Thu 3 Sept: SL: Hull Kingston Rovers v Wigan Warriors KO 6pm (Sky Sports)

[wilsontown]

3 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Just like a PA announcement for "Mr Sands" is code for a fire. Originally used in theatres, but often used in places like railway stations these days.

Heard that a few times at Leeds station, it was Inspector Sands though.

[Padge]

1 minute ago, wilsontown said:

Heard that a few times at Leeds station, it was Inspector Sands though.

A lot of arsonists in Leeds?

 

[Futtocks]

1 minute ago, wilsontown said:

Heard that a few times at Leeds station, it was Inspector Sands though.

That's a variation I've heard too. Often at St Pancras, in the olden tymes when I used to commute to work. 

[EagleEyePie]

Full credit to Rovers, that was a very good attacking performance. They played with flair without the errors. The took calculated risks with their passing and offloads rather than playing recklessly and it's paid off.

The changes Lam made to the side certainly didn't help, and I think it's taught him a thing or two about Wigan's strength in the middles, or lack of. He rested Havard and Bullock, our only props who are consistent metre makers. They made over 250m between them against Cas and they were also our top tacklers. Without them we were lacking any sort of dominance down the middle. That could have been foreseen. Havard and Bullock were also our best defenders against Cas and it showed with our defence suffering too.

What Rovers did so well is target our weak points. The main one early on was Liam Byrne. His defence has always been a bit suspect, but generally we have players who can cover it. Tonight Jez Litten caused him so many problems and as soon as we went behind we were in trouble because our bench was lacking anyone with the capability to change the game.

Byrne defended poorly, Clark was just awful and a liability, Partington, Flower and Shorrocks defend really well but are small forwards who can't punch holes going forward. All of that pointed to a game where we desperately had to get an early lead and keep hold of it because we didn't have the players capable of chasing it.

We've always had an issue playing against sides that like to offload and that was the case once again. There's a real focus at Wigan of slowing down the ruck and sometimes that means we hold players up in the tackle and allow them the opportunity to offload rather than bringing them down quickly.

Kane Linnett was excellent down the left and caused our right edge so many problems. There's a bit of defensive weakness in Harry Smith that was exploited a little, but the biggest problem seemed to be Dom Manfredi, whose defensive reads were all over the place and directly led to at least two tries.

You can't underestimate Rovers but ultimately with the changes Lam made it looks like he did and we've paid the price.

Nothing for Wigan fans to worry about just yet, as we'll get our best props back for the next game, but it shows we've got to be really careful when rotating players, and maybe there are one or two positions that do require changes to be made.

[Rupert Prince]

30 minutes ago, meast said:

Great defensive effort by rovers in the last minute or so!

Fair play to them, they've really taken the game to Wigan.

I thought Rovers were as good and up for it as one could expect. 

(so much for the suggestion that if you are in relegation trouble then players will not try)

Wigan on the hand were not thinking about anything, not least defensively... e.g. seemed slow and slow witted.  Soft penalties for forward passes a case in point.  Wigan will hope their bad patch is over by next week. Different 'bubbles' were definitely not talking to each other.

[del capo]

1 hour ago, Father Ted said:

Lam being outcoached by a mile!

Wigan pack non existent tonight

FFS  why are Farrell. Shorrocks and Hardaker taking it on  as first receivers and drivers  ? Coaches ?

Wigan need to look deeper at their recruitment policy. And a game plan that goes  a bit more than the local Subway chat.

Lam so lucky to be given a squad of such ability.  For me he has proven nothing so far.

G Burgess and Mitch  signings to start with.. So far off the mark....... If that's down to Chris R then  so be it but still questionable. Maybe Lam just took a chance and  got it wrong tonight

Still think that Wigan Juniors / Academy / kids off the block / will rule this game again with the right tweeking.... and  with coaches   Wayne's way ?

[Father Ted]

At least in the post match interview Lam acknowledged that his team selection was the problem.

Next match v Catalans he'll play his biggest squad. Havard and Bullock will return as maybe George Burgess. Leuluai will be back and possibly Joe Burgess. O'Loughlin might be available and after tonight Greenwood could be included. Lam has got 10 days to get it sorted.

 Well done HKR, a well deserved win. 

[DimmestStar]

Don't know about Wigan's team selection but Rovers had Quinlan, Crooks, Garbutt and Parcell missing tonight who are certainly among the better players at the club. We started with 2 second rowers in the front row and looked to be lacking size and power.

It didn't matter because the players who came in were excellent and there's no doubting the team spirit which Tony Smith is building.

Hull FC may not regret losing Jez Litten to Rovers quite as much as they did Josh Hodgson but goodness he showed a lot of promise. Jordan Abdull never seemed to find favour in black & white but he was a perfect fit at Rovers in his loan season and he was the best player on the park tonight.

Another ex B&W who I thought was very good was Dean Hadley.

It's just good to get a win from Rovers point of view and earn a bit of respect. Without Wigan's late try against 12 men we'd have been off the bottom too.

It would seem that since lockdown Rovers only ever play against top 3 teams. Warrington then Saints then Wigan. Next week it's Saints again. It was hard to see where a win was coming from but now we know.

[Old Frightful]

8 hours ago, EagleEyePie said:

Byrne defended poorly, Clark was just awful and a liability, Partington, Flower and Shorrocks defend really well but are small forwards who can't punch holes going forward. All of that pointed to a game where we desperately had to get an early lead and keep hold of it because we didn't have the players capable of chasing it.

His heart and soul is Wigan but I'm not sure how much of an impact you expect him to make on the pitch.

He is only a commentator after all.

[RidingPie]

Well done Hull KR you played really well. I had been expecting Wigan to fall apart recently and HRK's enthusiasm really triggered that. I don't take the excuses offered by Tony Smith, we've looked dodgy since the restart. Perhaps this will be the rocket the team needs? Our pack looks way too light, and what happened to our attacking kicking game in the opposition 20-30, we just seemed to powerplay the last play all the time. Harry Smith looks to have a good ranged kicking game but we really need to work some more attacking kicks out!

Even Lam didn't look interested, picking lint off his suit when the camera was on him during the game.

 

Oh and I've just read Old Frightful's signature.... I went to see him in Madison Square Garden a couple of years back... brilliant concert!

[JohnM]

Great confusion at a game recently, attended by four generations of a family. Granddad, dad, gradson, great grandson, and misc other relatives. PA announcer had nervous breakdown and family forced eventually to change the surname from Sands.  Hunt not a good choice though for dad Mike. 

Well done HKR. Just the sort of game and  result that is needed for the neutral follower. Shakes out any Wigan complacency, too. 

[Saint Toppy]

That result was coming ! Rovers played well against Wire but just came up short, they played really well last week against Saints, but again just came up short. This week they continued with they playing style but cut out a lot of their silly errors and they outclassed Wigan across the park

[Liverpool Rover]

What a result! Abdull ran the show and was my MOM. Litten played very well and our left edge caused Wigan all sorts of problems. The team is still a work in progress but there have been game by game improvements in the performances since the return and that will only continue as the season goes on.

[EagleEyePie]

13 hours ago, Old Frightful said:

His heart and soul is Wigan but I'm not sure how much of an impact you expect him to make on the pitch.

He is only a commentator after all.

I think Phil Clarke would probably do a better job than Mitch Clark right now.

[Davo5]

20 minutes ago, EagleEyePie said:

I think Phil Clarke would probably do a better job than Mitch Clark right now.

I'm pretty confident I'd do a better job than Clark and I'm 53.

[Harry Stottle]

11 hours ago, Davo5 said:

I'm pretty confident I'd do a better job than Clark and I'm 53.

If you remember he played at Leigh last season coming from Cas whilst awaiting to join Wigan, did he impress in the Championship? No not at all bang averge at best.

[Harry Stottle]

24 hrs behind watching the games and being that I don't care much for what I perceive will be one sided games I thought should I skip this game and watch the Cas - Salford game instead, but no I watched it and I wasn't wrong it was a one sided game but not the way I thought it was going to be.

It had a subtle sweetness about it, and a nice after taste that will linger around for a while I suspect.