The errors and penalties in the opening 15 minutes were mainly Wigan's own doing and that's pretty much the time when Leeds won the game and Wigan lost it. There was no extra intensity or physicality to cause problems at that point, the Wigan players just made some very basic errors again and again.

After that opening period the game was more like the close contest that some though it would be but Wigan always played like they were desperately chasing the game, even when only trailing by 10 points the players just seemed to think they had to keep the ball alive all the time and there was a real lack of composure.

Leeds on the other hand were clinical when presented with opportunities in the opening quarter of the game. A lot of the tries were nothing exceptional but just sensible, well thought out play that caught Wigan when the defence hadn't really got into the game - when the first try was scored Wigan just made the same mistakes again and gifted field position and Leeds just kept on taking advantage of those gifts. The Wigan players needed some good defensive sets early on to settle down but they failed through their own mistakes and the clinical play from Leeds near the line.

its just a good job the game wasn't on sky.
we'd have only heard phil clarke crying in the background..

Phil Clarke's box of tissues was untouched yesterday.

Leeds won, it says so in the paper, enjoy the final...

As good as tomkins is let's not pretend he is radlinski under the ball

The Tomkins spill was anything but an unforced error, it was forced by an excellent high kick which spiralled away from him toward the touchline. Any full back in the world would have struggled with that.

Lest we forget that two of Wigan's tries came from Jamie Jones-Buchanan coming up with soft one-on-one misses because he was too busy trying to anticipate what was going on behind the play and lost the lead runner.

Far from it. It's his big weakness.

JJB was a statue at times yesterday in the defence and Wigan exploited it perfectly.

I've stated this before. Without a doubt it's his achilles' heel.

I've not read all the comments in the thread but I thought the majority of Wigan fans were great in defeat yesterday. I can't speak for others but my friends, family and myself all left the ground and congratulated loads of Leeds fans, even shook a few hands and wished them luck for the final. Not sure what more we could do? After a bad performance from our boys we only lost by 11 points to a good side, I'm sure we'll kick on from this and if we don't we'll no one else to blame but our selves!

Yep, I had not one problem with any Wigan fans yesterday. All the ones I met were perfectly civil, both before and after the game.

In fact, the only really unsavoury stuff came on the very, VERY overcrowded (and late) train back to Leeds when a couple of Leeds fans decided that a suitcase near the door was worthy of having a fight over. Happily their girlfriends/wives calmed them down by telling them to stop being such daft buggers.

All teams look great when the opposition let them play and Wigan are no exception, great sides are able to maintain standards when the pressure is on. In the last two knock games of real significance Wigan have been found wanting, both Saints and Leeds showed up and Wigan couldn't cope. This result says more about Wigan than it does about Leeds - are Wigan like Warrington flat track bullies who cannot cope with real adversity?

Amazing, as i am totally impartial i can say that the only bad refereeing decision i saw was when Farell just befor half time gave a pass on the thirty that far forward he had to kick it (between the 30 & 20)and Wigan scored.

Some of the comments from a small minority of so called Wigan fans on here is embarrassing and totally cringeworthty(ie "only won by 9 points, gifted 3 tries, bad ref" etc, etc.. - not forgetting "well done BUT blah,blah.....) - why not just say "well done" and be gracious in defeat. I feel like I'm reading comments from someone from a primary school playground. We lost - congratulate the opposition, leave it at that & get over it.

We were beaten by far the better team. Burrows was absolutely awesome. Leeds throughly deserved the win.
The vast majority of Wigan fans I know who stood near me were all of the same opinion. Good luck at Wembley.

A statement I made after Webb fumbled that high ball in last years final. Both horror show balls.

Trad.Arr : 'Lambeth Walk'

[i"When you're getting beat by Leeds,
With ten minutes left, you won't be pleased
And we'll see you all ....
Doing the Wigan Walk"[/i

I thought your last post was supposed to be your last pontification on the subject ....

There's more bites here than Fish-O-Mania

I have to say I thought Wigan were never in the game once Leeds scored their second try. It had that feel of a game where Leeds are always chasing but never catch up except this time it was the other way around. Yes, Wigan could have come back but I just didn't feel it (and I'm a really pessamistic supporter).
I also thought Wigan played well, but Burrow tore them a new one again and again and Sinfield got everything right. I agree Burrow took the wrong option when Hall was caught short second half - Hall's after match interview indicated he was playing on one leg in the second half, which probably explains why he looked so sluggish going for the corner - still a great tackle.
We got the rub of the green definately, but Wigan had a little luck as well. When Tomkins made his break that set up their first try the space was clearly made because the tackled player moved 2-3 metres off the mark when he played the ball (something Wigan seem to do a lot) which left no Leeds defenders.

Leeds forwards actually looked fresh - the extra couple of days to turnaround might have made a difference, but for me it was Burrow who just took Wigan to bits on the back of some great play the balls. Noble called it before the game and he was spot on. Credit to Darth Millward for backing Leeds.

I can't find negatives from Leeds here - just a great team performance with some individual pieces of brilliant skill when needed. Wigan were always going to score some points, they've done it for fun all season so far.
There's life in the old dogs yet.

Will eagerly await the result of todays game to find out who Leeds will lose to this year in the final (told you I was a pessamist).

He wasn't the only one. There were 2 "one-legged" wingers going for the corner together at that point. Charnley was really struggling in the 2nd half.

Well done Leeds. I've watched the game again this morning and despite errors early in the game, you beat us fair and square. Thought the usual suspects, Sinfield, Burrows, Maguire, Peacock, Hall, along with Hardaker, Watkins and BJB were excellent, especially Sinfield. It's amazing what pressure can do to top players but Leeds once again have shown they can master it.

I'm just off now to be sick.

Another Wigan fan coming on to just say well done for yesterday. Many of ours fans will blame the referee, with good reason, but Thaler didn't leave gaps and miss tackles as we did so many times. Being 16-0 down after 12 minutes was always too much for us to catch up on, and Sinfield was too good yesterday as well as Burrow tearing us to pieces.

It felt weird leaving the ground, wasn't as gutted as I thought I'd be and was because we didn't deserve to win, you controlled and didn't let us play. Spoke to some Leeds fans coming out and always have a bit of banter with you lot, and was surprised as they told me "not to worry, you'll be lifting the SL trophy at Old Trafford."

But anyway, good luck and hope you win at Wembley if you're playing Wire, but if Huddersfield get there I'm a Giant for the day!

If we lost we would be bad losers as well....

I`m a wigan fan who was disappointed with our performance but did not think we would walk it.I had a cheeky tenner on leeds to win by 11-15 points at 10-1 thanks to that late penalty i had a nice touch.

I think Leeds were by far the better side and I thought that last night's performance was one of Leeds best.
I am not quite sure how Wigan were worth 28 points.

Some Wigan fans, not all, are making the mistake of blaming any defeat on a bad performance from their team rather than being beaten by a better team. Maybe this stems from an attitude within the club which was epitomised by Gorilla Wane yesterday. His interview on Sky was in stark contrast to Brian Macs who praised Wigan and their qualities. Wane could only tell us that Wigan had saved their worst performance of the season for the biggest stage, not a mention of how good Leeds were. Since Wigans revival over the last three seasons we have met them every year in the Challenge Cup, that we have won two of those three encounters has obviously not registered in the Gorillas head. He seems to live in a parallel universe with a large number of Wigan fans where nobody can possibly be as good as their team. When he checks the record books and finds that Wigan didn't make Wembly in 2010 or 2012 because they were beaten by Leeds his brain will not be able to compute the fact and he'll go into meltdown again.