Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:23 am  

FearTheVee wrote:

Dunno about that - T-Mak was excellent though and Bell stepped up well.

Your pack was rolled pretty badly again and we have Sironen, Matautia (and Knowles really) to bring back into yesterday’s pack.

Saints pack is obviously great but made to look even better with how good the early tackle carries from Makinson, Percival and Hurrell are. Very hard to bring down and get quick PTB so the pack is on the front foot.

Miski, French, Bibby couldn’t match them carries.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:27 am  

NSW wrote:

Saints pack is obviously great but made to look even better with how good the early tackle carries from Makinson, Percival and Hurrell are. Very hard to bring down and get quick PTB so the pack is on the front foot.

Miski, French, Bibby couldn’t match them carries.

Agreed. I though Percival was excellent yesterday without getting the plaudits. He’s such a good player with and without the ball.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:36 am  

FearTheVee wrote:

Dunno about that - T-Mak was excellent though and Bell stepped up well.

Your pack was rolled pretty badly again and we have Sironen, Matautia (and Knowles really) to bring back into yesterday’s pack.

I haven't seen all your games, of course, so I'll bow to your superior knowledge but has Makinson, Roby and Paasi had better games this season? They've been good but I haven't seen them play better.

We have Ellis, possibly KPP depending on where he plays and Bateman to come back into ours. I also don't think we were "rolled" as you put it. Passi aside, I thought we handled your pack quite well. We are never going to match your yards in the front row as it's not how we play but our back row (where the yards normally do come from) was ineffectual with Isa and a misfiring Farrell. The backs were ultimately the difference. Makinson's 200 plus yards is testament to that.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:40 am  

NSW wrote:

Saints pack is obviously great but made to look even better with how good the early tackle carries from Makinson, Percival and Hurrell are. Very hard to bring down and get quick PTB so the pack is on the front foot.

Miski, French, Bibby couldn’t match them carries.

This was a good trait of Wane's Wigan teams - three quarters all had to work hard out of their own end. Players like Gelling and Davies never got the plaudits for the donkey work they did, even Sarginson used to put up some strong numbers from the work done early in sets.

It sounds like I'm talking after the event and I know there was a weird situation back when Wigan had the four good wingers but Davies is a massive asset for this reason and I would have kept him before the others. I think he will start for England in the World Cup.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:43 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

I also don't think we were "rolled" as you put it. Passi aside, I thought we handled your pack quite well. We are never going to match your yards in the front row as it's not how we play but our back row (where the yards normally do come from) was ineffectual with Isa and a misfiring Farrell. The backs were ultimately the difference. Makinson's 200 plus yards is testament to that.

Fair enough - agree to disagree on that as I thought there was a gulf between the packs and has been most of the time in recent matches.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:45 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

I haven't seen all your games, of course, so I'll bow to your superior knowledge but has Makinson, Roby and Paasi had better games this season? They've been good but I haven't seen them play better.

We have Ellis, possibly KPP depending on where he plays and Bateman to come back into ours. I also don't think we were "rolled" as you put it. Passi aside, I thought we handled your pack quite well. We are never going to match your yards in the front row as it's not how we play but our back row (where the yards normally do come from) was ineffectual with Isa and a misfiring Farrell. The backs were ultimately the difference. Makinson's 200 plus yards is testament to that.

Certainly Paasi's best game of the season. Makinson has been great all year but probably his best in terms of stats. Can't say Roby was any better or worse than his usual standard this or any other year, to maintain the level of performance at his age is phenomenal.

I don't know how you can dress the forward packs up as anything but an enormous mis-match. Some of the stats from the Wigan bench are embarrassing.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:51 am  

FearTheVee wrote:

Fair enough - agree to disagree on that as I thought there was a gulf between the packs and has been most of the time in recent matches.

Agree to disagree, as you say. On the terraces, Paasi aside, I wasn't worried about you up the middle. That's not usually the case. Out wide was where the threat was.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:53 am  

Phuzzy wrote:

Agree to disagree, as you say. On the terraces, Paasi aside, I wasn't worried about you up the middle. That's not usually the case. Out wide was where the threat was.

But the game isn’t just about being able to hang in there tackling on the back foot. The Wigan pack couldn’t take the game to Saints at all after the first ten minutes or so - they were completely ineffectual.

Most of your forwards might as well not be on the pitch when you’re in possession.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:54 am  

SFW wrote:

Certainly Paasi's best game of the season. Makinson has been great all year but probably his best in terms of stats. Can't say Roby was any better or worse than his usual standard this or any other year, to maintain the level of performance at his age is phenomenal.

I don't know how you can dress the forward packs up as anything but an enormous mis-match. Some of the stats from the Wigan bench are embarrassing.

Because the 2nd row was ineffectual. I understand your point but if Farrell and Bateman were putting in their usual 100+ metres and carrying an attacking threat then the pack does it's job. Havard aside, there is never big metres from the front row. It's largely a defensive unit and I think they did that job well.

Re: Squad for Good Friday : Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:57 am  

SFW wrote:

Certainly Paasi's best game of the season. Makinson has been great all year but probably his best in terms of stats. Can't say Roby was any better or worse than his usual standard this or any other year, to maintain the level of performance at his age is phenomenal.

I don't know how you can dress the forward packs up as anything but an enormous mis-match. Some of the stats from the Wigan bench are embarrassing.

I was very surprised in how big the miss match was