Sat 24th Feb: WCC: Wigan Warriors v Penrith Panthers KO 8pm (Sky/BBC/SuperLeague+)

[Dunbar]

6 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Last night, once it was clear that Penrith would try to exploit the uncertainty displayed by Miski (sp?) under Cleary's high clicks, it took a while for Wigan to respond. In addition, I felt Smith should have adapted his last-tackle kicks to ensure they went into touch. As it was, it allowed Penrith to build attacking momentum and called on Wigan players to expend a huge amount of energy chasing the kicks. 

I was happy with the way Wigan (Smith) was kicking last night.

Penrith were dominant in set distance and held Wigan many times to their own half and often the 30/40 metre mark.  

If Smith had looked to find touch then he would have had to make much shallower kicks which would have ceded more territory and have the Panthers on the Wigan line time and again.

I thought the Wigan defensive effort was fantastic but without one of the best distance kickers we have produced in a long time in Smith, I don't think Wigan would have won.

[Harry Stottle]

11 hours ago, phiggins said:

Another game that shows why the on field call needs to be removed from the video ref protocol. How the wardle try was given I will never know 

There should be a third signal of say holding the arms upright when the ref is totally unsighted and not sure what has happened.

[Jonty58]

10 hours ago, DoubleD said:

At full speed it looked like Wardle was dragged to the line by the defenders 

There was an angle shown that looked like the ball never got close to the line at all.

[OriginalMrC]

9 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I was happy with the way Wigan (Smith) was kicking last night.

Penrith were dominant in set distance and held Wigan many times to their own half and often the 30/40 metre mark.  

If Smith had looked to find touch then he would have had to make much shallower kicks which would have ceded more territory and have the Panthers on the Wigan line time and again.

I thought the Wigan defensive effort was fantastic but without one of the best distance kickers we have produced in a long time in Smith, I don't think Wigan would have won.

I agree. It was a masterclass of kicking for field position last night. It only works if the chase is good and Wigan were superb all game at doing that

[JohnM]

22 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I was happy with the way Wigan (Smith) was kicking last night.

Penrith were dominant in set distance and held Wigan many times to their own half and often the 30/40 metre mark.  

If Smith had looked to find touch then he would have had to make much shallower kicks which would have ceded more territory and have the Panthers on the Wigan line time and again.

I thought the Wigan defensive effort was fantastic but without one of the best distance kickers we have produced in a long time in Smith, I don't think Wigan would have won.

Yes, I see that. I conceded also that Peet and Smith know more about the game and have a tad more playing experience and a better track record  than I do. Big fan of Smiths and the way he has grown and matured in such a relatively short time. It's just that I felt that their full-back was capable of breaking the line  of chase players leaving our second line of defence spread too thinly and more easily broken. 

Having said that, I just wanted to discuss the actual game, and after all, we did win.

Edited February 25 by JohnM

[dkw]

I thought the kicking was excellent mostly, but I was surprised they didn't change to getting some of the field to rest the players, break up flow etc in the 2nd half.

[graveyard johnny]

read it in the fish and chip papers next week- WIGAN WON- end of story

[Dunbar]

4 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Yes, I see that. I conceded also that Peet and Smith know more about the game and have a tad more playing experience and a better track record  than I do. Big fan of Smiths and the way he has grown and matured in such a relatively short time. It's just that I felt that their full-back was capable of our running our stretched defence.

I thought the most important part of the game play last night was the number of times Penrith turned the ball over on the last tackle in Wigan's 20.

Some of that was poor execution and some was clearly a policy of running the ball and turning the ball over in good field position if needed.

Maybe Penrith felt that would help grind Wigan down but the fact Penrith didn't force a repeat set from Wigan all game meant that Wigan were able to go set for set, even if many of the Wigan sets were exit sets.  Their backs kept holding their hands up for exit runs and Smith gained some distance with kicks.

For all his talents, I felt that Cleary's short kicking game last night was poor and a few repeat sets may have seen Wigan crack.  I'm glad he didn't and Wigan didn't. 

[bratman]

I think you can see the ball on the line after Wardle was tackled short, but VR only checked for the grounding

[FearTheVee]

How good is Yeo by the way? Thought he was tremendous.

[Jonty58]

9 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

So many people on social media saying the Martin strip was legal. In the NRL it is, in international rules it is not.

In international rules once there is 2 players in a tackle the ball can’t be stripped even if a player drops off.

Quite funny to see how angry some NRL Fans boys are, they can’t fathom the SL is a quality competition so they blame it on every thing else other than the actual game.

The Wardle try was controversial but he definitely got to the line, whether it was a double movement or not is the question. When you slow it down to individual frames it looks like he promotes the ball but from the refs POV all of that happened in a millisecond so you can’t really argue his decision. 

There are several angles that clearly show he got nowhere near the line.

[Jonty58]

9 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

WCC Wins

NRL-14

SL-15

But Super league is still worser than the QLD cup though.

Worser?

[Harry Stottle]

2 hours ago, bobbruce said:

After a re watch there is absolutely no way Wardle got to the line when you see the view from behind the tryline. That said I’m not convinced that French was offside on the kick for his disallowed try. As for Penriths last second no try that’s one of those that if sent up as a try it’s given. 

French was definitely offside, Moore had to go upstairs as he hid not see where French was when the ball was kicked he was following the ball, yes it would have been a classic but French timed his run wrong, the evidence is there Bob watch it back.

Edited February 25 by Harry Stottle

[Neutralfan7]

Thought it was a fantastic game last night, taking away the talking points regarding the decisions, it was a great advert for the game! Thought O'Neill and Hill when he was on were outstanding for Wigan

[Dunbar]

7 minutes ago, Jonty58 said:

There are several angles that clearly show he got nowhere near the line.

And there is a picture above your post that shows it did.

That's why the ref sent it upstairs as a try, he came from behind the try line to get a view and saw the ball on the line and so sent it up as a try.

The ball got there but it was either a triple movement or quadruple movement so should never have been given.

[Jonty58]

7 hours ago, Copa said:

I hope Australian fans chant “Wigan, Wigan “ at panthers fans when they visit this season.

A bit petty.

i don’t like Penrith at all but...

Edited February 25 by Jonty58

[Dunbar]

1 minute ago, Neutralfan7 said:

Thought it was a fantastic game last night, taking away the talking points regarding the decisions, it was a great advert for the game! Thought O'Neill and Hill when he was on were outstanding for Wigan

This is a very good and really important point.  Last year the likes of Welsby and Lewis Dodd were among the best against Penrith, last night O'Neil and Hill were excellent. 

Against the 3 times NRL champions, these kids really stood up.

It shows the young players we are developing in the UK game are very good and it bodes really well.

[dkw]

3 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

And there is a picture above your post that shows it did.

That's why the ref sent it upstairs as a try, he came from behind the try line to get a view and saw the ball on the line and so sent it up as a try.

The ball got there but it was either a triple movement or quadruple movement so should never have been given.

I'm trying to remember back but did tge ref even ask VR to look at a double movement? Also, if he didn't, can the VR even make a ruling on that?

Edited February 25 by dkw

[dkw]

I think the biggest positive for O'Neil was how much better Wigan looked when he was on the pitch than when Leeming was on. Now in fairness that could be because Leeming hasn't been at the club that long, but there looked a significant difference to me.

[The Rocket]

41 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

dont think the panthers will dominate the NRL much longer - simply lost too many players and with Leiu the next to go - could be a Broncos v Saints wcc next year

The Panther`s probably have the smallest backline in the NRL now, hard to believe that this is not a deliberate move by Cleary and that is where he sees the game evolving.

BTW, great game last night and as far as poor calls go, I believe these things always even themselves up in the wash and you`ve got to take the good with the bad.

Hope it reached a massive audience on the BBC, hard to get a better advert for the game than that.

[Jonty58]

12 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

And there is a picture above your post that shows it did.

That's why the ref sent it upstairs as a try, he came from behind the try line to get a view and saw the ball on the line and so sent it up as a try.

The ball got there but it was either a triple movement or quadruple movement so should never have been given.

That picture is far from conclusive.

Anyway it is what it is.

Sometimes teams get the rub of the green, sometimes they get more than a rub.

Edited February 25 by Jonty58

[Neutralfan7]

7 minutes ago, dkw said:

I think the biggest positive for O'Neil was how much better Wigan looked when he was on the pitch than when Leeming was on. Now in fairness that could be because Leeming hasn't been at the club that long, but there looked a significant difference to me.

I agree with you ( I know, doesn't happen often ), Wigan looked much better with him on the field, to be fair to Leeming, he probably shouldn't of even played, was limping around from the minute he got on so fair play to him for putting his hand up.

[dkw]

It's very amusing on social media how fans of other NRL teams are laughing at the gall of Penrith fans complaining about bad decisions against them, seems they get the benefit of them in there competition according to these fans.

[NRLandSL]

38 minutes ago, Jonty58 said:

There are several angles that clearly show he got nowhere near the line.

Look at the angle posted by bratman 2 posts above. In that shot there’s a high likelihood the ball is touching the line. He only stayed in that position for a split second though and then was pushed back which is why most people are saying he was short.

 

[NRLandSL]

42 minutes ago, FearTheVee said:

How good is Yeo by the way? Thought he was tremendous.

Yes indeed he was remarkable, him and Cleary are firmly the two best players in the world in my eyes. Would’ve have been magical if Cleary had caught that pass.