Wigan Warriors fans give their verdict on the Hull KR defeat and look ahead to the first home game of the season

Ben Reid

Well, it wasn’t the start we all wanted or even expected in round one at Craven Park.

There’s no panic or worry setting in. We are as far away from the Grand Final as you can be in the season, so it’s not the end of the world.

However, this opening blip is enough for Wigan fans to start talking about the negatives in the squad and what the office failed to do before the start of the 2023 season.

I think one thing most agree on, is the lack of a ‘world class’ prop signing.

Watching the KR game, it was clear we were being bullied and battered down the middle, and instead of switching it up and maybe going to our strengths out wide, we continued to try and win the battle, and it just got worse and worse, especially in that second half.

We had a handful of play the balls in their half and none looked threatening.

I thought first half we battled quite well, and while still second best due to poor discipline and

errors, I felt we would grind it out.

That second half shocked me. I didn’t expect us to be so off and concede such weak tries, especially down that right edge.

Poor King couldn’t handle Kenny-Dowall, he had a shocker.

But, this weeks a fresh one and with all due respects to Wakefield, we really couldn’t ask for a better game to bounce back in.

On home soil, a place we sat undefeated in the regular season of 2022 against one of the favourites for relegation.

You couldn’t ask for a better stage to kickstart your season.

I fancy our chances for a big win this Friday. I’d like to see us okay the kind of rugby we did in Sam Powell’s testimonial and throw the ball round and use our dangerous and exciting players out wide.

I hope King can shake off last week's performance and show what he’s all about.

I’d also like to see Brad O’Neill get a lot more minutes as I do think he’s a better option, and one I love watching.

Wakefield won’t be a pushover, but it's a game we’d have to be real bad in, to wind up losing.

Glynn Bradshaw

There’s a lot to reflect on from a very disappointing performance.

We should be mindful of not having a knee jerk reaction, first game and all, but at the same time there is a lot to fix up.

Our right side of defence was poor and even French and Field were far from their best, and that’s when you know we are in trouble.

King had gone backwards from the Salford performance, but it’s unfair to single out individuals as we were poor as a team.

Our defence was fragile, discipline poor, decision making suspect and all in all just looked very shaky.

I don't think Hull KR were brilliant but they were the better team and did the basics better than we did.

We even had guys running back in defence in the second half with their backs to play- unforgivable.

They looked much more up for it too, which is disappointing, our poor away form continues

Looking forward to Friday obviously expecting a positive reaction and a Wigan victory, nothing else will suffice.

Stephen Ford

Although I wasn’t surprised with the defeat at Hull KR however, the actual performance was a little jaw dropping.

Out of the 17 man squad not one player stood out.

Poor away displays are becoming too common and unless this is addressed we will continue to be in the shadow of Saints.

With most teams improving their squads if we are not careful this could be a difficult season.

I’m tired of repeated comments of winning the Challenge Cup in 2022 in various interviews on Wigan TV.

It’s 2023, a new season and new challenges.

The worrying thing is that the 17 selected was our strongest, therefore, any options/changes on paper will not improve the team.

We looked slow, lethargic, totally unorganised on the right flank and woefully ill-disciplined.

For the first game of the season albeit against an enthusiastic team, the performance was unacceptable for a squad supposedly in the top two teams of the competition.

I was worried about the lack of firepower from our forwards particularly the backrow and the Hull KR performance just about summed up that we have practically zero options in the back row and a front row that can be dominated quite easily.

When Hull KR can dominate us so easily, if we repeat that display against Wire or Saints they will murder us.

I’m not particularly looking forward to the Wakefield game.

The atmosphere will be low key and it could become an arm wrestle if we repeat the display from Saturday.

In terms of changes to the squad, there aren’t very many things we can do to improve it.

I can’t believe that I’m saying this but I would replace Kai Pearce Paul with either Isa or Ellis in the back row.

The work rate from KPP is always poor; albeit he does have a decent offload.

With Isa we will get zero breaks but at least he may beef up the right edge from a defensive viewpoint.

Ellis could give us more size in the pack and he looks capable of doing more minutes than he currently does in his little cameos.

In terms of other changes, I am not sure why we had O’Neill on the bench last week as he offers nothing different from Powell.

Personally I would play Forber off the bench, but that cannot happen as he is on loan at the moment.

I think that it's pretty safe to assume that Peet may go with the same 17 with perhaps the swap of Isa/KPP.

I hope that his team talks during the week are better than his half time team talk on Saturday.

I’m just hoping that the kick up the backside that we got on Saturday will get the team more focused but if you can’t get focused for the first game of the season then it’s a little worrying.

Robert Kenyon

Hull KR beat us because they wanted it more and they worked harder for the win.

Our right edge is a brand new partnership and they need time to get to trust each other in defence.

It’ll be at least three more games until they get an understanding and build trust.

Our attack was clunky, but in reality it was our second run out so poor handling could be forgiven.

Our metres made from our pack was shockingly low, that’s an area we need to improve on (KPP did well in this area to be fair to him).

If you are a prop you need to be making 100m at least and 25-30 tackles, if you do that and don’t give any penalties away you’ve cracked it, it’s that simple.

There were some good points from the game, Harry Smith muscled up in defence, King and Wardle had solid first halves, KPP had a good game and Smithies worked his socks off in defence also.

One area I’d like us to improve this week against Wakefield is the threat from dummy half, if there is no threat of a scoot then the defence gets that extra metre to slide across and close any gaps out wide nullifying the threat from our edges.

I’d like to see O’Neill scoot more or if not then Tom Forber get some game time because he could be that threat.

Darren Wrudd

And we’re off, the first weekend is done and so were we.

I can only imagine how many lads put their hands up at the review when questions were asked but I bet it was most of them.

Matty Peet said it was ‘just not us’ and I get that.

We went so far away from the basics of playing a super league game in so far as ball security, over playing, defensive misreads and what looked like we were being bullied by the energy from the Hull KR lads.

Fair play to the Yorkshiremen, they decided that a disruptive style of play was the way to force our hand and we didn’t react well at all.

I suppose I was particularly disappointed in how the tries were all scored down the same side of the field and we need to sort that defensive intent out immediately.

I hope that Willie Isa is back on that side as we looked very weak indeed.

That said, it’s one week and there are a lot more to go.

Wakefield will no doubt have the same game plan in mind and why not, but we can’t look to over play and try to fix things on every half break.

Patience is what we need and I think our coach will have it spelled out clearly with a game plan and Plan B, firmly in place.

Wakefield I thought were a little unlucky at Catalans and they could have easily won that game so they will be no pushover, but our first home game and a lot to put right should at least see us put on a performance.

Time will tell if it is good enough.

I would like to congratulate St Helens on their victory last weekend.

To beat that Penrith Panthers side in their own backyard like that was a great moment for the sport, almost as big a day as our 1994 victory as lets be honest, we always lead the way.

They are going to be a handful again this year though and for sure will be challenging for the final in October on that form.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Friday.

It looks like a great night's entertainment is planned, have fun and stay safe.