It’s not about having an opinion, it’s about a thread on the Wigan board singling out a player from our arch rivals, no different to the Leeds fan who’s on here having a pop at Williams or the plethoras of people slating Tomkins & Williams on FB.

RL fans in this country need to get over club rivalries and start supporting the national side.

Yeah I thought Thompson went pretty well and deserves another shot.

I doubt its anything to do with the club he plays for..

More to do with the fact he is being paid a retainer by the RFL and his performances on the International stage have been bobbins..

The no 9 from Canberra is pretty awful in an England shirt as well..

What about if he’s been saying it about Lomax for years, as I have?
Not because he’s a Saints player but because we’re disappintes that a British ‘talent’ hasn’t realised his promise.
The lad offers very little but we can’t say it because he plays for our national team?

Thought he was very good. Rapid for a big (ish) player. Great attitude. Really rate him

The difference being I didn’t choose to use the Grand Final as an opportunity to voice my opinions on Wane.

England had just turned over a very very good Kiwi side, maybe the best they have sent over in the last 20 years and the first reaction of many fans is not to laud the victory and talk it up, but to start slating English players and performances.

I know no other sport including football where the fans consistently do this.

+ 1

I thought as a group we played well, and hope that the classy individual players we have can show a bit in the rest of the tournament. I find the Gildart and Connor centre partnership exciting, but they need to swap sides. Is it making allowances for Gildart's defence and wanting Connor to stop Manu - seems that this is going to limit their effectiveness going forward (great try on Saturday apart)

Forgive me but!

Are you having a Laugh???





Gildarts defence is Very Good and as previously posted he's handled every challenge that's ever been thrown at him from Kallum Watkins to Bryson Goodwin, Michael Shenton and Jack Bird in the WCC.

Gildart switched to Right centre mid way through the season having as far as I am aware no previous 1st team experience almost seamlessly.
He did this to cover Sarge who was much more comfortable Left side whilst it made no difference to Gildart.

How could you use the Grand Final to attack Wane, we won!?!

The big difference here is that we still have to win another and i dont think Lomax offers any attacking threat and it is my opinion that he is over rated as a player - i would hate to have him at Wigan.

The Kiwis under performed massively and will be much better next week and we too need to be much better and IMO we would be better to drop Lomax or at least move him to 7 and switch Tomkins back to full back where he is used to hitting the line and bring both Bateman and Gildart into play. The combinations are already there on the right so why not use them?

Isn’t that the point!!

Celebrate the win, which England did on Saturday, rather than jump on forums to have a pop at the team.

It’s not really just a comment about you it’s a large portion of @fans” and it frustrates the hell out of me!

All the forums are littered with criticism of certain players. It’s a joke.

I am and always be an internationalist. I’d much rather see England win the next World Cup than see Wigan win another trophy for the next 10 years.

The only way we will grow the game is by having a successful international side and competition.

Football fans have far bigger rivalries than we do in rugby between clubs yet they come together to back England.

A large section of RL fans are too busy having a go at individuals within the team than embracing a very good win, I’ve even seen people calling for Bennett to resign. It’s madness and the small time mentality that will always hold the sport back.

Like I said it’s not necessarily a pop at you but more the attitude of a large section of fans within the game.

Gildart on Saturday.
13 tackles 0 missed 124 metres. Very poor defence that

I think we just have to accept that Hull fans see Connor as the finest rugby league player to ever grace the fields of Great Britain and Wakefield fans believe Tom Johnstone is the product of a cloning programme which involved him being made up of genes belonging to Jason Robinson, Billy Boston, Brian Bevan, Martin Offiah and Tom Van Vollanhoven. You simply wont talk any sense in to them!

Both fine players by the way but to to suggest Gildart was swapped sides to let Connor tackle the wonder boy Manu and avoid him terrorising the frail Gildart defence is laughable. We’ve just seen Gildart own two fantastic centres in high pressure games and he’s been playing really well as a right centre. It’s not like he was facing some nothing man over on the right either.

wind you neck in, we just see connor as a good player whos got the x factor, thought him and gildart played well together,

Your celebration is far too premature.

There is nothing to celebrate yet. Theres 2 more games yet and we have to win at least one more. How many times have we won the first and lost the next two? I did not see much in attack to excite me looking ahead. New Zealand looked far more dangerous with the ball and if they click next week it will be curtains for us.

He is indeed and when he plays for England I treat him as an England player in the same way I do Gildart, Williams, O’Loughlin etc. I don’t need to point score against other fans to try and play down one player against my clubs man because for the next two weeks I’m not a Wigan fan, I’m an England fan. I don’t care if no Wiganers get picked or if the teams chocked full of them, I won’t be any less chuffed if Jake Connor, Tommy Makinson, Johnny Lomax etc and not a Wiganer scores a last minute, series winning try at Elland Road, I’ll just be made up England have won a series.

Just wish everyone was the same.

I apologise, I completely overlooked the change in side by Gildart for Wigan, and always saw him as the left centre - so when tuning in on Saturday I wondered why they had swapped side.

My bad. Nothing against Gildart at all. I don't see Connor as what you state sarcastically above either, although I do see him as a better 6 than a 3/4 as he needs to touch the ball more

More of a dig at Wakey fans in all fairness. Thee obsession with Johnstone borders on unhealthy although I agree he’s a fine player.

I wouldn’t be against Connor playing in the halves but I think the team is nicely balanced at the minute. To beat a strong Kiwi side who’d had an intense game in battering the Aussies in the run up to our fixture with new combinations was some effort. I think the team can build on those this week as we should be better for the run.

Why have a dig at all with the hyperbole like above & -

Fact is when the squad was announced there was what 2 or 3 posters that said daft things about not watching etc, but the overwhelming majority accepted it & even called out the silly posts. Just about every poster said that they were a bit gutted for Tom, seeing as how he's a left wing and that spot was open & probably earned a call up this season, but on the other hand, Makinson was next in line and is a quality player also. Plus Tom's young enough to come back and still have a great international career, plus it's good to have him in and around that squad of players and who knows, he might sneak a game. The thread is here - [urlhttp://viewtopic.php?f=33&t=619604[/url

Let's be honest though all teams have fans that love to completely get behind their own players and hype them up when it comes to international selection and Wigan is no different. All teams think that their players should be chosen when they're up for selection, it's been going on forever.

Unlike Wigan who've had plenty of England GB players over the years, Tom's probably Trinity's best chance of having a homegrown international regular since Ellis, so you'll have to give some of our fans a bit of leeway. on their giddiness

I get it, I really do and the dafter comments were more social media based. To see somebody like McGillvary questioned on there was just incredible to me. This was a guy who had a World Cup players could only dream of. He went in to it as a guy we thought was a pretty good player but then out performed every winger in World Rugby League including NRL golden boys like Valentine Homes and Vunivalu. Most of the calls were that Makinson was the lucky one but he had been brilliant in the mid season test and he’s had an excellent year for St Helens. He proved on Saturday just how good he is.

I’m a big Tom Johnstone fan but international rugby league is different (when playing the big boys). He won’t get the masses of space superleague teams will give him and his main role will be to bash the ball away from his own line. I’m not saying he can’t do that but I get why Bennett would pick the two guys he did, knowing already that they can do just that (albeit it’s a very small sample size for Makinson).

His time will come I’m sure, he’s too good for it not to but at the minute there’s guys in possession that just aren’t putting a foot wrong. It’s a great position for England to be in!

I cannot foresee any changes to the back line for Sunday, as nobody had a bad game in the first test. There were some lapses, that's all, that were few and far between on both sides. The Kiwis are under more pressure to make changes than us, and I don't think there's anybody out there that merits inclusion in the backs for England in this particular game. If we win this match and the series, then the third test would be the opportunity for experimental change. Seems like SOL will be the only one to drop out, unless there's another injury we don't know about.

Much better today from Lomax but i still say he should of played 7 with Tomkins at 1.

I like lomax at fb. I think he is a solid choice he defends well and joins in the attacking line very well and returns the ball strong, I think he is a better fb than hb and as Sam has lost a little pace and we need him a little more involved at 7 is a good choice, had things been the other way round I think not many would complain also

I think we've massively improved since last week an over the last few years that's twotsts against nz we've won on the bounce, that shows progression got to start beating the convicts regularly now.

The thing is, the Aussies dont seem to tire and make mistakes against us like the Kiwis did. I think the loss to the Kiwis was just a blip and they will be back next year and we will need to step it up another two levels to beat them.

With Widdop, Sam Burgess, Roby, Walmsley etc in this side I think we have more to give. I’d love a series against the Aussies here soon, not only do I think we could turn them over but I think there’s enough appetite for it to ensure three crowds of 40,000 plus.