Only the first game but I doubt Saints or Hull will be losing any sleep over either of those sides. Great effort from Warrington but they looked blunt every time they got near the Wigan line. French aside, Wigan were really poor and that has to be one of the worst debuts I’ve seen from George Burgess. I’d be concerned watching that from him if I were a Wigan.

Which number is going to be higher by the end of the season?

Times Gary Numan complains about the Red Card being rightly given

Days since Warrington last won the league. (Currently 23,637)'"

Blake Austin absolutely toilet. Also , wire got roughly 3 pens in that last 10 minutes and didn't once kick for touch to gain 30+ metres.


Overall wire were by far the better side.




How come pudding George didn't come back on ?

austin threw the game away with 2 awful kicks at the end!

warrington the better team, wigan lacked power in the middle and were bullied easily

As was stated before, the BMM shot on Hastings was a sloppy head on shot, the Hill shot on Powell was from behind against a defenceless player. Bit of a difference between those.

First game of the season so you cant expect teams tk be at their best. Both sides will be much better in a few weeks

Hill was on top of the player, powell started going down for the line. Reaction tackle, didnt line him up but he copped an injury.

I hope so, and the refereei g too, because that was a load of 541t for the first game. So much for tidying up the ptb.

He was being fed bowls of salad by the Wigan conditioner !

Think the reporter mentioned a hip injury for George at half time, he missed the Leeds preseason game with a knock, hopefully we've not signed a crock.

yeap the grubs are back

We all know this, I think even you know this, but let's spell it out so you can understand.

The ref takes into account initial point of contact, force of impact, intent, degree of recklessness, and yes the outcome. And also whether it might be a professional foul. Let's not forget, head contact is a massive no-no.

Chris Hill clobbered Powell round the chops from behind, clearly reckless, with considerable force and using both arms, knocking him out cold.

You can't use 'reaction tackle' as an excuse, simple as that. Reactionary or not - doesn't detract from the actions or outcome. Yes Hill was desperately trying to stop a try but again that does not excuse the reckless nature of the impact and knocking another player out, especially with today's rules around head impacts.

O'Loughlin stuck an arm out that impacted someone high, clumsy but no real intent and zero damage done. Penalty and crack on. No comparison.

Sure the other team got a red and a yellow card during the game, could be wrong.

BBC live text was laughable implying that Wire were never in the game and that Wigan looked good. From what I saw (which was probably half the game in snatches) Wigan will need to improve massively to be competing for silverware. Looks like Jackson is already missing his spiritual home at the AJ Bell as well...

To be fair both sides discipline was poor. Hill’s was a shocker but there was no intent there whereas Smithies knew exactly what he was doing and should have been off himself.

Leading with a forearm to the throat partington, gouging smithies, ankle tackling 4 man in the tackle four incidents and that the bitchy pushing on the young full back isa and two others to get the ball back you can see there will be some sparks flying this season

Well if thats the case it is an unfair system, having identical incidents but in one a player gets injured means a player gets sent off and the other doesnt. You can hit a player inches lower and in an instant on a player diving and cause more damage, not by design but chance and only by chance you get a red card

It's interesting Austin didn't mention his eyes though, unless I missed that.

All I heard was "he raked my face" or something like that.

He shouldn't be anywhere near the face, but surely if Austin had been gouged he'd be yelling blue murder about his eyes. He's definitely a big enough crybaby.

He called it a gouge but made reference to him pulling on his nose.

Back from the match, Wigan looked rusty but it's early days of course. Wire have plenty to be excited about, they looked fit and that offload game will be the undoing of more than a couple teams.

People can't seriously be defending that Chris Hill "tackle"

If he did then fair enough, I didn't hear it but I was watching on my laptop.

Hard to gauge tonight. Wire looked stronger down the middle with their bigger pack but it's no use looking stronger if you don't win, 12 men or not. Wigan made some good breaks and defended well but decision-making in attack wasn't great.

Both teams at full strength, very hard to say. Wire probably just nick it.

Not really, because if the incident was identical the outcome would be identical.

If hitting someone a few inches lower means the impact is different and the outcome is different, then yes the ref's decision might be different. I'm not sure what the problem is with that.

If you hit someone in the jaw deliberately and knock them out cold, it's intent - a clear red. If you do it accidentally or 'by chance' as you put it, it's reckless and also a red.

FWIW I agree with you to some extent. For example, the number of times we saw Rob Burrow duck into already-extended arms and win a high tackle always drove me mad. The defender simply doesn't have time to react yet they are penalised. However I do think it's different where the defender has 'attacked' the head.

Good game. Not read through the thread but initial feeling is a harsh red card. Player was falling and no intent to hurt imo. Should have been a sin bin.

Not at all, he's become a bit of a 'naughty boy' in his old age.....

Thats how I saw it. Dived in to stop a certain try, Wigan player already falling and he connects with his bicep that would have been round his shoulder.