Joined: Jan 04 2003 Posts: 4957 Location: At home, listening to Elvis.
Father Ted wrote:Everyone around me was commenting on the quality of Rugby played. Very fast thinking and passing with few dropped. The quality has improved as has the team. Also it isn't freezing cold anymore.Already looking forward to next week.
Dont speak to soon, forecast bad.
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.......
I will look to the moment, and miraculously, the future will take care of itself.
Radio 5 Live, Sat, April 14th, 2007,...Dave Whelan, "In Wigan, rugby will always be king"
'I was certain, positive, convinced, and yet..........unsure'
No idea where that performance came from. The lack of quality from Bardford helped, but we haven't seen attacking rugby of that quality in years, it was a million times better than what we saw vs Quins.
Piggy's distribution, and the fact that we are so strong down the left hand side meant we were able to run over Bradford last night.
If we play that like every week, I'd be happy even if we lost, though that said, if we do play like that every week we won't lose many.
Joined: Oct 22 2003 Posts: 1842 Location: A long way from Wigan
To be fair, we have seen glimpses of a more expansive style of play in the past 3 matches, but only in very short spells.
Last night was the first time we combined that with an aggressive defence and applied it throughout the game.
Nobby said in post match that we stuck to the game plan last night which seems to indicate that this is how he has been coaching them to play - and not in fact the one out 5 drives and a poor kick we've been seeing.
Key factors last night:
1) Dummy runners & support - In the past 5 years, I have never seen wigan play with so much off the ball support.
2) attitude: Aggressive and positive from start to finish.
3) Defence: Moved up much quicker, agressive and no obvious weak spots out wide - unlike the first 3 matches.
4) Kicking Game: Far better kicking game, Pat put in some good long kicks, Piggy some nice kicks for Ainscough to chase and Sam, all kicked well. First time in a very long time.
5) Pace - we finally seem to have pace all over the team and can break from deep. Amos is fast and runs in hard - no going sideways from him, he always runs straight and tries to break teh tackle.
Big Steve wrote:To be fair, we have seen glimpses of a more expansive style of play in the past 3 matches, but only in very short spells.
Last night was the first time we combined that with an aggressive defence and applied it throughout the game.
Nobby said in post match that we stuck to the game plan last night which seems to indicate that this is how he has been coaching them to play - and not in fact the one out 5 drives and a poor kick we've been seeing.
Key factors last night:
1) Dummy runners & support - In the past 5 years, I have never seen wigan play with so much off the ball support.
2) attitude: Aggressive and positive from start to finish.
3) Defence: Moved up much quicker, agressive and no obvious weak spots out wide - unlike the first 3 matches.
4) Kicking Game: Far better kicking game, Pat put in some good long kicks, Piggy some nice kicks for Ainscough to chase and Sam, all kicked well. First time in a very long time.
5) Pace - we finally seem to have pace all over the team and can break from deep. Amos is fast and runs in hard - no going sideways from him, he always runs straight and tries to break teh tackle.
Joined: May 24 2005 Posts: 1619 Location: exiled in Manchester
Good performance and nice to see.
I only hope it is not another false dawn, there have been occasional games in the last couple of season where the team has suddenly clicked and played a great one off game - the real challange will be performaing to that level week in week out - something the team have not been able to do previously.
After bashing Riddell after the first few games I thought when he was on the field he was awesome.
Now we finally have a balance of creative players, hard tacklers and strong runners.
I also think Tommy deserves a mention, he was top quality tonight...
It's always a good night when no one has to mention a certain Trent Barrett!
Joined: Feb 15 2003 Posts: 582 Location: In the centre of the universe Wigan
Ever since my little girl started school in September, I have had stick from the lollipop man. What happened to your lot etc!!
This morning I got there and to my amazement he said, "What the blo0dy hell happened to your lot on Saturday," I was gobsmacked and then he went on to say they were absolutely amazing, I don't think I have ever enjoyed a match as much in absolute years.
Panda Antics wrote:No idea where that performance came from
Im certain it came from having a proper 6 & 9 in place and the players sticking to the gameplan.
Dropping a "bad egg" may also have helped some of our more senior players realise they need to shape up, or they might be the next player to be dropped.
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