Fri 9th June : SL : St Helens v Wigan Warriors KO 20:00 (SKY)

[Exiled Wiganer]

Field and French are fantastic to watch. We won’t win anything anyway, so my vote goes to being entertained. 

[yipyee]

8 hours ago, Jughead said:

And read what the Wigan fans are saying. Players like Mago, Ellis, Isa, Thornley, Singleton and Miski have no right being near a Wigan side or taking up quota spots in some cases, too. It’s been plainly obvious that Wigan’s pack has been light for years but little has been done to combat that. 

Wigan beat saints when all players were fit, saints beat Wigan when all players are fit.

Be good to see them both at OT with full squads.

Miski for me is a fantastic player and I would have him over Ritson (both stepped up from championship).

Never rated Singleton but can see the benefit of a squad player (which he is)

A few weeks ago all was well in wigan, now after a few defeats mud is being thrown, saints were in the same place a few weeks back, strange what a few wins / defeats can do.

Wigan will finish in the play offs and will be in the CC semis. Fans just need to chill

[Jughead]

50 minutes ago, yipyee said:

Wigan beat saints when all players were fit, saints beat Wigan when all players are fit.

Be good to see them both at OT with full squads.

Miski for me is a fantastic player and I would have him over Ritson (both stepped up from championship).

Never rated Singleton but can see the benefit of a squad player (which he is)

A few weeks ago all was well in wigan, now after a few defeats mud is being thrown, saints were in the same place a few weeks back, strange what a few wins / defeats can do.

Wigan will finish in the play offs and will be in the CC semis. Fans just need to chill

I wouldn’t have Miski collecting bibs. Singleton is a pudding and has no right being near a Wigan shirt.

If finishing in the play-offs and a cup semi is as good as Wigan should be aiming for, something is seriously wrong. 

[yipyee]

4 hours ago, Jughead said:

I wouldn’t have Miski collecting bibs. Singleton is a pudding and has no right being near a Wigan shirt.

If finishing in the play-offs and a cup semi is as good as Wigan should be aiming for, something is seriously wrong. 

Well to go to a GF you need to finish in the play offs, to progress to the next round of the cup you need to win this round... maybe you need to remember its June and not October?!

[Josef K]

Wigan were giving Saints a run for their money till about the 30th minute then they just forgot the game plan and went rubbish. although French is a top class player.
I thought Welsby & Roby were excellent, but it’s about time Roby did something as he has been poor for most of 2023. I’m still not impressed with the Saints kicking game in general play, but i am happy with the two pts. 

[JohnM]

7 hours ago, Josef K said:

Wigan were giving Saints a run for their money till about the 30th minute then they just forgot the game plan and went rubbish. although French is a top class player.
I thought Welsby & Roby were excellent, but it’s about time Roby did something as he has been poor for most of 2023. I’m still not impressed with the Saints kicking game in general play, but i am happy with the two pts. 

We had a game plan?

[Damien]

8 hours ago, Josef K said:

Wigan were giving Saints a run for their money till about the 30th minute then they just forgot the game plan and went rubbish. although French is a top class player.
I thought Welsby & Roby were excellent, but it’s about time Roby did something as he has been poor for most of 2023. I’m still not impressed with the Saints kicking game in general play, but i am happy with the two pts. 

Not really. I thought Saints were the better team from start to finish and it felt Wigan were clinging on from the start. Wigan made plenty of errors and our set completion was woeful. Saints dominated in possession and field position and a couple of tries out of nothing made the scoreline much closer than it should have been at half time.

It wad always quite obvious to me that the dam was creaking from the start and once Saints got a couple of quick scores they were always going to run away with it.

[FearTheVee]

8 hours ago, Josef K said:

Wigan were giving Saints a run for their money till about the 30th minute 

They weren’t, they’d barely touched the ball in our half and were getting clobbered. Our dominance later in the game on the scoreboard was based on that early dominance on the pitch.

Edited June 11, 2023 by FearTheVee

[dkw]

2 hours ago, JohnM said:

We had a game plan?

"GIVE IT TO FRENCH......NOW GIVE IT TO FIELD....." is a game plan of sorts

Edited June 11, 2023 by dkw

[Davo5]

1 hour ago, dkw said:

"GIVE IT TO FRENCH......NOW GIVE IT TO FIELD....." is a game plan of sorts

Very few game plans survive your pack getting absolutely destroyed most weeks,got to feel sorry for Harry Smith playing behind that pack & being the only natural halfback.

[Exiled Wiganer]

3 hours ago, Damien said:

Not really. I thought Saints were the better team from start to finish and it felt Wigan were clinging on from the start. Wigan made plenty of errors and our set completion was woeful. Saints dominated in possession and field position and a couple of tries out of nothing made the scoreline much closer than it should have been at half time.

It wad always quite obvious to me that the dam was creaking from the start and once Saints got a couple of quick scores they were always going to run away with it.

We were flattered by the final score line. 

Not that it’s catastrophic to face up to the harsh reality that we are still years off being competitive. When we played the Roosters in Sydney, we were similarly clearly a couple of classes below them, but there were some good things said afterwards about improving the size and impact of the forwards. But it never happened. 

There is barely a single Wigan player who would get into a combined team. Maybe Field and French, and, at a stretch Havard and Farrell. And this is with a salary cap! After being miles behind for decades. We are still years off. 

But, by 2025 it could be possible to be better as a club. If we recruit far far better, and retain the few genuinely talented players we could be better. I think Peel is a very good coach, who will get a lot out of the squad he has available. But we need an entirely new pack, save for Havard and possibly Nsemba to do so. If we keep hold of Field and French, we can entertain now and then and win some exciting games in the meantime. We remain way off, but I honestly believe that we have the potential to match Saints consistently again within my lifetime. 

[Exiled Wiganer]

1 hour ago, dkw said:

"GIVE IT TO FRENCH......NOW GIVE IT TO FIELD....." is a game plan of sorts

I know your motivation is to laugh at Wigan, and well done for that, but as a plan it will be enough in some games - and those games will be entertaining. Which is a large part of the reason we watch the game.

[Chris22]

2 hours ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

We were flattered by the final score line. 

Not that it’s catastrophic to face up to the harsh reality that we are still years off being competitive. When we played the Roosters in Sydney, we were similarly clearly a couple of classes below them, but there were some good things said afterwards about improving the size and impact of the forwards. But it never happened. 

There is barely a single Wigan player who would get into a combined team. Maybe Field and French, and, at a stretch Havard and Farrell. And this is with a salary cap! After being miles behind for decades. We are still years off. 

But, by 2025 it could be possible to be better as a club. If we recruit far far better, and retain the few genuinely talented players we could be better. I think Peel is a very good coach, who will get a lot out of the squad he has available. But we need an entirely new pack, save for Havard and possibly Nsemba to do so. If we keep hold of Field and French, we can entertain now and then and win some exciting games in the meantime. We remain way off, but I honestly believe that we have the potential to match Saints consistently again within my lifetime. 

I would add Jake Wardle as a player who would make a joint Saints-Wigan team, I've been impressed with him this season and struggle to understand how he failed to make Huddersfield's side.

[GeordieSaint]

1 hour ago, Chris22 said:

I would add Jake Wardle as a player who would make a joint Saints-Wigan team, I've been impressed with him this season and struggle to understand how he failed to make Huddersfield's side.

1. Welsby 2. Makinson 3. Percival 4. Wardle 5. French 6. Lomax 7. Dodd/Smith 8. Walmsley 9. Roby 10. Lees 11. Batchelor 12. Matautia 13. Knowles/Bell

14. Field 15. Harvard 16. Paasi 17. Farrell/Sironen

Marshall is a cracking player too. Just a bit unlucky the wingers are Makinson and French! 

Edited June 11, 2023 by GeordieSaint

[EagleEyePie]

8 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

1. Welsby 2. Makinson 3. Percival 4. Wardle 5. French 6. Lomax 7. Dodd/Smith 8. Walmsley 9. Roby 10. Lees 11. Batchelor 12. Matautia 13. Knowles/Bell

14. Field 15. Harvard 16. Paasi 17. Farrell/Sironen

Marshall is a cracking player too. Just a bit unlucky the wingers are Makinson and French! 

Swap Farrell for Batchelor at second row and that's almost impossible to argue with. Which is annoying, because I'd love to argue there should be more Wigan players in there but I just can't. The only other Wigan player who gets close is Kaide Ellis, who has been outstanding since we played Leigh, but very much ploughing a lone furrow since Havard got injured.

Wigan just haven't recruited well enough over the years to compete. Saints seem to have the perfect balance of quality players in each area of the field which means they aren't overly reliant on signing talent, but when they do they usually get the recruitment right.

[GeordieSaint]

17 minutes ago, EagleEyePie said:

Swap Farrell for Batchelor at second row and that's almost impossible to argue with.

Ha… I’d rather lose Matautia than Batchelor. Saints have markedly improved since he’s come back in the team. I think most Saints fans would agree he’s been a critical component of the Saints side over the last two/three seasons.

[Josef K]

On 09/06/2023 at 19:59, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Wow Hurrell is bigger than ever 

As Saints made substitutions he kept looking up hoping he was the one going off. But for someone whom isn’t the fittest on the pitch he puts in a good stint and he did take a knock early on.
Im saying that as someone who hasn’t been his biggest supporter. But he deserves a new one year deal though. 

[Josef K]

On 09/06/2023 at 20:29, jacksy said:

Welsby urghh

Great player, it was his best match of the season for me so far. 

[Johnny Ringo]

I think Ritson is being coached to adjust to the left, at Barrow he was always a natural right wing player, he maybe finding his way to play on the left. Any game he has played on the right for saints he does well and scores. I don't thinks there was a try on the right which he wouldn't have put away on friday. 

[Saint Toppy]

On 09/06/2023 at 22:02, Man of Kent said:

Outstanding touch screen analysis with Jack Welsby. That’s such a great part of the Sky coverage.

I agree, Wells, Sculthorpe & Welsby at the screen gave some really good insights into how players read the game during play

[Wirral Warrior]

On 09/06/2023 at 21:57, Jughead said:

Entertainment? Genuinely, what entertainment? It’s the same rubbish week in, week out from Wigan. It’s repetitive nonsense. I suppose programmes like Mrs Browns Boys got a few series despite the same rubbish every week, so I suppose Peet and Wigan do, too. 

French try not entertainment?

 

[Saint Toppy]

54 minutes ago, Wirral Warrior said:

French try not entertainment?

 

I wouldn't say so, it was a desperate kick that just got a lucky bounce coinciding with Welsby slipping. 99.9% of the time that would just have resulted in a turnover and another poor end to a set. The Field try was a brilliantly executed play but aside form that Wigan were pretty toothless and lacking in creativity for the majority of that game.

[Jughead]

1 hour ago, Wirral Warrior said:

French try not entertainment?

 

You know the game lasts for 80 minutes and not 1, right?

[FearTheVee]

1 hour ago, Wirral Warrior said:

French try not entertainment?

 

Was a case of a favourable bounce leading to a full back slipping for me. Fair play to French, he's a class act, but that was a case of what a bouncing rugby ball can do more than anything else.

On the other side of the coin, his pass for the Miski try was sublime.

Edited June 12, 2023 by FearTheVee