Do you know with a couple of the anecdotes that you told me I should have guessed that it was you!!
Good to finally meet you at last. Pity that the bar wasn't open as we could have had a couple of pints to pontificate about the game.

I really should make more of an effort to attend these games. A good standard and quite a decent crowd too yesterday I thought.

I really like Nicholson. Looked for work and to offload whenever possible. As you said he's the next lad to come off the production line to go into the first team. He will put plenty of pressure on Smithies, Shorrocks, McDonnell and KPP when he does finally make his debut. As you said we have some real potential talent in the backrow.

Yes he played centre. He's a big lad who I'm sure will get even bigger.
For me a pretty quiet game but he took his try well.
He's got the habit of "dummying" a step when he first gets the ball which slows him down a bit but I'm that is something that Goulding will sort out.
I'd like to think that he has bags of potential.

A very simple but great idea.
The club and the fans should be the same community. We shouldn't be separate we should be as one.
Once SW takes over this should hopefully leave KR time to improve this area along with the new Marketing Director.

The club has really got to open up and expunge this almost siege like mentality they have at times

I had to leave early as it was my granddaughters birthday and with the stoppage in play for the Hill acl injury and subsequent delay.
We went in the Red Robin pre game, something we always do for the academy games, feel free to join us next year.

Thanks for the invite
I will definitely take you up on that.
I’m semi retired now so I’d like to think I will have more time now to watch more rugby.

Heh! As a relative newcomer here, I'd always assumed that you guys all knew each and had been friends for donkey's years!

I watched that lad Nicholson against HKR; he can certainly play a bit!

I saw something yesterday in Nicholson that I hadn't seen/noticed before. He played more of a ball playing role and I can only assume that he's been working with O'Loughlin on that part of his game.

I got the acl injury wrong, it was Harvey Makin not Harvey Hill who went off, and it looked/sounded serious.

Some tough decisions to be made down the line regards all these young backrowers. The bits I’ve seen of Nicholson suggests he’ll certainly push the ones in the first team pretty hard when his chance comes. You’ve got Faz and certainly Bateman who you would expect to be around for another 4-5 years, so spaces are at a premium.

I was saying yesterday that we didn’t need Bateman when we signed him we needed props and centres.

Anyway, young Nicholson looks the business. Don’t want to over the top on just one view but he’s big and as Rouges said looks to have an handling game coming along quite nicely.
A backrow of Isa, Bateman and Farrell for me is far too lightweight and I hope that someone like KPP or Nicholson (late 2022 or more realistically 2023 for Nicholson) will be an automatic choice for the 13 with Isa being backup or playing centre.

I suspect Smithies and Shorrocks will come under pressure for a bench spot injuries permitting, pretty quickly. I thinks Shorrocks contract is in its final year so will be interesting to see if he’s retained. I really hope we can keep Shorrocks because I’d love him to stick some of the comments from Saints fans down their throats that they came up with after the recent game.

A nice problem to have.

I suppose the issue with getting Bateman was that whilst we might not need second rowers as such, we did need proven and experienced quality and if you can sign a world class performer, then you’re probably going to go for it.

I like all the young lads. I still probably have Smithies at the top of the tree tbh. I know he’s not a flashy line breaker or a lad who will play like Lockers and act as an extra stand off but he’s going very well IMO for a kid of just twenty. I thought he was one lad who could hold his head really high after Thursday. I think he made 45 tackles or so from what I saw and 9+ metres a carry. I just see really good traits in him that come natural to him. The things you can’t coach and he can work on the things that don’t come as natural.

Smithies has got excellent work rate and fitness but that probably and hopefully won’t be enough.
The competition coming down the track will hopefully see him develop other areas of his game to make him a more rounded player. He’s certainly got a great platform to work from.

As you say when we resigned Bateman we did need his experience but without wanting to continue what I probably shouldn’t have opened, it goes back to some poor management of the cap.
Bateman has got step up very significantly next year. He’s on executive wages and he has to got to start to earn that not try and earn but actually deliver. For me it’s go to be in Peet’s top priorities for 2022 where and how Bateman is played

It’s hard for Bateman to live up to expectations. They’re rightfully huge but if you look at some recent performances, they’re not dissimilar to how he player per exit, it’s just the expectations have gone through the roof. I think I saw on Thursday he was in excess of 40 tackles and 140 metres, so that’s not too shabby by anyone’s standard. To the naked eye I thought he was quiet again. It’s the daft errors and moaning to the ref he needs to cut out for me.

I think Smithies will get better across the board. I think his running of the ball is much improved this season and he’s tough to bring down. He’s not going to be making clean breaks for fun but he drags defenders in and can make decent ground after contact. He like all the young lads is crying out for a better team to play in. I bore myself comparing him to Knowles but to do it again, I think he’s a good bit in advance of where Knowles was after 50 first team games. It’s Knowles level now that he needs to get up to. I think he can and will get there if we can sort the side out in other areas.

What I’m about to type will make some people laugh and think that I’ve been on the ale all afternoon but here it goes.

God willing 2022 is a World Cup year. If Smithies has anything about him he should be setting his sights on getting in the starting 13 or at worst in the squad.

Knowles is unquestionably the best backrow forward in the competition by a country mile and is a top class player. Other Than him there isn’t much else in the competition who really stands out ( l love Farrell but his size is always going to be a factor) other than Bateman.

Smithies should be mithering Peet before pre season asking for extra support in improving his fitness levels and his all round game. If he’s not thinking something similar then we’ve signed the wrong rookie. If Peet hasn’t already started organising this along with similar plans for the entire squad then we’ve signed the wrong coach.
If KR and the rest of management team aren’t thinking along these lines then we’ve got the wrong management in place.

Our academy set up is beyond any doubt the best in the uk and therefore, players who come through that into the first team squad are the best of the best. They all can’t succeed but with the right framework in place we should deliver international standard players with regulatory.

My biggest frustration with the club at the moment isn’t how we’ve managed the cap or how we mishandled Lam it’s the lack of energy that seems to have permeated throughout the club that results in low expectations across all activities of the club.
Aim for perfection accept excellence

Can Smithies up his game to match or surpass Knowles? As of right now that seems like a total and utter preposterous suggestion let alone a serious question hopefully, Smithies thinks otherwise.

He’s a good player Knowles but I don’t think his level is unachievable for Smithies or somebody like Shorrocks (I’m talking 2 or 3 years down the track here) I wouldn’t have him as the best back rower in superleague tbh. He’s the best out and out 13 (although he’s probably the only one of them in the league nowadays) but if we’re putting second rowers in there as well, then I think he’s in a group of very good ones along with guys like Faz, Bateman, Linnett and Currie. He does bring a lot of qualities that you can’t measure in stats to be fair to him. I’d have him a bit like Micky Mac was for us in that regard but to have him as a clear best he’d need to be cutting teams open with his running and passing game and he doesn’t do that. The one thing I do like about him is he seems to thrive in big games and again that’s something you can’t measure. Maybe I’m doing him a disservice but I don’t see his level as anything like a unattainable for many young backrowers across the league, as long as they’re prepared to work as hard as he does.

I don’t think we could play Bateman and Farrell in the same team versus either the Aussies or the Kiwis.
Currie doesn’t seem to be the same player since his injury and I’m not sure if Linnett would be eligible?

I think that we are in general agreement that with hard work and general improvement in skills for the right guy a place is there to be taken.

I just meant in general, not for England. Those guys along with Knowles are the best 5 backrowers in the comp IMO. The position and way Knowles plays is very different to be fair. I saw some stats from his recent games earlier though and Knowles had one where he carried the ball 6 times for 18 metres and a couple around 40/50 metres. People are crucifying a guy like Bateman here yet he’s been well in excess of 100 metres most weeks. A kid like Smithies hasn’t had numbers like that for a while either. It’s not to bag Knowles, I can see that he brings an awful lot of attributes that don’t carry statistics. That’s why I said he’s like Saints version of Micky Mac. He was the ultimate player for not judging on stats but Saints fans would try and compare his lack of dummy half runs/metres. He set our defensive tempo, lead the line and was our enforcer. You couldn’t measure most of the things he brought to the side and I see Knowles a bit like that.

Our young lads will be top class in time I’m sure, just like Knowles is. We need to rebuild the side and everyone’s confidence and give them the required support.

When the Women's Super League started three or four seasons ago, Wigan along with Castleford and Leeds were the best three teams.

However, the other clubs together with St Helens and York have recruited better and bigger players while the Wigan squad has remained more or less the same smaller squad which has resulted in the Wigan team slumping from being one of the top three clubs to now only fifth in a league of only eight clubs

Like the men's squad, they badly need to recruit more better and bigger players!

To say that the standard is shocking is not fair when it is a new concept and like the wheelchair rugby, should be encouraged and made better like it is in Women's Cricket, Football and Rugby Union.

I think that's spot on. Knowles biggest positive attributes are his fitness and first class attitude / concentration levels which bring with them a very high level of consistency.

I must say i don't really think too much of Smithies. When he first came in I was lambasted on here for saying I'm not sure I see what he does other than tackle (and of course tackling is important). But he seemed indisciplined with it.

hopefully he kicks on because better judges than me rate him highly - he's still very young and has some more bulk to come which should help him with the ball. And playing in a team with some props would certainly help . . . . .

First team is rubbish
Academy is rubbish
Womens team is rubbish

I might go and support Warrington

He's also playing in a good side where 6 carries a game isn't highlighted as much as it is when your pack is getting smashed week after week.

Bateman, Farrell, Powell, Hastings, Gildart etc etc are all results of the same thing. Eacj and every player under Lam has seen their performance levels go backwards.

Very high level of consistency?

Matty Nicholson looks a real prospect. A big athletic back rower who has hands and a great support game (the amount of tries he finishes off with support play is impressive).

I think he has kicked on this season but it’s gone under the radar a little due to how poor we’ve been. His discipline is better, he’s making more ground and he’s still defensively exceptional. He’s missed a good few games so that hasn’t helped but he’s going in the right direction for me. He’ll be better for the struggles of this season down the line.

I've only just watched the highlights of the Bradford game, and yes, it does renew your faith a bit, doesn't it? I thought Wigan scored some belting tries, high-speed short passing keeping the ball alive, every thing, in fact, that sadly we haven't seen in attack from the first team. It certainly looked thoroughly enjoyable and made me resolve to get to a few games next year.

I’m gonna pass on the first team and follow the U19 and lower
Infinitely better rugby