Totally agree that when we start so positively we are hard to beat.
Wire will be confident which I think will suit us down to the ground.

Thomson is going to make a huge difference for us this season. Having a prop than can play 80 mins at that level gives us so many options and helps make the most out of Mago and include another impact forward in Walters. The fact Walters can also play prop covers any injury issues. Add Havard into the mix as another who plays long minutes we have plenty of options through the game.

Keep up the same intensity and discipline in big games and we'll be hard to beat. Looking forward to the final to get a benchmark on how good Warrington are this season.

Regarding the BBC coverage, yet again the BBC go into a game with a pre set narrative about the teams and point out how unfortunate they have been in not being allowed to play their attractive exciting rugby.

The 'mistake' they made made over the forward pass was ridiculous and they just followed the narrative from there - now there are fans from every team saying how bent the refs are in favouring wigan yet again........

I was amazed at the time that nothing was said about Hiku on Field - as blatant a red as you will see. A wigan prop doing that it would have been a very different story. Lucky that Field saw it coming and lifted his arm to protect his face.

All I would say is that if fans are following the commentators narrative then they don’t know the rules either.

I totally agree. We should all have learned long ago that British RL's commentators mostly talk crud, and compared to the NRL guys, are an acute embarrassment.

But whereas Eddie and Stevo set new standards for shameless bias, what we're seeing now, from both the Beeb and Sky, is an amateurish attempt to create the impression the league is filled with teams who are equal to each other. If it isn't Barry Mac calling unknown journeymen 'the best in the world' at whatever they just happened to have done, it's the whole team spending the halftime round-up at Leigh v Wigan pretending the game is on a knife-edge when in reality, Leigh are being well beaten.

The plain fact of this last weekend is that both Hull KR and Huddersfield got well and truly owned.

Huddersfield were substandard all over the park. They didn't even do the basic defensive work, and don't look as if they deserve their mid-table position (which speaks volumes on its own). Hull KR, while they're a better bet, were totally outplayed. Mikey Lewis will always be a threat because of his tricky running, but he was completely unconnected to the rest of his team.

Anyone who genuinely knows the game will have seen that for themselves and no amount of spinning that result into some kind of injustice will fool them.

The problem, Cruncher, is that the emptiest vessels make the loudest noise. Take RedVee as an example. The grown ups came out to play yesterday and, as a result ,the posts were far, far more balanced and, despite many posters understandably not being happy about Wigan being as good as they were, they had no problem acknowledging it. However the "empty vessels" were already set in their narrative and no amount of sense was going to detract them.

So it is with the BBC/social media/Sky etc. The empty vessel that is John Wilkin decided a narrative and the rest followed suit. The ridiculous number of times he questioned a decision that he, himself, had called as correct (the offside) was ludicrous yet no one pulled him up on it.

Unfortunately the number of people that "know" the game is dwarfed by those who simply don't or merely have a passing interest in the game.

I don't disagree with that. I was infuriated a few years ago with Sky, when Phil Clark said that Shaun Wane only won so much at Wigan because Wigan spent more money than anyone else. It was a blatant lie, seemingly designed to denigrate Shaun Wane's achievements as Wigan coach, and no one challenged him on it.

Things like that can indeed be damaging. It's frustrating, but it seems to be the story of our life. It's certainly nothing new.

Ellis and Walters one game ban each, it's a conspiracy against us (RedVee mode activated)

How Hiku and Opacic got away with their offences and Walter gets pulled up for his I’ll never know

Is this definite? I've seen conflicting reports. If this is right it's an absolute joke that Hiku hasn't received a substantial ban.

Similar to how the NRL explain 'bunker' decisions, I think we need to start seeing a weekly video where these MRP decisions are explained (and yes Wigan have had questionable calls go their way as well).

This isn't contact apparently


[urlhttps://twitter.com/FrEaK_HullFC/status/1791842886297805116?t=hIRAcQnhwROgl0GxsKTo4g&s=19[/url

Nice to know that this is now considered acceptable contact. Let's get a few of them in next week lads see where it gets us!

That is baffling with how crazy they have gone with head contact this season, even with it now toned down that should be multiple games. Clear as day he makes shoulder contact direct to the head in an overly aggressive challenge, and this isn't some obscure angle this was shown on BBC!!

I’ve give up worrying about it now. I don’t want to see any players banned because it’s that inconsistent every none ban feels like a win.


Ellis can have a rest, so no problem there but it’s a shame to see Walters back out of a game. Hiku is a very very lucky lad. It makes no sense but none of it does.

You can even see Field's head rock back on contact! Can you imagine had that been Byrne (or Knowles or Lees for that matter) carrying out that assault?

But let's play devil's advocate for a minute and enter the panel's fantasy world where no contact took place. It's still clear as day what his intention was. This was not an accident that occured whilst making a tackle. He drops on an already prone player with the sole intention to cause pain or injury! How does sanctioning that type of behavior reconcile with the much quoted duty of care?

The panel is a joke and simply not fit for purpose and needs replacing with competent people who actually know what they are doing.

I might comment on these decisions but then I'm usually quite "meh! Let's move on". However, this one makes me really angry. There's inconsistent and then there's incompetent and this firmly falls into the latter category.

I thought the Asiata decisions last year were a farce but I can see how they didn't contravene the rules of the day (they should have done but that's a different argument). This, however, clearly contravenes current rules and, maybe more importantly, current directives around head safety. Given the threat to the game regarding insurance etc, to ignore, even encourage, this type of behavior is tantamount to dereliction of duty.

Better be squeaky clean over the next two weeks, wouldn’t put it past this panel to ruin the final with bans, Williams and French banned anyone ?

Exactly, this isn't a deflection from the shoulder leading to a brush on the head with the fingers as a consequence, i would go as far as to call this a malicious challenge where i would expect a ban given out for many years now.

You couldn't make it up!

Wigan were far better on the day, hats off to your lads you strangled the life out of us.
I can't blame the ref, unlike a lot of others are highlighting that Wigan got the rub of the green, you were simply too good on the day.
Interesting thought that the MRP cited 9 Wigan incidents, mostly missed by the ref aswell.
As for Hiku, looked like the intent was there I'll admit that, but as for contact, how many Wigan players ran in to challenge him about it? Maybe they didn't see anything in it either.

Anyway good luck going forward, I can see you doing the treble this year, MP's got you very well drilled

Check out the link in this thread mate. There's clear contact.

Sensational statistics from Luke Thompson, if this lad is past it can we please have some more.

80 minutes, 36 tackles and 196 metres made.

I've seen it, just watched it back. 69th minute,

And guess what, there's no head contact at all, Intent yes, head contact no. Fields got his hand up in the way luckily

I can recommend Specsavers mate

[urlhttps://twitter.com/FrEaK_HullFC/status/1791842886297805116?t=3auCPtvaU2RMQ5u7rIffRQ&s=19[/url

Well luckily for Hiku the MRP are seeing the same as what I'm seeing, it's a shame that the ref missed what the MRP saw Walters and Ellis do aswell though. Not that it'd have made much difference, you were far better than we were.

Contact or not, you could make the analogy, if a player sticks out a leg to try to trip the ball- carrier, but the ball-carrier hurdles the leg and continues, that's still foul play, surely. As is this.