I am full of optimism from tonight's performance. Is it the larger or is it merited?



Firstly, I reckon that display from that 17 will be enough to beat the Bull snext week.



I wonder how the result might differ with that display including our 9 missing players (most of which will be back for the business end of the season).



Negatives, and I don't want to harp on because overall it was mostly positive. I thought Buderus did nothing on a night when our senior players needed to stand up and I thought some of McGuire's possesses on the right were bad. I thought Kirke was his usual soft, e self and Burgess is so lazy and slow around the ruck it makes me weep. Was Clarkson playing?



Plenty of positives. Ambler actually looked very comfortable, especially in his 1st stint. How weird that Amor looks so out of his depth yet Ambler stood up. I thought Pitts looked good and Bush did everything asked of him.



We're OK (on that performance) and I still think we will be in the mix and I wouldn't bet against us picking up 4 in a row.

No, it is not the larger, it was great effort from our best possible 17 on the night. They never gave up.



Think you are being a little harsh on both Clarkson and McGuire. Clarkson gave Hall his try and also, all Wigan's tries were scored on Bush and Seniors wing, so while I agree he was a little quiet, he did a fine job. I think McGuire worked his socks off and was everywhere and while Rob had his best game for a while, I still though McGuire was the better of the two half's.



I also thought Bailey was huge tonight, owned Fielden who was quite frankly Wigan's worst player by a country mile. (Just watched the Ganson/Fielden chat... really funny, you must watch it back!).

Agree re Clarkson, thought he was pretty solid in defence, though saying Clarkson gave Hall his try is a little generous.



Thought Ambler stood up well and Pitts seems to be going pretty well this season. Also thought that Buderus should have controlled things a little more, very disappointing, really hoped he would stand up in this game and prove some doubters wrong.

Yes, sorry, poor explanation on my part. Clarkson did give Hall the flick pass off JJB's pass from acting half, from which he went on to score.

Flick pass? I'm not sure Clarkson knew too much about it.

I thought Clarkson looked ok given that he was playing out of position, Pitts and Ambler did well and Tom Bush was quite impressive.

Diskin and Buderus didn't impress imo.

Completely agree.







Thought Burgess was easily our most effective prop going forward, where Bailey was most effective defensively. One without the other would not have worked. Buderus was by far and away the better of the two hookers, think you need to leave that agenda alone as it clouds your judgement. Diskin was very ineffective, and a couple of times his tackling technique shockingly dangerous, even as a Leeds fan I hope he gets a ban. Thought McGuire was superb at times. Clarkson did his job, although Hall really struggled IMO on the right with the sliding defence. Agree on Kirke.







Agreed. Not as much going forward as defensively, where he was huge. Have to be honest and say I never thought this lad had it in him, but he looked much more comfortable at this level than Amor. Pitts and Bush were very good. Bush had a lot of work IMO because Senior did not front up enough, and been the so called captain.







Agreed.

Apart from the first one maybe?

Plenty of positives G i do think Clarkson and Burgess deserve more credit though especially for the youngster in defence and Burgess was effective going forward imo.

I don't think Kirke has been at all on form so far this year but last night he picked up a shoulder injury very early so maybe that had a bigger effect than we thought.

I agree re-Buderus to some extent in that you'd think with his experience he'd be one of the "leaders" last night which i don't think he did at all,saying that i thought his distribution looked sharper than Diskos at times.

Correct,Mcguire buys the dummy by Carmont.

I would defend Buderus slightly with his tackling effort, i thought he really put himself about in defence. There was one set where i counted him making at least 4 of the tackles, if not 5.



That was all

My stand-out youngster last night was Bush, he handles top flight football well, although I think he may be more suited as a stand-off or even scrum half than a winger.



Danny Mags seemed to disappear after he took a knock and never really got back into the game.



Bailey was massive both running the ball in and defensively, Amor looked out of place, as did Clarkson – Abler, on the other hand coped well.



We still lacked imagination at times but overall not a terrible performance.