The 18th Man...Manner of Wigan Warriors' win over Toulouse was the biggest positive

Sean Lawless

The Toulouse game was a very different game from what perhaps most of us were expecting.

Toulouse gave a brilliant account of themselves and targeted Wigan’s lack of cohesion from bringing in new faces, such as Miski and Smith.

The biggest positive to take from the game, other than the two points, is the manner of the victory.

The 2021 version of the Warriors would have given up at 12 points down in the second half, there would not be the fight that we saw last Saturday.

Testament to Peet and the team, another win, and a different type of win.

The acid test of the competition comes this Saturday, Catalans in Perpignan is one of the most difficult fixtures on the list.

The Dragons, along with St Helens, are showing again why they are the best in the competition and this week gives Wigan an opportunity to benchmark where they are, against the best in the competition.

St Helens and Catalans look a cut above at the moment, perhaps without Saturday’s show of vulnerability, Wigan may have been categorised in that class but as of yet, there seems to be more improvement needed.

The return of Leuluai will be key for Wigan and I expect them to give Catalans a tough test.

If the Dragons are still missing several players, as they were against Warrington, then I think Wigan have a great opportunity of causing an upset.

Darren Wrudd

Well I don’t think any of us saw that one coming.

Let’s be honest, I expected a proper score against Toulouse, a side who although are improving, have struggled so far this year.

Unfortunately a combination of errors and some very poor tackles, left the door open and nearly cost us the points.

I actually don’t mind players making errors, they are human just like you and me.

A dropped ball or forward pass here or there is almost a challenge to your mates to help you out and not let it cost us.

But we just did not look fluent at all at times and when we did, we scored.

Much could be attributed not to the new boys coming into the squad, but the shuffle in positions of a few like Cust switching sides which all add up to significant change.

The best thing to come out of it is our team knows how to find a win when the cards are against them, that is a boon for when we play some of the bigger teams.

That said, Toulouse were good value for the fright they gave us and if they keep improving, who knows where in the table they will end up come October.

Catalans this week is a different kettle of fish altogether. We know the quality of many of their players as we have seen them in Super League for the last few years.

Steve MacBanana has them running well and keeps throwing in the odd Frenchman to show how good their system is.

With the quality English and Antipodean elements to their squad they will be a real challenge for us for sure.

We can beat them, I am sure of it. Whether we will is down to the structure and discipline that we can muster.

This year’s competition looks to have a few surprises up its sleeve and teams like Huddersfield could well be seeing a resurgence of form with their coach.

While I wonder how much value other clubs bring to the table and would question Wakefield’s position in the league.

The referee’s clamp down this year seems to have got some feathers ruffled again. Not least the players picking up bans left right and centre, but Wigan have so far been squeaky clean in that respect.

It could turn out to be a very interesting year for us, a long way to go yet and league tables only really begin to mean something around Easter time, but I like the way it looks and if we keep improving we are going to be hard to beat.

Jon Lyon

Well, that was a wake up call. I think most of us had Wigan down to win this one by at least 20 points.

I know after eight minutes I had my feet up thinking the same, and it seems maybe some of the Wigan players did too.

There may have been an element of luck about one or two of their tries but Toulouse were well worth their 28-16 lead late in the second half.

Tony Gigot showed just how creative he can be, and it’s a shame he doesn’t do it more consistently.

The saving grace for Wigan is that we showed grit and determination to keep going and find a way to win a game we didn’t deserve to.

Not for the first time, Harry Smith kept his cool to drop a winning field goal but the real hero was Zak Hardaker, whose touchline conversions kept Wigan in the game time and again.

Naturally we’re going to have to play a whole lot better against Catalans on Saturday. They will likely have a few players back from injury, including Sam Tomkins.

The battle between Sam and Jai Field should be fascinating and whoever comes out on top will likely go a fair way to deciding which team wins.

Defence will no doubt have been a huge part of this week’s training as some of the Toulouse tries were soft.

We need to get back to the aggressive line speed we have shown so far this season and back each other up in the tackle.

Hopefully Tommy Leuluai and Willie Isa will be back in the team to help tighten things up.

There’s no doubt that we have the ability to score tries, and the added bonus of Zak converting most of them gives us a great chance.

This will be a tough game, one we could easily lose if we’re not 100 per cent committed, but the eternal optimist in me will go for an 18-14 win.

There aren’t really too many shocks in the season so far. Already the top four look likely to be St Helens, Wigan, Warrington and Catalans and unless one team suffers hugely from injuries I wouldn’t expect that to change.

Despite Toulouse’s impressive showing against Wigan I still expect them to only manage a handful of wins at home and to finish bottom.

The rest of the teams are so erratic it’s hard to predict who will finish where, as most of them could easily finish anywhere between fifth and 11th due to a total lack of consistency.

It looks like Castleford

may be the surprise package for all the wrong reasons. It’s hard to see Lee Radford inspiring enough attacking rugby in his side to prevent them finishing in the bottom half of the table.