https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2024/07/ ... ngton-r19/ Leeming back, pleasant surprise, thought he was a long termer

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2024/07/ ... ngton-r19/ Leeming back, pleasant surprise, thought he was a long termer

Matty Ashton, Jordy Crowther, Ben Currie, Josh Drinkwater, Matt Dufty, Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Adam Holroyd, Toby King, Arron Lindop, Zane Musgrove, Matty Nicholson, Sam Powell, Rodrick Tai, Cai Taylor-Wray, Josh Thewlis, Paul Vaughan, Danny Walker, Tom Whitehead, George Williams, Max Wood, Luke Yates

Peet in his interview the other day said Field would be back in the next couple of weeks and Leeming just after that, so that is a surprise. Hopefully he's available because we need that bit of extra threat from the bench, with Field/French out.

How is everyone feeling about this one? As has been said, getting Leeming back is a boost.



After winning 10 games in a row it's a bit of an odd one going into a game on the back of a loss this season. Hopefully we can take some of the good things we did in the Hull FC game, particularly towards the end, into this week and get back to our usual stern defence and cut the errors.



We are still without 2 of our best attacking players (French probably is THE best). Prior to July, I looked at the fixtures and felt that it could be a tricky month without Field and with some tough fixtures but are we 2 from 3 and won the derby without French and several others.



On the flip side of that, Warrington are feeling buoyed with their win away at Saints especially with the circumstances being down to 11 for 10 minutes and 12 for the majority of the match and they feel they have some momentum going.



The outcome of this game is rather significant regarding the League Leader's Shield in my view. I think Sky have been setting the narrative a bit early, making out as if the LLS is already sewn up by Wigan. There's a lot of rugby left to play but having said that, beating Wire on Friday and then winning our game in hand would push us that bit closer to finishing 1st.

Although the murmerings of Wigan players being unwell before the start of the Hull game may be true, though I haven't seen anything from Wigan themselves, I suspect it was a case of just turning up to win, which invariably ends up with us losing.



At least this time the timing of the kick up the backside has come at a good time and I don't expect any of the players will be thinking playing the Wire will be an easy night, so hopefully they'll have their A game faces on and toughen up the defence. If they do that then I envisage another Wembley type performance and hopefully keep them quiet.



Should be a fab, tough game again hopefully edged in Wigans favour due to the home advantage.

It'll be nothing to get eat up about but I do sense we may just miss out on Friday and that's because of the absences of Field and French but mainly because I get the feeling Wire will have really marked this one up as a game to really lay a marker down. They've found their feet after Wembley and looking at their squad, they've named players who were rumoured to be missing and that makes me think they've held them back a bit with this game in mind.



A close game that could go either way but I still think we'll go on to win the LLS even if we get beat and obviously there are some massive players to come back in for us.

We need to take some pressure off Smith, Leeming will help with that, I hope that Farrimond is going to kick the ball. Having Smith as the lone kicker makes it easier to put pressure on him, he also seemed to have extra strapping around the wrist and thumb against Hull which wont make it easy to take a ball under pressure.

I loved the way Farrimond finished the game on Saturday, playing with freedom and testing the line. I hope he is given the licence to continue that from minute one on Friday (he may have been given it anyway) or if it's a case of him just playing within himself a little before that, I hope he takes the confidence from it to back himself. He's some threat when he gets some quick ball and some broken field to go at.

Massive test this. Wire are flying and should take a lot of confidence after last week.



I know we’ve not lost at home in about 15 months but I’m surprised we are favourites given French and Field are out.



We hammered their pack at Wembley so hopefully same again and we take our chances with the ball.



Looking forward to it either way!

Looks like there's going to be another decent crowd on, hopefully Wire will turn up in numbers with their recent good run, with the concerts and everything July looks like it's been a very good month financially for the club

I think Wire might show the after effects of how tough a game they had last week and well be too strong at the back end.



Wire put a ton of energy into their defending last week and I think that could be the deciding factor

This is the key. Whilst a great performance from Wire last week, throughout the game they really struggled coming out from their own end, even before the red card. The penalties and six again from Saints were coach killers.



It'll be close though, as we look down on firepower.