Fri 1st March : SL: Wigan Warriors v Huddersfield Giants KO 8pm (Sky Sports Arena)

[Futtocks]

Tiaki Chan gets his first touch, somehow without somersaulting through a plate-glass window from a speeding motorbike and kicking a sneering baddie's head off.

[Old Frightful]

Just now, Futtocks said:

Tiaki Chan gets his first touch, somehow without somersaulting through a plate-glass window from a speeding motorbike and kicking a sneering baddie's head off.

That's his brother "Ooer Jackie".

[DG70]

Foot off the gas from Wigan in the 2nd half.

[Futtocks]

Just now, DG70 said:

Foot off the gas from Wigan in the 2nd half.

Huddersfield not giving up either.

[Futtocks]

Attendance announced as 15,357.

[Futtocks]

The grandson of Champion Jack Dupree may have just settled the game with a try under the sticks.

 

Edited March 1, 2024 by Futtocks

[Futtocks]

Solid win for Wigan with 30:16.

Huddersfield looking like they are beginning to work a bit better together, but still some way off what they'd like.

[Damien]

Good to win after last week. This game was always going to be a bit of an anti climax and potential banana skin so it was a very decent Wigan performance all things considered. 

[meast]

I feared for us after the first 20 when we seemed to be caught napping, Wigan seemed to be finding overlaps quite easily.

But we knuckled down after that and were rewarded with a couple of good tries.

We didn't quite have enough to get close enough but showed some heart and effort to more than match them for the next hour.

You can't give Wigan an 18 point start really.

Onwards and upwards eh.

[ATLANTISMAN]

Excellent crowd well done Wigan

 

P 

[Futtocks]

12 minutes ago, meast said:

I feared for us after the first 20 when we seemed to be caught napping, Wigan seemed to be finding overlaps quite easily.

But we knuckled down after that and were rewarded with a couple of good tries.

We didn't quite have enough to get close enough but showed some heart and effort to more than match them for the next hour.

You can't give Wigan an 18 point start really.

Onwards and upwards eh.

Huddersfield looked like they had a bit more of a clue what was going on than last round. Definite signs of attacking ideas.

[WN83]

It looked like we targeted a quick start and the game was pretty much done in 20 minutes. After that the energy seemed to drain away but that is no surprise. I thought both Wigan centres and Marshall were dangerous and Luke Thompson worked extremely hard and got through big minutes. He’ll be all the better for that run out and it was a positive start. The same goes for Tiaki Chan (a shame to see a HIA cut his spell short). 

[overtheborder]

Thought it might get ugly after the first three tries but Huddersfield looked like a decent side apart from that - if they get it together they could be a real problem for a lot of teams in the league I reckon, they don't look particularly easy to play against. Good win for Wigan especially as others have said after last week.

[daz39]

Good effort from our boys, looked like being one of those all too often batterings coming our way after 25 mins but credit to our lads they regrouped and looked pretty decent after that, keep a couple of those early tries out and we may have had a chance.

We will get a better idea of where we are next week against Cas rather than the current and former world champions in consecutive weekends.

[Yonder Province]

On 02/03/2024 at 09:18, daz39 said:

Good effort from our boys, looked like being one of those all too often batterings coming our way after 25 mins but credit to our lads they regrouped and looked pretty decent after that, keep a couple of those early tries out and we may have had a chance.

We will get a better idea of where we are next week against Cas rather than the current and former world champions in consecutive weekends.

Much improvement on last weeks performance I thought.

With slightly easier fixtures on the horizon, now must be the time to use what resources we have to get more creative in attack.

We need to find a way to exploit our pace out wide. Whether this means moving Ash to full back and bringing Jake closer to the action, or sorting out our creative options out at 9, I'm still unsure. Maybe the answer would be to do both - not holding my breath though!

I well remember when Tony Smith first came to our club, even with a far more limited squad, he would exploit our speed down the wing with an early kick from the back of the scrum. Or work well rehearsed moves to put our centres through gaps and on the burst.

Nothing of this nature seems to happen anymore and I find it both frustrating and totally baffling.   

[Exiled Wiganer]

Huddersfield are a really good side. We are far more battle hardened, and took advantage of that. Taking that into account, there was little between the 2 sides. 

[meast]

42 minutes ago, Yonder Province said:

Much improvement on last weeks performance I thought.

With slightly easier fixtures on the horizon, now must be the time to use what resources we have to get more creative in attack.

We need to find a way to exploit our pace out wide. Whether this means moving Ash to full back and bringing Jake closer to the action, or sorting out our creative options out at 9, I'm still unsure. Maybe the answer would be to do both - not holding my breath though!

I well remember when Tony Smith first came to our club, even with a far more limited squad, he would exploit our speed down the wing with an early kick from the back of the scrum. Or work well rehearsed moves to put our centres through gaps and on the burst.

Nothing of this nature seems to happen anymore and I find it both frustrating and totally baffling.   

The game has changed, even from Brown/Anderson/Woolford's days.

Defensive systems are fetter better organised and half decent teams don't leave gaps out wide to be exploited.

I'd love to see wingers taking on and beating their man, as Daz and I were discussing on Friday but it doesn't happen much anymore, it's like having the backs take the carries from 1-3, it wouldn't happen 20 years ago but it's now very much part of the game.

[Futtocks]

50 minutes ago, Yonder Province said:

Much improvement on last weeks performance I thought.

With slightly easier fixtures on the horizon, now must be the time to use what resources we have to get more creative in attack.

We need to find a way to exploit our pace out wide. Whether this means moving Ash to full back and bringing Jake closer to the action, or sorting out our creative options out at 9, I'm still unsure. Maybe the answer would be to do both - not holding my breath though!

I well remember when Tony Smith first came to our club, even with a far more limited squad, he would exploit our speed down the wing with an early kick from the back of the scrum. Or work well rehearsed moves to put our centres through gaps and on the burst.

Nothing of this nature seems to happen anymore and I find it both frustrating and totally baffling.   

Connor needs to be kept more busy and involved, I think.

[daz39]

8 hours ago, Yonder Province said:

Much improvement on last weeks performance I thought.

With slightly easier fixtures on the horizon, now must be the time to use what resources we have to get more creative in attack.

We need to find a way to exploit our pace out wide. Whether this means moving Ash to full back and bringing Jake closer to the action, or sorting out our creative options out at 9, I'm still unsure. Maybe the answer would be to do both - not holding my breath though!

I well remember when Tony Smith first came to our club, even with a far more limited squad, he would exploit our speed down the wing with an early kick from the back of the scrum. Or work well rehearsed moves to put our centres through gaps and on the burst.

Nothing of this nature seems to happen anymore and I find it both frustrating and totally baffling.   

I noticed Wigan's wingers were really narrow when we had the ball, it baffled me why we didn't try and exploit that rather than cutting infield whenever the ball was heading wide, maybe they knew thwy could leave their's in field as we weren't going to try and use a wide play.

I'd like t see Deakin given a go or Ash at 9 to try and get some ruck speed, Milner's ok defensively but offers little in attack for me.