The advantage of them playing in the NRL is that England will stand a better chance of winning the world cup, which will help to raise the awareness about the sport in the country which will, in turn, help to get more people interested in the game.

I was going to post something similar. Also when Tommy L signed for after a few average years at Quins. The showed glimpes of his quality now and then but he was average most of the time. Infact prior to Maguire coming over the whole Wigan squad was average most of the time except for the occasional big performance. Most of the players that have left are very replaceable, and although most of the replacements arn't the finished article yet, but in a couple of years I'm sure Wigan will have an even better side than they did in 2010.

what had the biggest effect in the improvement of players at Wigan..... was it the coaching that Madge introduced, if so why isn't IL sending some our assistant coaches over to the NRL for a year or 2. and come back with improved systems, after all the coaches are not part of the salary cap

That's a big statement, I wish I shared your enthisiasm....

I don't know about Tomkins being our only irreplaceable player, personally I'd have put O'Loughlin in there too - it makes such a difference having him fit and firing; for our organisation in attack and defence, and indeed his personal efforts in defence.

Also think Hock made a big difference to our attack - none of our back rowers have the same punch as he does.


I was quite happy with our defence against wire, I think that will be the interesting area this season - we've had no real weak links for some time (occasionally the Finch-Hock-Carmont channel if concentration was lost) but losing Leuluai had me worrying about the other side. Our attack will come in time with the younger players, they will learn what works at SL level.