I’m also disappointed that I didn’t get to see a quality game of RL which I was expecting….us more at fault than Wigan obviously. Saw a twitter post that summed it up Wigan 5/10 Wire 2/10 and Officials 1/10, pretty much spot on.

Won't let me quote but regarding Boss Hog's post, exactly the same thing happened in reverse during last week's game. Field picked the ball up with open space and the ref brought it back but then gave "no try".

I hope one of the "learnings" will be not to rest a team so extensively before a final

Never felt like we were in the game. There was a clear gulf in standards and Wigan are a well drilled and professional team who wasn't going to be broken down easily. We didn't offer enough to threaten their defence and we made too many errors which let them off the hook and meant we didn't put them under enough pressure to unsettle them.

Still, given where I thought we'd be at the start of the season (a mid table team which was very ordinary in terms of calibre of squad) we are ahead of schedule and I didn't expect Sam Burgess to have us in a Cup Final so soon.

Wigan have definitely got it right in terms of having a culture of building sustained success. This isn't the Maurice Lindsay Wigan of just buying up all the superstars and winning through having world class players in every position. Under Wane and now Peet they have been very good at bringing through local talent and supplementing them with good signings of players who aren't galacticos but have the right attitude and approach. They are always better than the sum of their parts. They play these big games like they play most games, they have a clear plan and are never overawed. Even their young players are well capable of handling big games.

Good post. Hadn't their try scoring centre just played a handful of 1st team games?

I'm not buying the "12 men have not played in a final" argument. We had GF winners out there and CC final winners. The same team beat St Helens away. The mentality under pressure is still not resolved nor is the ability to change a game when it's falling apart. Was a thoroughly crap day out and the atmosphere was poor. Take nothing away from Wigan who, in truth, were not pushed very hard.

But we have improved on 2023. Lets see how they respond. 4 very winnable games up next then Wigan and Saints.

How many plays came to nothing & errors made by our lads losing their footing ? I think we need to be working on the boots the team are wearing. We had plays coming to nothing with wayward passes either missing their target or going into touch. We had George Williams forcing short hospital passes onto forwards when maybe just keeping possession would have been better . We had a few occasions where ball carriers had opened up gaps & were looking for support but there was none. Matty Ashton ,usually Mr Reliable will be haunted by his errors for the rest of his life.
Ironically ,with 20 minutes to go we started to make improvements to handling of the game with front foot rugby. If we'd done that from the start the result may have been different. Plenty of ifs & buts but if you don't turn up with your best game in a final you don't get the victor's spoils.
Hopefully, the team will collectively learn from their disappointment.

Been already said, too many players slipping over and too many errors. That was the main issue as to why we never looked like winning that game. The other thing was our sixth tackle play, it took over an over to get a grubber behind their goal line and earn a drop out, which was very reflective of our poor execution on the day.

Disappointing, were better than what we showed.

Think he's played 5 games if I'm correct

I've not had a chance to replay the full match but it was clear we were 2nd best in most - if not all - areas.
And again penalties/basic mistakes were a telling factor. Allegedly 9 in the 1st half. You're up against it with that number. It didn't allow us to build pressure as we were more often than not coming out of our own 10.
Ashtons dropped ball led to their first try and Bullocks penalty the 2nd.

Wigan targetted King and his ability to turn quickly - hence the 1st try, but Wigans kick execution was perfect and I think most centres would have struggled against that.

Regarding Wigans' 'drilling' - because they have a great youth pipeline they have had not months, but years, of being drilled. Hence when the likes of Eckersley step up they are - more often than not - ready.

Really frustrating and disappointing as Wigan didn't really have to do THAT much.

I hate to say it but the Wembley experience isn't as good as it used to be. That's nothing to do with the result or the quality of the games.
65k for the day with 2 of the better supported teams but masses of empty seats in the top tier and a fair few elsewhere....... whereas there were 85k at Twickenham for their final. (Can League learn anything??).
I'd really want the CCF to stay at Wembley but it has to be near capacity.

Done the full rewatch, the few things that i saw second time around.
Our initial starts to the halves werent as bad as I thought. The sIn bins were poor decisions.
How much I wished that Tai intercept had stuck.
The 1st Wigun try was onside, brilliant bit of timinig and skill.
Once we went behind we forced it too much and as others had said that rain shower before kick off left the surface greasy didn't realise how many times we slipped.
Not sure Fitzgibbon or Crowther were right for the game Holroyd should have been in.
Kendall really didn't seem to like Matt Dufty.

Scramble and effort was there.

Sick of losing finals to Wigun, but feel we can beat them.

Need a response against Salford , a measured and clinical one not a panicky pressured one.