Wigan going for the two was a shocking decision. Was that call made on the pitch or did Wane go for it?

Matty Smith was truly shocking last night, the only thing I recall him doing was knocking on the kick off from their try! Williams was their best player and whenever he had the ball I worried slightly more - but leeds did a good job on him once they'd seen he was just about the only threat apart from Bowen.

Ablett looked tired and seemed to be grasping this air a few times too.

Worst part of the night? The fan in front of me. Screaming all the time, never one positive thing either. "Stop waiting for them Leeds!" "TACKLE HIM!!!!!!" Even her young daughter seemed embarrassed by her after 15 mins.

Said at the time "thank god they're going for the 2" ..it was an absurd decision unless the Wigan forwards were as pooped as the Leeds forwards...which didn't look to be the case. Poetic justice indeed with regards to Mickey Mac...(but he is not the only one who would take advantage of a rule that needs to be changed. I will always remember Diskin running deliberately into a Bulls player and having to explain why we received a penalty to my young step-son.)

Thought Williams was their highest threat and Smith the most hopeless

Wane was surprisingly gracious in his post match speech. Anderson would no doubt have blamed the refereeing....as for Thaler; sometimes i think refs cant win. He was inclined to let things go and let the game flow which i would always generally support. Hall been lifted above the horizontal should have been a sin bin but all in all i was pleased with his performance.

for sure that Manfredi is going to be a continued formidable foe for Hall in the coming seasons. Snatching the ball from hall for his try was quite remarkable.

Manfredi is a class winger.

Wigan will be licking their wounds but they have some real class coming through. Will be back again soon no doubt.

Am I right in thinking that there wasn't one penalty for offside (10m encroachment type), nor one for not square at marker?

I so, that must be some kind of record

It wasn't a knock on. it was unbelievably tight, but the right decision.
The difference between Leeds and other teams is that when little things like that have gone our way we take advantage. When things go against us we work harder. That is the mentality that these lads have had since 2004.

Manfredi might be moved over to the left wing to take the departing Burgess' spot with Charnley coming back in on his usual right wing spot.

For Wigan I think Williams was a threat but on that penultimate play when we tackled them out wide the ball got passed across and he just moved it on straight away, thought he should've run with it to drag defenders in.

Bowen, great effort especially considering his wife gave birth at midnight before the game and her and his new born daughter were in the stadium only around 18 hours later.

Farrell, whilst we saw his grubby side with sliding in on McGuire after his try I thought he was a big threat and had a strong game.

Farrell went in on McGuire after BOTH of his tries.

As for the knock on. Doesn't the ball need to go forward to be a knock on?

Not if your a Wigan fan, they really are trying to make out this to be a great injustice.

bet their not going on about the Bowen dropped ball though that led to a try a few plays later are they?

Always makes me smile when supporters focus in on and blame a specific try (or disallowed try) as the reason their team lost when the incident was so early in the game. If the outcome had been different it doesn't necessarily mean the result would be. Nobody can say how otherwise the match may or may not have eventually unfolded.

IF the incident affected the outcome LATE in the game then that of course might be different. (When did McGuire's try at the Wigan ground get chalked off? If that match had been won how might the outcome of the LLS have been different? Nobody can unequivocably say, but.......maybe it wouldn't have gone down to the last seconds at H'field?!? Glad it did though for the memories of course

)

It was about 10 plays later plus a drop-out but ok.

Rat boy Senior also ran in and shoved McGuire after Manfredi's try for no reason what so ever, and O' Loughlin gave him an elbow in the face while he was on the floor after being tackled. He then followed it up with a facial as he levered himself off Danny's face. There are some real sewer rats play down at the DW. Magsy had the last laugh though, I'm chuffed to bits for him to have such a say in defeating Wanes chimps.

Keith didn't play.

You can argue the if' and buts, but as you say, very close... You could easily argue that the taking of the two points was key, and probably was.

The difference for me was that Leeds get the breaks for two tries that followed a bit of breakdown ping pong.. They could have gone either way, but Leeds fought and made their own luck...

Shame Wigan's captain couldn't have borrowed some of his coach's good grace for his post-match interview, where he failed to even mention Leeds once.

Thought the McGuire one went laterally. Without the VR there it would have been given, so no issues with it being given with the VR there. Was no obvious reason to disallow it.

The Bowen one was a knock-on, lost it forward into Peacock but not spotted and Wigan capitalised on the field position they should have lost.

Farrell needed to be in the bin for his actions after McGuire's second try. Absolutely no need to drop to his knees well after the ball had been grounded. Seemed to be consistent with Thaler's refusal to penalise foul play though, number of high shots during the game allowed to let go.

The other talking point is the fact that the clinching try and the final pass for it came from two players who, had it not been for injuries to Ward, JJB and Achurch would arguably have not been on the field at all. Funny how life works out.

On first viewing I thought the same about farrell, but having watched the replays he doesn't land on mcguire with either knees or elbows. I'm not sure what he was trying to do but it didn't look malicious to me, or if it was it was poorly executed

Not had chance to re watch the game yet, but initial thoughts from being at the game, though bowen an Williams looked dangerous with the ball. Thought Farrell looked to have a good game but his slide in on mags was typical house Wigan. Burrow appeared to also receive a nasty high tackle late on.
From where I was I have no idea on the mags knock on.
Thought all our players put a shift in. Thought burrow looked good at hooker sigleton seemed to put a defensive shift in. Keinhorst added some energy. Watkins for me had the best game for us attacking and defence

I have a pretty good idea he was trying to make sure McGuire went down the slope and into the hoardings.

If Old Trafford is going to continue to host big RL events it needs to sort out that very, very dangerous drop-off behind the in-goal areas. Must be a way they can fill it in slightly on a temporary basis so there isn't as big a gap.

It would have been to get a rise out of McGuire, which he Nearly got, but Hardaker did a superb job of getting in the way and reminding him he's just scored an absolute cracker of a try. If he hadn't I think there would've been a bit of handbags which would have played into wigans hands.

Farrell also kicked the ball at McGuire after his first try. He's a good player is Farrell, a very good player in fact, there's no need for the kind of play

I'm going to buck the trend and say I thought Thaler had a cracking game. Some refs get too involved in matches and he let the game be played by the important people on the pitch, the players.
Every time I've seen George Williams this year he's impressed me. It looks like they've got a real cracker on their hands there.

I agree, as along as both teams get the same grace re skinny 10m and PTB, which he did I don't mind, I hate the stop start games with the red constantly blowing up

I think he did well, usual GF performance from a referee who knows to let the game flow and not make himself the certain of attention, even Silverwood has accomplished this in the past. Whilst I wish they could perform with that type of performance weekly I appreciate that teams do clean up their acts in a final. Thought Wigan weren't too bad for their niggly stuff, sure some moments but not as bad as you often see from them.

I think the spectre of Flower last year did play a part in Wigan toning down some of their niggally nasty stuff,and that was to their detriment.

I felt sure that Farrell was far enough away from McGuire that he could have pulled out of landing on him. I regarded it as typical of the player. Having said that he was I thought far & away Wigan's best forward. Williams was a constant threat among the backs.

O 'loughlin was interviewed pretty much straight after the game. Wane had time to reflect and compose himself.