Sat 17th Aug: SLMW: Wigan Warriors v St Helens KO 17:00 (Sky)

[League Express]

Please stick to discussing the match in question and do not accuse match officials of being biased or corrupt or you run the risk of being immediately banned from the forum.

Sat 17th Aug: SLMW: Wigan Warriors v St Helens KO 17:00 (Sky)

(at Elland Road, Leeds)

[FearTheVee]

Will be two pretty weak teams facing off this weekend. Probably a game neither club would want at this point.

Interested to see how Farrimond and Robertson go but not sure there'll be too much to read into the play-offs.

[RayCee]

I can't see any easy picks this round. 

[Harry Stottle]

Usually when this fixture is played at Magic it is for bragging rights to see who is best, will this game be to decide who is not worse on current form?

If that makes sense.

Edited August 13 by Harry Stottle

[48C North Stand]

Wigan should win this but neither outfit are exactly peaking right now. 

[Thunder Road]

Smith gets 3 matches. 

[Father Ted]

Wigan have French, Smith and O'Neil out of their spine. Saints have the whole of their spine missing. Weslby, Lomax, Dodd, Knowles & Clarke all out.

Wigan's advantage, slightly. 

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Wigan by 4.

[FearTheVee]

1 hour ago, Father Ted said:

Wigan have French, Smith and O'Neil out of their spine. Saints have the whole of their spine missing. Weslby, Lomax, Dodd, Knowles & Clarke all out.

Wigan's advantage, slightly. 

When you add in both centres out injured also (Percy/Hurrell) I'd say it's more than a slight advantage to Wigan.

Can see a 16+ point Wigan win.

[Loiner]

Hoping for a Wigan win, both teams missing quite a few, can still be an entertaining game could go either way.

[JohnM]

Difficult to predict. 

Our discipline remains a problem, as does Smith's three-game ban. Really need Farrell to drive his team, because no matter how bad Saints are, especially without Welsby, they'll be highly motivated.

[colin galbraith]

Eckersley full back, Field and Leeming in the halves, Forber at hooker? By the way, what is the situation with Mike Cooper, not appeared since his HIA, I would have imagined him playing a role over the last couple of weeks?  

[EagleEyePie]

Wigan look stronger in terms of personnel but I wouldn't say we're favourites by much. The Saints pack is still very strong and games like this are often decided by the packs. Dominate up front and you can mitigate the lack of experience in the halves.

As Wigan don't really look for offloads and play a more pattern based attack I think we have to compete well down the middle in order to win. It's all about getting into the right positions and keeping the opposition where they don't want to be. Unfortunately a lot of that comes through Harry Smith's kicking. It can help to negate our discipline issues because at least we're conceding penalties in areas we can recover from. If we end sets badly and compound it with ill discipline Saints will find it easy to keep us contained.

I think Saints will be much more adept at taking advantage of moments. There are some weak links in the Wigan side that can be picked apart as many teams have shown over the last few weeks. It's just a case of being patient and waiting for the mistakes to happen.

Even with inexperienced halves I think Saints will win this.

[Exiled Wiganer]

It will be nil nil. 

[graveyard johnny]

shaun wane looks like a drunk dragged out of the local pub 

[Hopie]

England coach keeps saying "we" for Wigan, glad to see his years in the job haven't changed his loyalties...

[Futtocks]

Shaun Wane on crutches?

[graveyard johnny]

1 minute ago, Futtocks said:

Shaun Wane on crutches?

coaching all those international matches  takes it toll

[bobbruce]

4 minutes ago, Hopie said:

England coach keeps saying "we" for Wigan, glad to see his years in the job haven't changed his loyalties...

Doesn’t he still work for Wigan. 

[Futtocks]

No Liam Farrell.  

[Futtocks]

Brian, I don't think it'll be a 13 minute round of applause.

[graveyard johnny]

no traditional kits in sight or even traditional kit colours - an instant turn off

[Dunbar]

Don't really understand the pundit analysis on this one.  They are talking as if Wigan are the ones with no spine and yet Saints have none of their spine available either.

Wigan look stronger to me.

[Barry Badrinath]

4 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

No Liam Farrell.  

I'm sure I saw Walters listed as 18th earlier, wondering if wigan will lose a sub

[DavidM]

4 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Brian, I don't think it'll be a 13 minute round of applause.

Saddam Hussain got applause like that because  noone wanted to be the first to stop