Oh yeah its a poor look for the game no question.

Saints will now have their achievement downgraded a little (if we win) given that Saints and Wigan are the top 2 teams and have won one game each against each other this season. This would've been the decider. The coaching staff will have watched videos on Wigan alll week and now have a different opponent.

The players at Wigan are now denied a chance to play in a Final

The Warrington lads haven't trained all week and are now called back to play in two days time.

I am shocked,so sorry for the lads.I now can see the issue with your explanation Stu but it still rests on Wigans shoulders.

Poor look is too lenient in my opinion. Shambolic is for me more accurate. I’d love have a chat with the people who changed the rules to listen to their rationale.
This unfortunately still doesn’t get us off the hook as we did not adhere to the rules and the players have been let down by the club.
A sorry situation for the game and particularly for the players involved.

For some of these Wigan lads, it might be their last chance of winning a trophy as some may not make it in the professional game. It should have been the highlight of their short life and a memory that no one could take away. That’s been denied to them and I feel so sorry for them.

Seems that when w@nky where doing their match review they spoted that Wigan had made to many interchanges .
They therefore reported you to the RFL
Am still going but won't be enjoyable as a Saints v Wigan final would have been

Acctualy wire have been training all week

Yeah, this would likely have been the pinnacle of some of the lads careers and it’s been taken away.

That’s a very good question

The game is just so amateur at times! the biggest game of the season results in a reduction in the amount of officials involved and a change in the seasons rules! Absolutely incredible that but we’ve still massively messed up and the young fellas pay for it.

Just to clarify, my understanding is that they didn’t change the number of officials for the SF, there’s been no interchange official all season at Academy level.

Fair enough, it seems our fault then. I keep reading people calling cheating against Wigan but it feels anything but. It just feels like a scenario where somebody had been a bit dense and they’ve been caught short.

Just returned to the forums to point out this is wrong. Academy games are all 8 subs the same as with all other levels of the professional competition. It is also exactly like Super League in that players get strapped up and carry on. Basically your whole post is untrue, nothing changed for the semi finals and they adhere to the same interchange rules as SL.

As you rightly pointed out later, there is also no reserve ref appointed to any level of academy rugby bar the final so no one to manage the subs (on the odd occasion you get a young match official doing it voluntarily). They're generally reliant on the honesty of the clubs and can look back at the footage if an issue is raised.

I don't know what caused the timing issue. Possibly a late complaint. Possibly took a while to deduce what happened with the subs as there isn't a camera pointed at the bench the whole time. You would have a bit of detective work to do tracking which players are on and off. Then they would have to check in Wigan what (if any) concussion assessments happened as they can result in free subs.

Of course it’s untrue. StuM is the biggest bull****** since king warrior on these forums.

Not even hiding it anymore.

In professional sport there should be. There are plenty of qualified volunteers who could manage the process. Having said that, Wigan have no excuse.

No because its embarrassing and we deserve booting out because of it

Always makes me wonder why so many fans absolutely hate the club?

I’m only going off what I’ve been told. However I’m also wondering in that case that if the official mandate is 8 subs but no one in an official capacity is managing that, then perhaps coaches have an unwritten rule between them that they’ll use more subs during the regular season games.

Hull K R beat Warrington 18 - 13 in the 1977/78 premiership trophy but were disqualified for playing an unregistered player, Warrington were awarded the game, beat Featherstone in a 2 legged semi final then lost to St. Helens at Station Road, Swinton

Don't if anyone's seen it but Keith Mason's had a right meltdown on Twitter over it

I always feel for his lad with the amount of pressure he heaps on him.

I can’t blame him, he has been let down.

Not so bad.

Some teams don't adhere to the rules because they know it's unlikely they will be caught. You don't seem to get how seriously they take academy rugby, it's nothing like a friendly. The players are playing for contracts and the coaches are coaching for their next move up the ladder as well.

Has anyone checked how many subs Warrington used?