Would it not be sensible for Tony Smith to start having a settled 17 from now till the end of the season? I would've thought that team that started last night will be the one Wigan face on Saturday.

Briers and Smith made it sound as if you've prepared for a two game turnaround, even though in all honesty, the turnaround isn't bad at all. It's a normal 5 days.

Should be a close one, Wigan certainly owe Wire one in the league!

Last night was a typical Wire performance, good kicking, strong forwards and pressure defence, but it didn't scare me for Saturday at all. We should have destroyed them at home earlier in the season but our own mistakes cost us big time. If we play to the best of our ability and so do Wire then we will win because we are better.

A 5 day turnaround is like a 2 day turnaround for players who are over 30.

Five days turnaround isn't normal to me, as much as eight days isn't.

I would expect Carvell to come back on Saturday.

PS

Not wanting to sound churlish, but, the game could have been a lot more physical than it was. Which is a bit of a saving grace.

I believe we are better if we have our 1st choice 17 available. Think, however, we might be a bit light in the prop department on Saturday - wouldn't be if we had a fully fit and fired up Prescott together with Lima, Mossop and Eric. All back row forwards need to assert themselves as well - Faz and Tuson as well as Hansen, Hock and SOL.

If we had a fully fit Tommy and Pat as well, I'd be even more confident - we may have lost the last few league games, but we won the one crucial game last year ( CC Quarter final).

Warrington may find it difficult to back up so soon after last night's hard game - wouldn't be the first time a team struggles to maintain performance playing 2 tough games in 5 days.

Wigan's weakness is also their strength, your rigid and well disciplined patterns.

I'm not sure who said it on boots and all that you know what Wigan are going to do but it's stopping it.
Individually man for man i think Wire have the better team but we play off the cuff which sometimes means high errors and we get punished for it.

This game is toss of the coin stuff
if we played 100 times in a season i reckon it would be 50-50, maybe the occasional draw.

With both sides at full strength, I'd agree, and I hope both sides make the GF this year. My main worry for Saturday is our goalkicking, I really think it will be that close for it to make the difference.

I think we should be targeting this game as the game to kick start our run to old trafford as I haven't been impressed with our performances at all since the exiles break, we seem to be making a few basic errors and don't seem as fluid as we have done in attack, hopefully this all changes come tea time on Saturday.

Warrington didn't raise any eyebrows last night, in fact it suggested to me that Wigan and Warrington are miles ahead of the rest, Saints where really poor, there attack is so one dimentional and I don't think they can handle a quick team in both attack and defence. Lomax is extremely overrated and doesn't seem able to grasp a game like the top half backs can.

The difference with Wigan now and the last few times we have played Warrington is that we now have a half back who has a kicking game! We have played right into warrington's hands the last few times we have played them with errors and stupid penalties. I hope we go there and play with flare and move their forwards around the park.

Unfortunately though, this game as others have said is just a 'warm up' for the playoffs and 1st means no more than 2nd come play off time.

This game will come down to whoever kicks their conversions/penalties and makes the least amount of errors

Unfortunately ill be on holiday so wont be watching but im not looking forward to finding out the result on Sunday

will be very tough match,we need to play fully fit players,no players with niggly injuries.hope we don`t kill ourselves trying to beat wire then run out of steam at end of season.

It will be a close game and as others have said goal kicking could be crucial. I could see it ending something like 4 tries each with them kicking 4/4 and us kicking 2/4. Tries tend to be scored out wide in the games between the top sides.

Some Wire fans seem to think they might rest a few, personally I can't see it but we'll still probably have 5/6 first teamers out so they can't use that excuse.

On the point of squad rotation, Tony Smith seems to have rotated his squad more than any other coach this season to keep his key players fresh. This would suggest that he thinks they didn't make the GF last season because they ran out of steam. Towards the back end of last season Warrington had 3 weekends off (CC Semi, CC Final, 2nd week of play-offs) so I would have thought they would be quite fresh going into that Leeds game. IMO the reason Wire didn't make the final last year was due to a lack of tight, high intensity games in the last 3 months of the season and they seemed to panic when they weren't 20 points clear by half time they were that used to hammering teams.

As has been said it will be tough on Sat, could go either way!

I just thought that Warrington made the wrong decision at the 'Club Call' last season and paid the price.

However its going to be very tough on Saturday like you say but we will need to play much better than we did against Hull imo - we still made too many handling errors and a better side would of punished us - Hull were not capable of that, Warrington will be.

The game will be won and lost in the forwards, if we can keep hold of the ball we will do very well.

I've just watch the game and IMO Wellens was instrumental in Saints losing the game. All of Wire tries, even the ones not allowed, where was Wellens? He was, every time, yards from the scorer and in one case was stood flapping his arms and appealing for a penalty.


That won't happen with Sam.



Wigan only have to play like they did against Hull FC and they will win handsomely.

If we play like we did against Hull FC theres a chance Warrington could run riot. We made far too many errors. Finchy and Matty Smith need to control the game from the start, and our forwards have to come out all guns blazing. No matter who Tony Smith decides to play this will be a tough game. I just hope Briers has a stinker. I'm confident we will win, but we need to have improved from last week.

we need to pick it up from last week but saying that so do Wire after the Saints game. We need a 90% minimum completion rate to win this game. Wire slight favourites for me because of the goal kicking like mentioned before, we are going to have to score more tries than them and at their place wont be easy.

Lomax was at fault for a couple, his defensive reads are awful at times.

Disagree with that last comment, we need to be several notches higher than what we were against Hull. Wire will punish unforced errors in our own half and poor one on one tackling much more effectively than what FC did. We need to be looking at getting back the form from the Saints MM game and Leeds away.

We didn't make it for the same reason Wigan didn't. We lost a game, it happens in sport. we had plenty of tight games last year. One being you guys at the DW stadium, HKR and Saints at home another. we had one near the end of the season against Huddersfield. We played you near the end as well but that wasn't close. We were just average against Leeds. Smith noticed what Leeds did in the playoffs and realised that being top means next to nothing, so he has rotated his squad giving us the best possible chance in the playoffs and the CC final. Wane tried rotation and we know what happened there.

So your not one of the Wolfs protesting to parliament that Wolfs won SL last year then?

As for Wane trying rotation and it not working, How did it go for Smith at HKR? Salford? etc?

I'm liking how a lot of Wolfs think that because Tony Smith is resting players it's some kind of Tactical revolution and by doing it it's automatically going to work?
He won the CC for 2 years without doing it (He won it at Leeds a couple of times without doing it as well) so unless he does the Double I Suppose it won't have worked either?

Lets not make it into something more than it is, Someone has to win, someone has to lose. That won't neccesarily make what coaches did earlier in the season with regards to squad rotation (amongst other things such as the theory you can win it from 5th every year) the right thing.

Its terrible to say, but Saturday's game is a meaningless affair. First and second gives exactly the same advantage to a side, so it would be pointless either side knocking ten bells out of each other, just for the kudos of a derby win.

I think its nailed on that Tony Smith will rest several players, and probably even more nailed on that Wigan will come away with the win, though the resting of the players will have more of a say in the long run of the season, than the Wigan victory will....



I just hope for the good (and the credibility) of the game that the two sides make Old Trafford, because its blindingly obvious that these 2 teams are miles ahead of anybody else in the league.

Don't ever say this game means nothing.

I f*cking hate Warrington. I want to win the league in their back garden, I want to annihilate them and have super Sam run rings round them

Nothing would give me greater pleasure in seeing Josh run full length towards us again like last season. Other than if Victoria Pendleton would give me a little nosh, then that would be #1 obviously

If Wigan do win, then we'll only require one win from our remaining three games to secure the LLS. Throw in a free week for the CC Final and Wane has plenty of chance to rest and rotate anyone carrying a niggling injury or feeling fatigued. I won't be concerned one bit about Wigan's fitness or fatigue levels should it play out like the scenario I've described above. If we don't win then it becomes interesting.

One would think Smith will have to play the majority of his Wembley side the week before the final. The last thing you want in any final is to be slow of the mark through unfamiliarity. Wire played well last night but through many of your fans own's admission's, didn't put Saints away like they really could have done.

Should Wigan win on Saturday then we have a great chance to fresh everyone ahead of the play-off's.

He may rotate the squad but I can't see him resting too many players. They're all playing for their CC places.

I expect the only to changes to see would be Evans (or at a push Blythe) coming in at centre and Ratchford moving to fullback to give Hodgson a rest.

Carvell won't be back and it's too early for Harrison. Bridge is struggling (I think).

I'd be a little disappointed if it wasn't a very strong team.

I appreciate your passion for the game, and of course a win for either side will give great pleasure (and bragging rights on here) to their supporters, but it doesn't take away the fact that in the context of the destination of the Super League trophy, Saturday's match means nothing, now that each side has virtually sealed their places in the top 2.

The reason I would love both these sides at Old Trafford is so that they can go at each other 100%, no excuses given or taken....It would be a fantastic game because both sides are pretty evenly matched and clearly head and shoulders above their rivals.

Sadly, whatever Saturday's result, both sides have ready made and valid excuses for not actually caring a jot about being defeated - That's the reality and it doesn't do the sport any favours, especially at a time when you have a sporting event going on where the competitors are busting a gut to acheive success.

If we win on Saturday we are in a much better position than last year to go all the way. We'll have 3 games remaning, and as long as we pick up one win, we'll finish top. This gives us a chance to rest players who may be carrying knocks. Charnley, Sam & Mickey Mac all playing with strapping the last few weeks. This means come playoff time, we'll be fitter, stronger and fresher for the charge to Old Trafford.

I think if we beat Wire on Saturday barring any major cock up [Leeds in the CC Semi style we should make it to OT, whether we win or not, will have to see on the night.

I said on Twitter last night, Wire where playing like that game was almost like a final for them. Now will they be able to maintain that intensity, peak for a cup final, then peak again for the playoffs? A competition they have had an already less than stellar record in, i'm not too sure. Especially with the majority of their big game players the wrong side of 30, I think Wire may run out of Juice come playoff time.

One advantage Wigan do have is the CC final week off. We can play our strongest side safe in the knowledge that we have an easier match against Salford where we can rest the likes of Sam, Finch, SOL if needed. Then throw in the CC final weekend another weeks rest. The dilema for Tony Smith is whether to rest players or which ones?

I've said it on another thread regarding the CC, who ever wins will be the team that wants it most on the day. But whoever wins the CC I cant see them winning the GF as the CC would have taken out too much out of them.

Either way should be a good un on Saturday, shame I'm gonna miss the first half because of work.