Thur 30th Mar: SL: Leigh Leopards v Wigan Warriors KO 20:00 (Sky)

[The 4 of Us]

13 minutes ago, daz39 said:

Wigan were very good, Leigh non existant, Hardaker is a shocking player isn't he?

Not sure that Leigh were non-existent for whole game. Pretty even first 20 with Wigan turning the screw after second score. 
 

Lam has hust said that Leigh ran out of energy, which the certainly did second half and Wigan didn’t look back.

Wigan look as though they have a set of forwards that can bully a bit where that hasn’t been the case in the last few years. The youngsters are growing in experience and stature! 

[DoubleD]

Lams to the slaughter in the Battle of the Bus Stops

[Harry Stottle]

Just got back and Leigh had a reality check, although I did say in the first post on this thread a key to a Leigh victory is keeping Field and French quiet which we failed to do. It has to be a massive confidence boost to the rest of the Wigan player's having those two in the team they give the rest so much of a lift, also though Harry Smith had one if his better games.

I would like to see how good this Wigan team is without the two 'F's, Matty Peet has had the luxury of these two in his team and will not be judged on his coaching prowess till he is without them, I would say they would improve any team in the comp, no wonder Wigan broke the bank to retain French last year.

[my missus]

funny how nobody has picked up on the two late tackles on french after his assists.

[GUBRATS]

Not our night , we move on to the next game , a bit of team shuffling needed after losing O'Brien 

[my missus]

11 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Just got back and Leigh had a reality check, although I did say in the first post on this thread a key to a Leigh victory is keeping Field and French quiet which we failed to do. It has to be a massive confidence boost to the rest of the Wigan player's having those two in the team they give the rest so much of a lift, also though Harry Smith had one if his better games.

I would like to see how good this Wigan team is without the two 'F's, Matty Peet has had the luxury of these two in his team and will not be judged on his coaching prowess till he is without them, I would say they would improve any team in the comp, no wonder Wigan broke the bank to retain French last year.

so i wonder how good any team in the league would be with their two best players removed, your post is ######.

[Jim Prendle]

43 minutes ago, The 4 of Us said:

Not sure that Leigh were non-existent for whole game. Pretty even first 20 with Wigan turning the screw after second score. 
 

Lam has hust said that Leigh ran out of energy, which the certainly did second half and Wigan didn’t look back.

Wigan look as though they have a set of forwards that can bully a bit where that hasn’t been the case in the last few years. The youngsters are growing in experience and stature! 

I agree with that. It was a decent game until the last 25 minutes.

Leigh did OK but buckled mid second half.

Great atmosphere in the ground. I really enjoyed it.

[Zilla Budgie]

Obviously the Pies deserved their 34 points, but Leigh with the ball were woeful. One man rugby throughout and I've seen more pace in an old folk's home. Ah never mind, roll on next week. 

[EagleEyePie]

I wasn't expecting that but I'm pleased that Wigan rose to the occasion. French and Smith were outstanding throughout that game and deserve the plaudits but you've got to credit the Wigan middles who played to their potential for probably the first time this season. Havard and Byrne really rose to the occasion, Smithies was excellent, even Ellis had a better game and Shorrocks getting plenty of time down the middle was a bonus as he's as important for what he does off the ball as what he does with it. That middle unit was really solid in attack and muscled up well in defence. When you give the middles who are playing well enough game time to have an impact it makes a difference. No pointless second spell for Cooper as far as I could tell. No wasting time with Singleton or Mago for the sake of a 5 prop rotation. Just pick players who make an impact.

We did get some good fortune during that match and the scoreline flattered Wigan a little but despite the brilliance from French it was really the defence where we won that game. Ipape was taken care of and Asiata and Amone were limited in their effectiveness. We'd have kept them to nil if not for an unfortunate slip from Smith in the build up to Briscoe's try.

Not to deny the obvious bad luck with O'Brien going off so early. No issues with Wardle getting sin binned. Saw the replays and in real time it's half a second late but when you get players suffering concussions as a result there's no point arguing he was committed. The speed of approach gave him no time to pull out and you have to protect the players. I also think the 18th man should be available to teams if they have a player leave the field due to concussion through foul play. It can be a big disadvantage and I think it definitely was for Leigh as Hardaker is a poor fullback these days.

The reshuffle of the backline concerned me a bit but it actually worked out well. Miski was strong, Wardle had one of his better games. King was good on the wing (aside from the one blunder) and Pearce-Paul had his best game of the season with some impressive defence.

Losing Field is going to be a big blow and we'll probably struggle in his absence. What I would say is that's not necessarily because we rely too much on Field. It's clear that at their best Field and French are among the best players in the league but we still compromise when one of them isn't at fullback. For all the good things Field did tonight he did a lot of bad things and a smart, composed halfback would have been just as effective but probably in a different way. Being down 3 options in the halves with Cust, Field and Hampshire out could test us because our biggest issue in previous games has been Smith having to so much by himself.

[GUBRATS]

6 minutes ago, Zilla Budgie said:

Obviously the Pies deserved their 34 points, but Leigh with the ball were woeful. One man rugby throughout and I've seen more pace in an old folk's home. Ah never mind, roll on next week. 

In our position we have a choice , pace or experience , we had both in Ferguson but lost him , so we've gone for the latter 

Losing O'Brien messed up our attack , pretty much everything came off tonight for Wigan , just the way it is 

[Snowys Backside]

It was one of those games where everything went the way of one team, but not the other. Leigh going 6-0 up was the turning point in my opinion. Losing a pivot to a late tackle (which will likely result in a ban) and a reshuffle resulting in a very ordinary Chamberlain playing meant Leigh lost its attacking cohesion.

Rabbits in headlights and Lam and Ipape extremely quiet because Wigan marked them out of the game and did their homework on Leighs attacking moves.

Very impressed with Wigan. They did a job. Plenty of their players turned up today, but onwards and upward. A 13-12 defeat would still mean zero point.

A bit of a rest now until Easter Sat, because Leigh looked lethargic and shattered.

LSV looks great on TV though. More games need to be televised there in comparison to some teams. Hopefully C4 and Sky will look more into this after June !

[Jim Prendle]

4 minutes ago, EagleEyePie said:

I wasn't expecting that but I'm pleased that Wigan rose to the occasion. French and Smith were outstanding throughout that game and deserve the plaudits but you've got to credit the Wigan middles who played to their potential for probably the first time this season. Havard and Byrne really rose to the occasion, Smithies was excellent, even Ellis had a better game and Shorrocks getting plenty of time down the middle was a bonus as he's as important for what he does off the ball as what he does with it. That middle unit was really solid in attack and muscled up well in defence. When you give the middles who are playing well enough game time to have an impact it makes a difference. No pointless second spell for Cooper as far as I could tell. No wasting time with Singleton or Mago for the sake of a 5 prop rotation. Just pick players who make an impact.

We did get some good fortune during that match and the scoreline flattered Wigan a little but despite the brilliance from French it was really the defence where we won that game. Ipape was taken care of and Asiata and Amone were limited in their effectiveness. We'd have kept them to nil if not for an unfortunate slip from Smith in the build up to Briscoe's try.

Not to deny the obvious bad luck with O'Brien going off so early. No issues with Wardle getting sin binned. Saw the replays and in real time it's half a second late but when you get players suffering concussions as a result there's no point arguing he was committed. The speed of approach gave him no time to pull out and you have to protect the players. I also think the 18th man should be available to teams if they have a player leave the field due to concussion through foul play. It can be a big disadvantage and I think it definitely was for Leigh as Hardaker is a poor fullback these days.

The reshuffle of the backline concerned me a bit but it actually worked out well. Miski was strong, Wardle had one of his better games. King was good on the wing (aside from the one blunder) and Pearce-Paul had his best game of the season with some impressive defence.

Losing Field is going to be a big blow and we'll probably struggle in his absence. What I would say is that's not necessarily because we rely too much on Field. It's clear that at their best Field and French are among the best players in the league but we still compromise when one of them isn't at fullback. For all the good things Field did tonight he did a lot of bad things and a smart, composed halfback would have been just as effective but probably in a different way. Being down 3 options in the halves with Cust, Field and Hampshire out could test us because our biggest issue in previous games has been Smith having to so much by himself.

I thought Byrne was great tonight, and Smithies was pretty good as well. Harry will be spitting feathers that his favourite punchbag Morgan turned up just when he didn’t want him to.

We also looked a lot better without Cust. I think his time at stand off is done, and he has a tough time getting in at hooker with O’Neill playing well at the moment.

[Padge]

39 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Just got back and Leigh had a reality check, although I did say in the first post on this thread a key to a Leigh victory is keeping Field and French quiet which we failed to do. It has to be a massive confidence boost to the rest of the Wigan player's having those two in the team they give the rest so much of a lift, also though Harry Smith had one if his better games.

I would like to see how good this Wigan team is without the two 'F's, Matty Peet has had the luxury of these two in his team and will not be judged on his coaching prowess till he is without them, I would say they would improve any team in the comp, no wonder Wigan broke the bank to retain French last year.

You are about to find out what happens when 50% disappear.

 

 

[Padge]

8 minutes ago, Jim Prendle said:

I thought Byrne was great tonight, and Smithies was pretty good as well. Harry will be spitting feathers that his favourite punchbag Morgan turned up just when he didn’t want him to.

We also looked a lot better without Cust. I think his time at stand off is done, and he has a tough time getting in at hooker with O’Neill playing well at the moment.

I think the revelation of his injury status may explain some recent performances.

[WN83]

Really happy with that. Hopefully Field won’t be out for too long and we get to see that combo of him at 6 and French at 1 on a consistent basis. The young props were excellent tonight, with Havard in particular having a great game. 
 

We’ll see how we go next week and what sort of team we can get out. The late hits were absolute fractions off and I’d love to see them show some replays in full speed. 
 

My last point would be how enjoyable the pre match build up was. It didn’t really matter who the band was but with them playing, the fire works and so on, it felt like a big game. Easy to sit and take the pee out of the Leopards rebrand but they’re giving it everything and I wish more clubs (including mine) put that type of effort in. 

[LeytherRob]

Just finished watching the match back after missing the game. Well played Wigan, it was one of the best defensive displays against us I've seen in a while, they gave us no room to play at all. 

For Leigh, losing O'Brien was a big blow especially with Hardaker having an absolute stinker of a game. We don't look nearly as good without O'Brien playing out the back so Lam will have to figure that out for next week considering the mandatory stand down for concussion. I thought we hung in there well considering the pressure but just folded in the end which was disappointing but probably expected after the short turnaround.

[Madrileño]

2 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

Just got back and Leigh had a reality check, 

This.

I have enjoyed what I have seen of Leigh this season. They have surprised me.

However this was a thrashing. 

Not only on the scoreboard, but the manner in which Wigan took them apart. They looked like they could score whenever they wanted to.

[Davo5]

3 hours ago, my missus said:

so i wonder how good any team in the league would be with their two best players removed, your post is ######.

Yeap it’s like saying you can’t judge how good a coach Jack Gibson was because he had Kenny & Sterling in the halves at Parra.

[Damien]

8 hours ago, DoubleD said:

I’ve not seen enough of French in the halves to comment.

It is noticeable how less one dimensional Wigan look without Cust in the halves. He’s not a natural half and I was surprised Wigan saw him as one. He always looked better at 9 when he played for Manly

I thonk this is harsh. Cust was great last season as a half and really improved the team. It was very noticable the impact his absence had when he was injured last season. 

Yes he hasn't been great this season but has been playing injured and will probably be out now for a while as a result.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Damien

[Nate90]

I'm delighted with the result as I expected Leigh to surprise us. It's a shame about Jai Field I hope it's only a short term injury.

[ELBOWSEYE]

7 hours ago, Zilla Budgie said:

Obviously the Pies deserved their 34 points, but Leigh with the ball were woeful. One man rugby throughout and I've seen more pace in an old folk's home. Ah never mind, roll on next week. 

Thought the loss of O'Brien hindered their attack, they had lots of ball in the wigan 20. Probably not Leigh's best performance. But enough there to do OK. 

[JohnM]

Fitness. Stamina. Wigans relentless forward drives down the middle sucked all the energy out of Leigh...in my view. Low goal success rate will cost us games.

[DoubleD]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

I thonk this is harsh. Cust was great last season as a half and really improved the team. It was very noticable the impact his absence had when he was injured last season. 

Yes he hasn't been great this season but has been playing injured and will probably be out now for a while as a result.

I'm not saying he's a bad player but he's a better hooker than half. Him and Smith together are too similar, both are more organisational halves, neither break the line and both left foot kickers, albeit Smith is better.

[The Future is League]

2 hours ago, Nate90 said:

I'm delighted with the result as I expected Leigh to surprise us. It's a shame about Jai Field I hope it's only a short term injury.

I  expected Leigh to win this one, but then a read a couple of comments by former Wigan players at Leigh and that's all the motivation that Wigan wanted'

As the saying go's  "A still tongue in a wise head"

[Harry Stottle]

2 hours ago, Nate90 said:

I'm delighted with the result as I expected Leigh to surprise us. It's a shame about Jai Field I hope it's only a short term injury.

It seems to be Fields bogey ground as far as injuries go, and incidentally probably not far of the same square yard of turf, that injury put Field out for a long time, and most likely cost Mr Lam his job, no more needs saying.