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Well, sport can be cruel and after two hours of driving rain in our faces their is no crueller way to lose a game of Rugby League than that.
Personally I don't think you can point the finger of blame at anyone. It came down to an accidental offside in the end. Had that been kicked away we would have won, suppose you have to credit the Leeds defence at that one. Luck was on their side.
Some point the blame at Sam Tomkins for his wild pass that went intercepted out wide. Maybe a bad error but he saw that Amos Roberts was clear on the wing and Ryan Hall just read it well.
The only real criticism is perhaps we went into the match with too light a bench? Feka Paleaaesina was warming up pre game but not selected. Surely that is the biggest sign he could ever get to suggest his Wigan career is well and truly over? Chris Tuson though isn't strong enough for me and he didn't even made the field today. That's plain daft. Why waste a substitute? I think Ben Davies, who made his debut last week at Crusaders, would have been a far better option than Tuson. Especially in those conditions.
At one point late in the game Brian McClennan threw on Jamie Peacock, Kylie Leuluai and Greg Eastwood together. Maybe, just maybe that gave Leeds the vital edge?
Bit galling to see Liam Farrell sin binned though. Just looking on the TV Replay John Kear is spitting feathers saying Farrell could have pulled out. I'd like to see him demonstrate how you pull out a tackle whilst jumping mid air? I'd say it's impossible to do that. He turned his back at least and simply couldn't avoid hitting him in my view. I think Jonathan Davies rightly corrected Kear on that one.
But after Jamie Peacock went unpunished with a bad high tackle on Sam Tomkins it's just more proof that the referee's boss Stuart Cummings is doing a bad job. Not just that incident but how many times whether at games or watching on TV do you see bad high tackles just end up going unpunished or on report? Why not give them a yellow card? What's the difference between that and a supposed late challenge? No one can surely argue Farrell's "late challenge" was worse than Peacock's high shot? Where's the justice in that? Then their was Keith Seniors kick in the eye of Joel Tomkins. Personally looking at it, it looks an accident but should players be having boots flaying around like that?
Despite all that I think Wigan lost this game in the five minutes up to half time. Having built up a healthy 6-0 lead we immediately knocked on and conceded a daft penalty through Andy Coley. Before we knew it, a healthy 6-0 had become a tight 6-4. Had we held on to 6-0 I think we would have won the game comfortably. I'm sure we'd have found a drop goal somewhere and I think in those dire conditions that would have been more than enough.
So sadly Wembley isn't to be for another season. But I saw enough to suggest we can win Super League this season. We need these games at home so if we can keep 1st or 2nd we'll get that. I've no doubt we'd have beaten Leeds today had the game been at Wigan. So for that reason it would be nice to get an elusive big cup tie at DW Stadium next year. This will take some getting over though. Should be an interesting match against Castleford next weekend.
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