Fri 31st Jul: SL: Leigh Leopards v Wigan Warriors KO 20:00 (Sky)

[League Express]

Fri 31st Jul: SL: Leigh Leopards v Wigan Warriors KO 20:00 (Sky)

Discuss the game here.

Please don't accuse match officials of deliberate bias or cheating, or your posts will be removed and your account may be banned without further warning.
 

[Thunder Road]

Just seen the squads.

Wigan by 4 scores unless Derek starts to wind the opposition lot up and then it could be anything. 

 

[Fevrover]

Wigan by 12.

[Father Ted]

Think Wigan will score 30 if not 40 points.

Leigh are down on numbers and Wigan shirts 1-7 look a formidable prospect.

[Harry Stottle]

French makes all the difference, for that reason got to fancy Wigan hope I am wrong though.

[phiggins]

Wigan's right edge vs Leigh's left is looking like a bit of a mismatch, with Halton's injury, on top of missing Niu and his likely first choice backup in Hodgson. 

[Snowys Backside]

Game now a sell out I believe. 
 

Wigan by 12

[Josef K]

I think leigh will shock wigan, the ferocious home crowd will push them to a 2pt win. 

[Loiner]

Wigan by 12 at least 

[WN83]

Surprised how many have Wigan winning it reasonably comfortably. We've been winning recently but we're not playing particularly well. The lack of out and out second rowers isn't helping, which is leading to players moving around positions and it's then impacting on the attack but more so, the defence. It was all over the shop in that first half against Saints. 

I think Wigan will step it up in this one but Leigh look in good form and have momentum as well. The injuries they've picked up will hurt them as well though and Ipape always seems to have a good game against us, so his loss could just tip it our way. 

Wigan by 4

[phiggins]

1 hour ago, WN83 said:

Surprised how many have Wigan winning it reasonably comfortably. We've been winning recently but we're not playing particularly well. The lack of out and out second rowers isn't helping, which is leading to players moving around positions and it's then impacting on the attack but more so, the defence. It was all over the shop in that first half against Saints. 

I think Wigan will step it up in this one but Leigh look in good form and have momentum as well. The injuries they've picked up will hurt them as well though and Ipape always seems to have a good game against us, so his loss could just tip it our way. 

Wigan by 4

I think Wigan have to be strong favourites, isn't the game the week before Wembley their only defeat for a while? Leigh have beaten Warrington twice, but the two defeats to KR raise questions of where we really are in relation to the top teams.

Halton and Ipape are big misses. Hopefully Mulhern will be back. 

[WN83]

22 minutes ago, phiggins said:

I think Wigan have to be strong favourites, isn't the game the week before Wembley their only defeat for a while? Leigh have beaten Warrington twice, but the two defeats to KR raise questions of where we really are in relation to the top teams.

Halton and Ipape are big misses. Hopefully Mulhern will be back. 

Yeah, that HKR game was the only defeat in 11, so with something approaching a full team, it's been 10 wins on the spin. Wigan are rightfully favorites for the game but I see it being really tight. The form Wigan were in at the beginning and middle section of those 10 wins, was a fair bit different to the form of the last few but I do think they'll be on it tomorrow.

They'll have to be though because if they perform like they did against Saints last week, there is no doubt they lose the game. Against a hugely depleted Saints side, it was only the magic of Bevan French which made it comfortable in the end. That was a bit disappointing after finally putting to bed any idea that they're a one man team in the past couple of months. 

[Guest]

Talk of Armstrong and Charnley out too. Shame really. Could’ve been an absolute belter if both sides were at or near full strength in front of a sold out crowd. Still looking forward to it regardless! 

[Father Ted]

Rumours around too that Marshall might be out. Hodkinson would seem a more than adequate replacement.

[WN83]

44 minutes ago, Unbe-Leigh-vable said:

Talk of Armstrong and Charnley out too. Shame really. Could’ve been an absolute belter if both sides were at or near full strength in front of a sold out crowd. Still looking forward to it regardless! 

Hopefully just a few mind games from Lam. The game deserves and needs as many of it's best players involved as possible. Armstrong in particular would be a huge blow. He looks a decent run of games away from his best and at his best, he looks like he could throw his hat in the ring as the best fullback in the league. He just hasn't ever got on the field enough to try and prove that. 

[Wollo Wollo Wayoo]

Slightly off topic but, Marcus Griffiths doesn't appear to have been given a roll at any game this week.  

[Cheadle Leyther]

Now Lam is saying Charnley and Armstrong are doubtful (we all know what that means). 
We have never been able to field a full strength team all season. What I want to know is why our S & C team has never been put under the microscope about these constant injuries?

[phiggins]

1 minute ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

Now Lam is saying Charnley and Armstrong are doubtful (we all know what that means). 
We have never been able to field a full strength team all season. What I want to know is why our S & C team has never been put under the microscope about these constant injuries?

Agree, but to be fair, hasn't Charnley rolled his ankle. Not sure there's much the S&C team can do with that.

I was getting very irritated last week when Armstrong was kept on, despite not being able to walk. Lam needs to shoulder some responsibility for how some injuries are managed. 

[Cheadle Leyther]

15 hours ago, phiggins said:

Agree, but to be fair, hasn't Charnley rolled his ankle. Not sure there's much the S&C team can do with that.

I was getting very irritated last week when Armstrong was kept on, despite not being able to walk. Lam needs to shoulder some responsibility for how some injuries are managed. 

How about a month ago when 4,players pulled out after the captain’s run -how well prepared were they?!

[phiggins]

12 minutes ago, Cheadle Leyther said:

How about a month ago when 4,players pulled out after the captain’s run -how well prepared were they?!

I agreed with your point. We've been dreadful at getting players on the field and keeping them on. Just said that Charnley sounds like an exception, and that the coach might be playing a few too many with niggles. 

[Harry Stottle]

53 minutes ago, phiggins said:

I agreed with your point. We've been dreadful at getting players on the field and keeping them on. Just said that Charnley sounds like an exception, and that the coach might be playing a few too many with niggles. 

What choice has the coach got? it is not as though we have a big squad furnished with good expierienced player's, neither do we have an academy with up coming youngsters vying for a first team opportunity.

[phiggins]

39 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

What choice has the coach got? it is not as though we have a big squad furnished with good expierienced player's, neither do we have an academy with up coming youngsters vying for a first team opportunity.

True, and I appreciate players play with niggles at pretty much every club. But not taking players off that visibly cannot walk for a prolonged period infuriates me though. We were lucky that Warrington weren't smart enough to capitalise last week. Similarly, Armstrong played 3 games with a bad knee injury last year, despite having Hodgson available to deputise. Also, Mulhern sits out a game this season because of a tight calf, deemed ok to play the following week but doesn't last ten minutes. 

We seem to have got pre season badly wrong this year, and cost us what could've been a good chance for a top two finish.

Maybe some Pyro budget can be reallocated to S&C?

[JohnM]

Leigh will , in my opinion, be highly motivated to win, despite Lam pretending the absence of key players such as Charnley and Armstrong, They'll take the game to Wigan and with Charnley and Armstrong  playing, Leigh stand a good chance of winning. 

[phiggins]

19 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Leigh will , in my opinion, be highly motivated to win, despite Lam pretending the absence of key players such as Charnley and Armstrong, They'll take the game to Wigan and with Charnley and Armstrong  playing, Leigh stand a good chance of winning. 

Time will tell on whether they play. But it seems very rare that lam says someone is a doubt, that they actually play. In fact, when he says that he'll give a player until captain's run, I start to fear for their career. 

[Snowys Backside]

I don't get this Captains Run Malarky.

The only run we had when I played was a run to the Boars Head !!