Like this analysis a lot. In addition, we have got a very long way on teamwork, commitment and fitness, but we do not have a real game breaking player in the 17 that played (lots of potential, though). I didn't see any spark of imagination or even a plan B. Like someone said, we could have played on for a few hours and still not got over the Cas try line.

I found the substitutions very strange.
Hampshire was brought on too late in the game. With 65 mins gone we had only used four interchanges. Then we introduced Hampshire and Hughes. The only reason I can think is that Wane wanted to keep some fresh legs for late in the game as the weather and pitch would make it very tiring.

What killed us was the needless penalty that Hughes gave away when Cas were struggling to get out of their own quarter. He'd just been told by the referee on the previous tackle to get away, then went and did it again. I do think had that not happened Cas would have cracked again and we would have gone on to win the game.

However to be fair the second Cas try deserved to win the game, it was a superb piece of centre play and a great catch from behind his back by the winger.

It was noticeable how the players seemed to have accepted defeat by the time Hampshire came on. He looked quick but by that time he was running with no support so was never going to make something happen.
On a second point by the end only Gelling, of the starting team, seemed to have any running left in him. As a result he was playing acting half back for much of the last quarter with no structured attack running off him.

The Castleford player blatantly trapped his arm - Hughes tried to free it several times, but to no avail.

They scored two tries on the back of dodgy penalties - I thought Silverwood and his assistants (at least I assumed he had assistants, they didn't f'ing see anything - again) had an absolute shocker.

We were awful, full credit to Castleford for playing to the ref's whistle, but he let them get away with murder. Don't think they were onside once yesterday.

I thought Williams had a bad game until he moved to Hooker.

I thought Hampshire tried to be a hero and go on his own far too much when he came on.

Aye, our two late subs both gave up holding down penalties which led to tries. I know Hughes and Hampshire are young lads but at the same time I bet they've both been playing the game at least 10 years at some level. You would think they would both have the sense not to risk penalties late on in an energy sapping game when you're on the wrong end of the scoreline. Like you say, if Hughes doesn't give a penalty I think we would have won. If Hampshire didn't give away his penalty we would have been in with half a chance as well. All we had to do was see out the set of six (they weren't particularly getting on top of us at that point) and get the ball back. Those two penalties gave up time, field position and more possession - everything we needed.

I think it's a poor excuse if that is the reason. Surely they don't attack the 20 that way in training, they certainly don't in the warm up!

It was a lack of organisation and too many forwards stood with hands on their hips watching their team mate taking it up on his own and getting tackled by 4 blokes that scuppered us. Nothing to do with obstruction

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but O'Loughlin was absolutely shattered today - why was he kept on the field?

Clearly miles away from match fitness.

Sorry to be a party pooper but I'm on Wane's side all the way.
What ab out the BLATANT lying on? Ball strip over the line..PENALTY TRY end of. First time we lie on..Penalty.
Hudds got away with it , and it was noted and used and Cas won. We played crap but still should have won, all hail the new "flexible" rules.

Ball steal over the line hasn't been a penalty try for six years



We were outcoached and outplayed and should be able to admit that without trying to blame the ref.

Some great posts on here , The rough decisions mainly went against Cas and recently at Manchester you were delighted to be laying on in the tackle .

we lost because we lost the forward battle full stop.why? too many of our pack were clearly not match fit.it very clearly needed an injection of pace from 25 minutes or so.i was preying our coach would switch gw to 9 and bring rocky on but it was not to be.if taylor was dropped because he does not want to play for us he should be sent to workington for 2 years,if he says no stop his pay and let him rot.a fully fit forward of his class would have made a huge difference.dont panic yet onwards and upwards to the grand final.

Could SOL be carrying a bad injury?

Seems to me that SOL has a injury that is causing him problems that maybe the club doesn't want to release. He misses a hell of a lot of games in the the league but then brought back for the big games.

He's still looking good and Vital to Wigan but always looked knackered to me in recent times. Maybe due to not playing but like I said, it's like wane is using him sparingly.

Thoughts ?

Your arrogance made our victory all the sweater pal

Thanks to all the genuine Wigan fans that were concerned about the tie and to those that have congratulated us after



I still fancy you for the GF

Wigan played Salford on the 22nd of May when this present controversy about obstruction reared its head, all through the match (especially the first half ) the video ref was used for persistent obstruction in their eyes.

We beat Salford even though it took a bit of time to find a way of beating them, but remember it was Salford.

On the 23rd of may I raised the thread 'Video Refs', which was discussed at length.

Since then we have played Huddersfield away and Castleford at home and in both matches we have looked off the pace and lacking in ideas, especially after the Cas match.

This is just my opinion if only for the reason that I think Wigan's main attacking weapon has been put under a lot of pressure, and at present Wigan do not seem to have an answer for it.

JUST MY OPINION.

You're seriously complaining about the officials after some of the shockers that went in your favour over the course of the game, particularly the first half. Wow.

Re Powell at 6.

He was in the SS bar before the match and said he had tweeked the injury he got when in Oz for the WCC.

I can only think of the Bowen knock on...

i suggest you think or watch again then

I am impressed on reading this thread that none of you realise how arrogant the Wigan club seem to the rest of the rl world.

i am not impressed that on your 4 post you come on our board and slag our fans off.dont know about any other posts but i have posted not really impressed with mr wanes use of subs, picked too many unfit forwards and cas turned us over and i hope they win it.now this is for grimmy re my post of 23 july 13,i said we would win the double,he said,well he can tell you better than me.ok this year we will win the grand final again,do i have to say it again grimmy,we will win the grand final again,ok been drinking pints of jennings cumberland ale tonight,cheers every one and good night from an exiled wiganer living in keswick.

Did you type all that without taking a breath. You should stick to Bank's mild like me. Cheers.

Hey Congratulations Cas I thought you played an outstanding game of Rugby league and your defence was top drawer. I will hold my head in shame I definitely did not see this coming and maybe if we give you a good hiding this Friday it might restore some confidence in my own prediction skills which are pretty poor after that display.

It's wasn't arrogance though I genuinely believe that we are a much better side than yourselves at full strength. If we manage to meet again this season with 2 full strength sides out hopefully you will see this unfold.

I think the word your looking for is "SWEETER" not sweater. I know a few were commenting earlier last week on here whether people from Cas went to school.

SWEATER " A knitted garment worn on the upper body, typically with long sleeves, put on over the head"

Firstly well done to Cas and more importantly Darly Powell; what an outstanding coach, never thought he deserved to be booted from Leeds and now he's showing his worth with another SL team, Cas fans should be very proud and rightfully so, they're game plan worked a treat... So what was it?

From what I could see not rocket science, but executed very well.
In def they arched the edges allowing their wing, centre SR to move upward when we looked to move the ball out wide, we don't play flat across the line but with dummy runners, with their edges pushing up Wigan were forced to play down the middle with no plan B (this issue has been raised before) when a team pushes up their edge defence the halves become afraid to move the ball out wide incase of an interception or hospital pass. Considering this I'm surprised Rocky wasn't brought on sooner, with his pace in the halves a 'show and go' might have caused their defence to be more hesitant when arching the edges.
This is one of the negatives when running such structured plays, yes we can interchange and slot in different players and they all will become cogs in the machine, but the opposition also know what's coming, Cas had the movement and skill to read and null our attack.

In attack cas moved the ball very well across our middle unit; once you move the ball across the middle unit the def on the edges has the slide, this is when the defence out wide is susceptible to being stretched, overlaps and falling victims of show and goes... Our middle unit at times looked too tight.

Ball strip over the line hasn't been a penalty try for many years. Consult a rule book if you can read one through those bitter tears.