https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2025/02/ ... eigh-slr1/

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2025/02/ ... eigh-slr1/

Great to have a 20,000 crowd - hopefully we can get in and around that for all Leigh games moving forward. Squad picks itself outside of deciding whether to go with 5 out and out props or to go with Walters on the bench.

Should be a good game and will be interesting to see how Leigh line up with a few new additions. I’m confident we can win but you never know

[quote="WWste":3bwe7n46]Should be a good game and will be interesting to see how Leigh line up with a few new additions. I’m confident we can win but you never know[/quote:3bwe7n46] Lots of new faces at Leigh but it looks like they've had a very good preseason with a comprehensive win in the cup to wrap it up, should be a cracking opening night.

[quote="apollosghost":3nz5fb5b]https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2025/02/11/wigan-squad-for-leigh-slr1/[/quote:3nz5fb5b] Not a single player in that squad would get into the Saints team............ In all seriousness, should be a good night

[quote="[Gareth]":3kbmtkks]Not a single player in that squad would get into the Saints team............ In all seriousness, should be a good night[/quote:3kbmtkks] You are wrong,Farrell will get on the subs bench

Not many decisions for Peet to make other than 5 props or 4 plus Walter, as noted above. Leigh will be a bit of an unknown quantity, both because of new players and also because Lam likes to throw a few '50/50' tags on players. I think they'll be a handful in attack this year Leigh, so we'll have to defend well. Looking forward to the whole event, which is exactly what the club have made it, with the music, lights, Michael Buffer etc. No light up posts though and we riot!

Byrne over Walters for me, think LB will have a big farewell season. Only single seats left, massive crowd. Huge well done to the club for the marketing. The brick has its faults but it’s great when full. Before every Leigh game I always think - “they’ll beat us at sometime” Looking forward to watching Armstrong.

[quote="NSW":lla3n238]Byrne over Walters for me, think LB will have a big farewell season. Only single seats left, massive crowd. Huge well done to the club for the marketing. The brick has its faults but it’s great when full. Before every Leigh game I always think - “they’ll beat us at sometime” Looking forward to watching Armstrong.[/quote:lla3n238] Wondering what the deal is with the ticket availability because there are only singles left in the Wigan areas that have been on sale but I don't think they ever put the last 3 of blocks at the North end of the East Stand on sale. Maybe a designated stage for the Lathums is my best guess. I know Jukesays told us about the issues with the seats prior to the WCC but this seems a bigger area. Either way a crowd in excess of 20k will be on, which is an incredible effort on a Thursday night.

[quote="NickyKiss":3kz9gw2y]Wondering what the deal is with the ticket availability because there are only singles left in the Wigan areas that have been on sale but I don't think they ever put the last 3 of blocks at the North end of the East Stand on sale. Maybe a designated stage for the Lathums is my best guess. I know Jukesays told us about the issues with the seats prior to the WCC but this seems a bigger area. Either way a crowd in excess of 20k will be on, which is an incredible effort on a Thursday night.[/quote:3kz9gw2y] At the weekend hardly any of E2/3 had been sold, reckon they've taken those blocks off sale for a bit to cram everyone together, wouldn't be at all surprised to see them back on sale tomorrow

[quote="apollosghost":3glrkve4]At the weekend hardly any of E2/3 had been sold, reckon they've taken those blocks off sale for a bit to cram everyone together, wouldn't be at all surprised to see them back on sale tomorrow[/quote:3glrkve4] Aye, you'd imagine so if they can. It's great to be looking at possibly needing more availability. It should be a cracking night.

Think we averaged around 15k last year. Would be great to bump that up to 17k. Target fixtures - no reason, Warrington Saints and Hull KR can’t get to 20k as well. As I said last year for the WCC, they should have sellers outsider signing people up to season tickets. A lot of that crowd won’t be signed up yet.

[quote="apollosghost":21gtegs2]At the weekend hardly any of E2/3 had been sold, reckon they've taken those blocks off sale for a bit to cram everyone together, wouldn't be at all surprised to see them back on sale tomorrow[/quote:21gtegs2] I've heard that a large number of community tickets have been handed out (nothing wrong with this as long as they are used). Could this be in the E2/3 blocks? Maybe it's Leyth fans, if so would assume any unsold would go on sale for walk-ups? Wonder where the Lathums will set up to play? In the North Stand as usual (which will reduce capacity) or on a temporary raised stage the pitch. Either way we should be on for a cracker.

[quote="NSW":37dg2qaa]Think we averaged around 15k last year. Would be great to bump that up to 17k. Target fixtures - no reason, Warrington Saints and Hull KR can’t get to 20k as well. As I said last year for the WCC, they should have sellers outsider signing people up to season tickets. A lot of that crowd won’t be signed up yet.[/quote:37dg2qaa] Will an average against Wire count this year? 55k at the Allegiant.

[quote="MattyB":8buyo29u]Will an average against Wire count this year? 55k at the Allegiant. [/quote:8buyo29u] Forgot about that one haha, stick it on the average

[quote="apollosghost":t97lyfif]At the weekend hardly any of E2/3 had been sold, reckon they've taken those blocks off sale for a bit to cram everyone together, wouldn't be at all surprised to see them back on sale tomorrow[/quote:t97lyfif] That would be annoying for fans who buy the single seats, like what happened at the grand final. I'm not sure why we (RL) complicate it all the time, just put all the tickets on sale and let fans buy whatever they want. Why are we always bothered "how it looks"?

I just hope we don't emulate the wendyballers at the Etihad & crash and burn after all the glory. Got that nervous sick feeling i usually only get for grand final days. Must be getting old.

Home sell out, hope those that took up the freebies turn up, be gutting if people don't see this announcement and turn up to pay on the gate only to get turned away and then see a load of empty seats on the telly

Danson, Peet and Radlinski starting off from where they left off last season. They have got the town purring for it's rugby again. Gotta keep pushing the envelope now and try and stay on top. The crowds flooding back should be a huge pat on the back for everyone involved at the club.

Where is Mago..?

Well at least we still haven’t conceded a try in SL in god knows how long Defence was solid enough but with the ball we were poor and brainfarts from Farrell and Keighran (again) didn’t help. Smith had at least 2 decent attempts at a DG but didn’t bother. Instead he tried one from about 45 metres out Also the in-goals are too short, can’t we make them longer?

I know it was game 1 of the year but I'd have liked to have seen them throw the ball about a bit more than that once it became clear that plan A of taking one out drives and waiting for an error or penalty wasn't going to get it done. Waste of Field and French's talents. Daft ways for Farrell and Keighran to get binned, not what you want in a war of attrition.

Harvey Hill is not up to standard

You dust yourself down after that and just focus on attack for a few weeks. Bit disappointed with some lazy tackles in the game and the lack of options on the bench lacked a spark that we don’t get from Forber. How many minutes did Hill/Mago/Dupree do compared to Thompson. That unit is going to need to step up big time this year. Also thought our attack was miles too deep and Leigh just holding a line stopped any space for French to do anything. Having said all that, Field passes the ball instead of holding on and we win that game earlier.

Thought we played a pretty good attritional game tonight. A little dull to watch at times but you could see what Wigan were trying to do. Ultimately it came down to a few poor decisions at key moments - two sin bins, a silly captain's challenge, Dupree and Field not releasing the ball with a couple of the few chances we had and not going for the drop goal with a couple of minutes to go. But Leigh were good - well done to them. Might not be a bad thing for Wigan in the longer term. One other thing - the Wigan fanbase deserve a bit of criticism tonight for me. I know it was cold but it's the first time I can remember having a 21k+ crowd in that stadium and it be that quiet. You could have heard a pin drop.