Hull v Wakefield.

A close contest with the result in doubt until the last minute.


















But

Dreadful quality, what a contrast to last Mondays game.

I'm sure every team can play at their best when on sky cameras making no mistakes and playing at top of their game.

Damn, close game admittedly scrappy in patches but was pretty entertaining last quarter..

We can't all be Wigan you know.

Have to say SL is at a low point at the moment.

Even at the top end, can you think of any year in the past decade with a weaker set of sides at the top than this year?

Neither Wigan nor Warrington are as strong as they were in 2010-11 and certainly not in the calibre of the Bradford, Saints or Leeds sides of old. I would fancy a Wigan team with Dallas, Radlinski, Farrell, Craig Smith, Lam etc in it to finish clear top in the current era as well.

+1 The standard is getting worse season after season.

No....but their have been some shocking scorelines this weekend. 36-52! 30-44!

That one at Widnes in particular is bad because it was 52-36 and the game had 49 errors! Their surely couldn't have been any time for any rugby to be played?

Contrast this today to Sydney Roosters v Manly in which the Roosters defended 9 (yes nine!) sets in a row from Manly.

The worry is that we found it difficult to beat Wakefield. So what does that say about us (Wigan) and the whole standard of SL. The stats from the NRL paint a very sorry image of SL.

The Superleague/Opta site has that match as having 24 errors, which isn't great but isn't 49. Also bear in mind that Leeds could and did p!ss around after half-time, and probably 12 of their 14 errors came after they were 36-0 up .

That's not arguing with the original point that the standard/intensity of the average match is lower than has been for ages.

Fair enough. The 49 came from Sky who listed it as 23-26 errors on full time yesterday.

Don't worry the NRL clubs are signing up all the SL players now so in a few years they will be as bad as us.

Except it's like a reverse of the banks buying bundled "toxic debt".

What will we be left with I wonder?

<Wigan love in mode activated>

You say that "We can't all be Wigan" now cast your mind to last Monday, how good was that performance from Wigan?

I'd say at that level, they could compete with an NRL team.

Now take Tomkins away, how many of those Wigan players were household names, in fact without googling do you think anyone outside of piedome could remember their starting 17?

No household names, just kids out of the academy from local amateur sides in the surrounding area, probably all on peanuts too.
Maybe at a guess i reckon if you took Tomkins wage out the equation i reckon the Wakefield wage bill total of yesterday would be more than Wigans last Monday.

So what does this say, Wigan are a mighty powerhouse of money throwing it at every player that looks the best in their position like the 80's-90's OR they are just well coached?

Personally if people could be bothered teaching their youth how to tackle, catch and work to structures like they do at Wigan they wouldn't actually need vast sums of money, if clubs like Wakefield and Castleford were not so short sighted then maybe the league would be in a healthier position than it is.

Look at Widnes, there is a very slow and subtle rise coming from that club and it's partly because they could see long term, and work hard with their youth.

You're right, we can't all be Wigan but maybe clubs like yours should be thinking 'maybe we should be like Wigan' rather than criticising them.

<Wigan love in mode deactivated>

Hope you're happy with yourself for making me feel so dirty.

Go and have a bath now you dirty 5lag