Fri 18 Jun: SL: Wigan Warriors v Hull Kingston Rovers KO 19:45

[Padge]

4 minutes ago, M j M said:

Listening to this on Blunderside and it's quite tense. Wigan sound appalling.

 

On Manchester Radio its more down to great KR defence and then taking their couple of chances.

[M j M]

Ugh, Pies are in

[Padge]

Gildart in for Wigan

[Old Frightful]

Gildhart in.

4-12.

 

[Old Frightful]

1 minute ago, Padge said:

On Manchester Radio its more down to great KR defence and then taking their couple of chances.

That's about it.

[Old Frightful]

Gildhart in again.

8-12.

 

[Old Frightful]

Conversion missed.

Still 8-12.

10 mins or so left.

[Old Frightful]

Pies knock on under their own posts.

[Old Frightful]

Quinlan under the posts!

8-16.

[Old Frightful]

8-18, about 5 mins left.

[M j M]

Great victory by Hull KR

Tony Smith really is masterminding something good over there.

[Old Frightful]

8-18.

Full tarm.

[Padge]

From Manchester Radio it sounds like it was a well deserved win by KR.

[johnh1]

Well played Rovers. Fabulous result.

[JohnM]

45 minutes ago, M j M said:

Great victory by Hull KR

Tony Smith really is masterminding something good over there.

Yes indeed. He's miles ahead of Lam.. And many other coaches. 

[Whippet13]

55 minutes ago, Padge said:

From Manchester Radio it sounds like it was a well deserved win by KR.

It was fully deserved, Wigan were awful for long periods of the game. 

KR tackled well against a very predictable and slow Wigan attack and took their chances.

[jacksy]

Well done Rovers.

[corvusxiii]

Do we think that as a sport that we like to watch, that a result like this simply adds more depth and interest to it? Im not referring to the product on the pitch here but the dead band malaise of the last decade or so. For me anyway this result has cheered me up. No, I'm not overly looking forward to the usual occupants winning in the GF. Again.

[my missus]

i don't think there is anything going on at kr wigan were just absolutely for 70 minutes but could still have pinched it a couple of bombed chances late on and no goal kicker ensured it was rovers game.

have to say i was well impressed with pierce-paul and gildart was excellent on his first game since beer were cheap.

[DimmestStar]

Rovers were up against it for whatever reason having to defend 40+ successive tackles in the first half and the later few, with 12 men. Tremendous resolve from the Robins and then when the tide turned crossing for a 0-6 HT lead.

Second half Rovers had more ball and field position and looked the better team. 0-6 became 0-12 but Wigan rallied late on. Rovers wouldn't be denied though and gained a thoroughly deserved win.

Without the 'loop' extra fixtures of round 1 & 2 Rovers would be top 3 now. 

 

[Jinking Jimmy]

This was a terrible performance by Wigan and it emphasised the need for a couple of experienced props, at least one big second rower and a hooker/ acting half back who can bring something different to the party. The passing was slow and laboured and despite dominating the first half they couldn’t breach the HKR defence although they did get over the line on a couple of occasions but were unable to ground the ball. John Bateman, at the moment, is a shadow of the player that did so well in the NRL and the youngsters in the pack are just unable to dominate the opposition. The only bright spot for me was the handling skill shown by Kai Pearce-Paul which got Wigan back into the game late in the second half.
HKR just soaked up the pressure and were good enough to take what few chances came their way and fully deserved to win. 
On this form Wigan will finish mid-table at best.

 

 

[Lowdesert]

Great win for HKR.  Despite Wigan’s hit and miss form, any win against them at home has to be earned.  

I never thought I would ever read about a Wigan coach apologising to the fans.

[Rupert Prince]

12 hours ago, my missus said:

i don't think there is anything going on at kr wigan were just absolutely for 70 minutes but could still have pinched it a couple of bombed chances late on and no goal kicker ensured it was rovers game.

have to say i was well impressed with pierce-paul and gildart was excellent on his first game since beer were cheap.

I'm glad you were impressed with pierce-paul. let's hope he keeps it up.

Hindsight will say that Hastings should not have been full back.

With,  as suggested, a lot of pressure on kr line then you would have to think something was not working in the middle.   On balance we are not sharp at the ruck and slow.  I think this can be similar in general play as we move up the centre of the park. Mixing around with selections is exposing this.

Wigan have been out of sorts since Clubb left the field in the Semi.  I'm not sure Hull have been much better.  Maybe after 2 weeks off they will focus more next week.  

Given genuine and self inflicted wounds Wigan need to get back to something like a regular team.  For various reasons the team at the end of last season has never played.  All clubs have financial pressures but even without that it's hard to find the quality of the players that are going to go at the end of the season.

[Old Frightful]

23 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

I'm not sure Hull have been much better. 

Eh?

What have my lot got to do with anything?

[EagleEyePie]

Considering Rovers were without their first choice halves it was a fantastic effort from them. Their defence was very tight when Wigan had about 7 repeat sets on their line and they then managed to hit back and get a try before half time when down to 12 men. Soaking up pressure and then hitting back quickly is something Wigan have been excellent at in the last couple of years but it's frustrating watching it happen to us instead.

It must be said we didn't test Rovers enough when we did have sustained pressure. Lam's decision to pick Hastings at fullback backfired although not because Hastings played poorly. He had a decent game and was solid in the role but he's the sort of player you want carrying the ball to the line again and again. He tried his best coming into the line but there was no space to attack and he spent a lot of time running laterally. Leuluai and Smith in the first half just wouldn't engage the line before passing so we never created any space or engaged any defenders and it made it so easy for Rovers to defend. There's no guarantee that Hanley would have had a solid game if he'd been picked at fullback but Hastings would almost certainly have been a far bigger threat with ball in hand at 6.

It was only late on that we seemed to spark into life and as others have said Pearce-Paul was a real positive when he came onto the field. Gildart fumbled a great offload from him which should have seen him race away and could have been a try scoring opportunity, but then Pearce-Paul set up a break with a smart offload on the right edge which gave us position to score later on. Joe Shorrocks also had a decent game. He put effort into his carries, he was taking the ball to the line and drawing the man before shifting it wide and his defence was strong.

Byrne and Havard were decent down the middle but Singleton and Bullock weren't great. Bateman was barely noticeable. Leuluai is somehow still playing despite only being able to defend and having absolutely nothing to offer in attack whatsoever.

For Rovers I thought Hall, Minikin, Linnett, Lawler and Parcell were excellent.