: Fri Feb 27, 2009 4:15 pm  

Sam on the bench and Ainscough starting. These two are the future of our club IMO

looking forward to the match even more now

: Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:17 pm  

- Neil - wrote:

Agreed. Shame the rest of the muppets on here cannot see the bigger picture.

Calm down sonny. It's only opinions after all. If on Saturday a flood of tries pours through between Bailey and Smith you will have been vindicated.

The problem as - I think - Hogan pointed out is that Smith is virtually undroppable (new word!) at the moment as we don't have a ready replacement. Unless Tomkins shines, of course....

: Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:25 pm  

Stick Smith on the left between Hansen and Carmont. Or even better, further in between Hansen and Fielden.

: Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:02 pm  

Bill_Barlow wrote:

I dont think Goulding had a bad defensive game against Hull personally, Yeaman hardly had a sniff as i remember, so really hes had 1 bad defensive game vs Castleford and suddenly hes a turnstyle? Ive never seen Goulding run out the line before but did it 2 or 3 times in that game, to me i think hes either been instructed to do it or he did it to try and shut out the Cas attack before Smith and Pryce were called into action. And with Smiths efforts on Ferres for 1 example and Pryce limping like a 3 legged dog anytime he did anything i feel sorry for him and can understand to a certain extent why he did it.

I think its fair to question the coaching of Goulding, told to bulk up so he did and lost some pace and agility, now hes been made to drop all the weight again so he has. If there was a worry about his defence why put Smith at the side of him? Why not swap and put Tommy with him then?

The way Noble has IMO messed him around worries me with the development of Sam Tomkins and others. Unless theyre build like brick $hithouses i dont think the coaches at Wigan have a clue what to do with them.

That was as much Yeaman not performing well as Goulding playing well, dont know whats happened with Yeaman, seems to have gone backwards ( we should sign him !! ).

: Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:17 pm  

There seems to be a general problem with young centres.

Goulding, Yeaman, Hall and Tyrer, and that's without having to think too hard.

Do we build them up soon and then knock them down?

: Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:21 pm  

FB - Richards
LW - Ainscough
LC - Carmont
RC - Bailey
RW - Roberts
SO - Smith
SH - S. Tomkins
OP - Fielden
HK - Leuluai
BP - O'Carroll
SR - Hansen
SR - O'Loughlin
LF - J. Tomkins

SB - Riddell
SB - Coley
SB - Hock
SB - Paleassina

For me Wigan will need to keep Randall and Purdham quiet if they want to win this game, both men can carry the ball effectively and are great at offloading. Karl Temata cannot be allowed to dominate the pack neither as he can offload quite well for a prop and give Randall a decent platform in which to breach our defence.

Hopefully with Bailey put into the centre position is can negate the attacking qualities of Gafa. The other player to watch out for is Dorn, who can create problems with his kicking abilities.

If we can deal with them players Wigan should focus on the getting the ball out to the wings because personally I feel the Quins defence lets them down a bit out side. Danny Ward misses quite a few tackles as well so we could try and penetrate through the middle of the park by focusing on him.

It's not unreasonable to assume we can win this but our side is also suffering with some glaringly obvious problems so we need to have shored them up effectively over the past week and hope we can get the balance of strong defence and dangerous attack more consistent.

: Sat Feb 28, 2009 9:30 am  

warriorweed wrote:

Looking at that squad I can see both Tomkins and Ainscough missing out to be honest.

I also hope that the reason Goulding is not in there is because he is hurt, granted his defensive positioning was poor at times against Cas however I see no justification for him to be dropped and for Smith who missed tackles that led to every try conceded to remain in the squad.

You're probably right there because they're English! Looks like NOBle is going back to 9 overseas players!

: Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:29 am  

http://superleague.co.uk/article.php?id=13213 Hopefully it's accurate

http://superleague.co.uk/article.php?id=13213 Hopefully it's accurate

: Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:15 am  

like i said on previous post. Ainscough is starting and Sam is on the bench

: Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:22 am  

MC.FINCHY wrote:

like i said on previous post. Ainscough is starting and Sam is on the bench

After last week Ainscough deserves his place. By the same taken Smith doesnt and if Noble had any sense he wouldnt be playing. If yet again Smith isnt performing he should be brought off immediately and Tomkins put on. At least the presence of Tomkins on the bench may push Smith on to better things.