The Wigan side are working overtime to pump the press full of lies about their perceived injury crisis.

Wane is telling the press Sam Tomkins has a 'very high level of infection' and being nursed through tonsilitis. Sam Tomkins on twitter was boasting about smashing Nandos on Tuesday, so that's a clear lie.

Wane was telling up about an ankle injury to Liam Farrell. In today's local rags they are now saying he's had scans on a thigh injury. He told us Flower was out for 6-8 weeks, only for the player himself to admit on twitter he might miss the Saints game but will be back after Easter. He said Lulu had a knock, he admitted he's completely fine. Today's papers are now saying Richards, O'Loughlin and McIllorum are all doubts.

It's nonsense. Wigan will pretty much be at full strength on Friday and I'm sure Saints know this. It's just interesting to see what they are up to with this huge smear campaign. Are they really trying to psyche Saints out of the game? Or are they just scared because of the way we've played in the previous two games?

Well said sir. Take it to 'em!

They really are a bunch of MENSA candidates over there aren't they. You'll be happy to know that Tomkins has now deleted his Nandos comments and Wane still can't tell his ankle from his thigh.
What possible edge does this give them? Saints players will speak to people who know people who are near Wigan RLFC. They know that team will be pretty much as full strength as they can get it. Im just glad we haven't come out with of this utter nonsense.

Good shout - demonstrates their level of intelligence if they think anyone is taken in by any of this claptrap. They'll play on Friday and I am sure Rushy and Keiron are preparing for that and concentrating on what we do not what team they turn out. They'll have 17 on the grass that represent the enemy -doesn't matter which ones they are.

Still, refreshing to learn that the Ape's elocution lessons and going well and he's widening his vocab a bit. All I've heard all season is:

1. 'Ahm gutted',
2. 'Ahm devastated',
3. 'Ah won't sleep ternart'
4. 'We're better than that',
5. 'We need to be better than that' (slight variation on theme 4, above),
6. 'Am prewd of th'effort of mah players but we need to be better than that (slight variation on theme 4, above),
7. 'Ah'll watch that video 6 tarms',
8. 'That's not acceptable to me',
9. 'That's not acceptable to this Club',
10. 'That's just not acceptable'.
11. 'I won't accept it and the players won't accept it',
12. 'We're better than that and we will be better than that'.

[iad nauseum[/i

I don't think this got the credit it deserved, so I thought I'd quote it again as it had me laughing at my desk:

Sam didn't look like he was suffering from a sore throat on Sunday when he was destroying a carvery in the Brocket!! I'd be amazed if he didn't play.

lol

me to, had images like this of shaun wane making mne giggle!

Ahh coochie, we can play gorilla bingo with his inane comments, will make a change from Stevo bingo

none of you was complaining about millwards constant mind games? no doubt there is a few knocks in the team they wouldn't be rugby league players if not.

i know its terrible to have a coach who wants he's players to strive for better performances ian should sack him now so you don't have to chose to listen to hes delightful interviews

. on the plus side for saints fans i guess its nice to know wigan haven't been playing aswell since madge left hard man to replace it seems.

In Millward's day there were no squad announcements, so there was the ability to keep the lineup secret until the warm up an hour before kick off. Now that isn't possible so there is no advantage to it other than getting your excuses in early. If Wigan win he'll bang on about their glorious bravery and if they lose he'll bang on about their injuries. Truth is Wigan are in fantastic condition with only one or two minor players (Lets face it Fielden and Flower are garbage) missing and one reasonable first team player in Mossop missing.

Saints have Laffranchi, Wellens and Wheeler so are at more of a disadvantage than Wigan are, yet they've spent the entire week moaning about their crisis.

the whole concept of donkey kong trying to plan mind games is silly, he doesn't have the capacity to do it convincingly

really fielden is rubbish :S maybe wasn't as good as he once was but to say he is rubbish is rubbish in it self. flower well he is a sqaud filler nothing exceptional agreed. but to say mossop is a so so player

he is the best of the current young english props and will become the best. more to the point is we are missing 4 props 3 injuries and 1 banned

yes laffranchi is a good player for you gives 100percent even with royce in charge but hardly like for like with mossop missing, wellens yeah big blow but why do something stupid its hardly bad luck, wheeler could become a main player for you but so far he hasn't so no real loss.
so you have 2 players banned 1 injured and none of them in the same position not as bad situation for saints.

True, it's not like Laffranchi carries the ball more, tackles more, makes more tackle busts, makes more offloads . . . . . is it?

Mossop has a very high yards per carry at just under 8. Given that he's made no cleans breaks to distort that figure, its shows he's giving them excellent go forward. I'm glad he's missing as I think he's turned into a major player for them.

its a pity Richards is back. Charnley's boot looks a little wayward and could've been the difference if things are close.

I know, he's a cracking player and I agree he'll go on to be Britain's best prop. But to say us missing Laffranchi isn't comparable is just tosh. La Frank has been huge for us the last couple of weeks.

sorry that didnt come across as i wanted, i think laffranchi is a good player alot better than i thought he was going to be and i put that on another thread somewhere. what i mean is i dont think laffranchi will be your man go forward man where as this season mossop has been wigans.

Yes, and to be fair, I posted his stats compared to Morley's in the run up to the Leeds game and they were virtually identical. Since then the extra movement and pace we've brought in has seen all our props go up a gearand are all impressing.

If Wane could have picked two players to remove from Saints, those two would have been 2 and 3 behind Roby. Wellens being out means we're devoid of a captain and a leader. Someone like Josh Perry really needs to stand up now and be really vocal.

Losing Laffranchi is a disaster and just shows how weak the squad is, there is no replacement for him.

If both had played we would have won IMO, the momentum was all behind us to kill them off early. Now the cat is well amongst the pidgeons and I can see us being turned over.

You can't really compare stats like for like with Mossop and Laffranchi though. When Mossop was fully fit he was averaging 108 metres and 26 tackles per game.
Because of his injury he's ended up playing 3 games after that where he's gone off injured after 20 minutes and that's dragged the numbers way down.

In the games that haven't been cut short by his ankle injury Mossop has been immense for Wigan, and without him the pack struggled until Prescott got back up to speed.

We all rate Mossop, but in a similar vain, Saints weren't firing at all until 2 games ago, so I'd expect Boof's stats to start to improve.

Mossops a blow to Wigan, Laff' is a blow to Saints. I think what we're worried about is that we've only just started firing, so ANY change is going to concern us.

Wigan forum saying Lockers out of the Wigan 19 now?

Super League summary

St Helens won 26 (includes win in 2000 Grand Final & wins in 2000, 2002, 2009 and 2011 play-offs)
Wigan won 27 (includes win in 2010 Grand Final & wins in 2001, 2003 and 2004 play-offs)
4 draws
St Helens highest score: 57-16 (MM, 200icon_cool.gif (also widest margin)
Wigan highest score: 65-12 (A, 1997) (also widest margin)

Hope we can even the fixture up tomorrow with 27 wins each?

Safe to say it is hard to believe much of the team news coming from Wigan at the moment with any confidence as there has been more smoke and mirrors than from fire in mirrorworld!

Undoubtedly he'd be a big loss to their defence and the width to their attack but even if he has dropped out today like Farrell i'd not be surprised to see at least one of them make a lazarus style recovery tomorrow.

Lockers out of the 19 and Logan Tomkins replaces him.

Expect a wigan team of something like

1. Sam Tomkins
2. Josh Charnley
3. Darrell Goulding
4. George Carmont
5. Pat Richards
6. Brett Finch
7. Tommy Leuluai
8. Paul Prescott
9. Michael McIllorum
10. Jeff Lima
11. Harrison Hansen
12. Gareth Hock
13. Chris Tuson

14. Gil Dudson
15. Tom Spencer
16. Jack Hughes
17. Joe Mellor