Even last year I found he would take ages on a decision, and I was a massive fan of Thaler as an on field ref

Cats look very poor again. McNamara first coaching casualty of 2025?

Ben Thaler is unbelievably slow as a VR

Interesting article and glad he’s happy. Just seeing his name though gave me Vietnam style flashbacks to that horror show of a 2018 season at Leigh, overseen by his dad

The probiz guy?

Are they actually though? Because whilst it’s been widely reported the new owners have committed to clearing(which is great news btw)the debts, there’s not been anything to confirm it’s actually been done. One of these debts would technically be the advance of central funding, if Salford had cleared this and paid back that money the RFL would have no leg to stand on in terms of releasing the special measures. The fact this hasn’t been done suggests the debts haven’t been wiped yet. I’d highly doubt the plan was just to pay off all £5M in one go before anything had been agreed, it would make no sense to do.

I think of all the fixtures left this round this is the hardest to call. On paper you'd say Catalans would be a shoe in, especially at home, but they were shocking last week and were shocking for a lot of last season despite having a good team. Not convinced by their hooking options this year

I don't think there's any worries about that, results like this are an anomaly for a reason and on any other night there could've been 5 tries in that game. I don't even think it was nearly as conservative a match as the scoreline or some posters are making out either. There were breaks and chances, they just got shut down on both sides by phenomenal defence - Wardle intercepting a certain try after Armstrongs break in the first half, Leigh having to scramble hard on numerous occasions. The kick that Lam got a fingertip to in the final minutes was heading straight to an unmarked Bevan French.

If I was at the BBC I’d be diverting the presenters over to headingly and cover the Leeds Wakey game instead. Camera crew will already be there

100%. Don’t miss those days where we were one of the most hated teams in the leagues.

I counted at least 5 chances that Wigan would have scored against Leigh last year - couple of Wardle breaks, the French grubber through which Moylan would've gotten nowhere near. Our scramble speed was night and day from last year and we didn't have a fullback dropping bombs left, right and centre

It was reffed like a playoff game, which we absolutely need more of. I've said a couple of times that we usually get 3 stages of reffing in SL - rds 1-5 where everything is over zealously penalised, 6-25 where it settles down and then the back end and play offs where they just let games flow. I don't think there was a single 6 again tonight and the game was better for it, the game only slowed as players got knackered on both teams

First win away at Wigan in 42 years, first ever round 1 win and Wigan were the only team we haven’t beaten as the Leopards. Big box ticked off there

Wow. Wow. Wow. What a game. And I stand by what I said, no one deserved to lose that, cracking game. Welcome back SL, you’ve been sorely missed

Neither side deserve to lose this

That looks a clear ball steal on Ipape to me

Yep Thursday and Friday games get sky times exclusivity for 48hours

Not a great first effort on the captains challenge, a textbook ball steal

I always had faith because of Lam and Chester’s track record both just at Leigh but Wigan and Wales for bringing over shrewd imports but you never quite know until round 1. Early shout, but for me Armstrong, Niu and Liu and immediate improvements on their 2024 counterparts(2023 Asiata is a different story). O’Neill and Tuitavake have shown some promise that they might grow into O’Donnell and Amones shoes over time. It’s immediately apparent to me that the speed has increased in the team and there have been a few plays we’ve defended that we would have conceded last year when Wigan broke. Attack is going to take time to click but we at least look like we’ll be hard to beat in the meantime.

Well so far so good and this years cohort of imports look more than capable replacements. Tesi Niu in particular has gotten through and absolute mountain of work

Well done Wigan, put on a great event. Hopefully the rugby delivers now

That’s the one

I wish I could find it, but this has the same energy as Mick Gledhill’s infamous ‘no surrender to the RFL’ video

They’ve also only named 17, meaning there will be no 18th man concussion sub which starts to become a serious player welfare issue