: Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:49 am  

Sorry Les, you are bang wrong.

Shocking 'tackle' and he fully deserved a straight red. I expect a hefty fine and ban, and he'll be lucky with that.

Point was made that Randall was closed down an awful lot and I think this is true. It did give Gale a lot more time and creativity, but as people have intimated, we never really got going.

Hopefully BM will see what's wrong and fix it, but tonight was not a great performance. Too many of the 'big' players went missing and Wigan deserved the two, by some distance.

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:48 am  

inside_man wrote:

not in a million years was he going for the ball mate, absolutely no intent but to nail tomkins.

Am i correct in thinking that the referee had already blown for a penalty? I'm sure i heard the whilstle but then things kicked off so quickly.

yep fairly sure Ganson had blown for a forward pass so to double compound Howells brain fart the pen got turned as well allowing a score, which at 14-6 broke us.

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:58 am  

Looked poor as a team before the moment of madness. Complete idiot to use the elbow. Even if he had not connected the intent was there. Had to go. No problem with the refs decision though the game as a meaningful contest ended at that point. After that damge limitation was all that was left to do.

Assume the RFL will ban him for 6-8 matches and no doubt no action taken against those that rush 20 metres to have a go.

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:25 am  

The Howell decision was correct, a moment of madness for a hot headed player. I just wonder what happened in the previous set when Howell made a break. It is ironic that we would have the first player to be sent off in SL this season. Thought that Sharp had a good game, may be he will get more space now that Howell is out. I thought that Roberts must have been offside for the Pryce try. I agree, give the guys a few days off to forget the last 3 games and hopefully regroup for Hudds and Catalans. I am not sure we will win again until Purdo is back. We need to get behind the boys next week big time and lift them if our play-off challenge is to be maintained. Gale has stood up well in an under performing side IMO.

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:37 am  

Gale has played well particularly in defence, surprisingly. Although I will say I dont think he opens our game up enough- He plays the inside scissor pass time and time again taking our runner back into the traffic.

Sharpy went well and I thought Melling was OK. The forwards were poor, disappointingly.

It was a flat performance. I think we've hit the wall like we did about this time last year. Injuries impact on smallish squads. The only positive I can get out of the current situation is Purdo, Robinson, Dorn, Howell!! will all be "rested" and fit come the play off time.

Some difficult games to come-Hudds, Catalans, Saints- Can we get anything out of these? We've certainly done it before.

Time for the fans to raise there voices and get behind our team. Bring on Hudds.(you cant condone what Howell did last night but given a choice I wished he had saved it for Masons nose-School yard bully)

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 8:41 am  

Homer wrote:

yep fairly sure Ganson had blown for a forward pass so to double compound Howells brain fart the pen got turned as well allowing a score, which at 14-6 broke us.

That's right. What was interesting was listening to Ganson on the ref's mike afterwards. He had a real go at Tomkin's brother, I haven't seen a ref that angry in a long while - for a moment I wondered if he was going to reverse the penalty (it began 'I know he's your little brother and you feel sorry for him...'). I suspect that Tompkins senior may not have heard the last of this.

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 10:47 am  

We had our worst performance of the season, Wigan had one of their best. We had 12 men for 60 minutes, 2 50-50 video ref calls against us, as well as finishing off 3 inches from the line when the hooter went.

Overall, I don't think we can be too bothered about losing 40-12. On another day, the scoreline may have even been a lot closer.

Overall, I think Wigan will be disappointed they didn't put 60-70 points on us.

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 11:20 am  

Big Graeme wrote:

And the other brother is gonna have to learn not to jump on people with his knees, not excusing what Howell did but the other Tomkins should have joined him.

yes i agree he shud have been min sin binned at least as it condones retatiation yes howel was right to be sent of ps i am a neutral watched the game on sky but tomkins bro shud have walked 2

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:06 pm  

Game lost in first 20 mins, two or three poor kicks straight to full back or winger. Howell stupid (not for the first time), Big Mac nearly as much so, starting Clubb at centre (Nobby agreed based on his interview on the Red Button show). If we're short of forwards, let's play fringe forwards like Kaye or Thompson, not very fringe wingers like Gardner.

Fine performance late on though, plenty of commitment. Good to see that Robinson looked pretty fit.

: Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:12 pm  

I agree Ganson made the only decision available to him with Howell however Ganson was clearly heard saying 'I know it is your little brother and you want to look after him but leave the discipline to me , we don't need follow on, on the floor tackles'. Surely this should have indicated 10 mins in the sin bin for tomkins senior and a reversed penalty. He must have seen the follow up to comment on it. Rules must be played both ways and as I said fully back the first decision on Ganson with the red card, totally disagree with him when he bottled the yellow card. Howell's bashed face at the end showed the force of the follow on and I personally do not want to see either of these actions in RL.

Howell probably lost us the taps so how did he get any water for his early bath.