Wigan Warriors- The 18th man: ‘French and Field create absolute mayhem and it is almost impossible to mark both out of the game’

Robert Kenyon

The Saints game was disappointing, we started the game fast and matched their intensity for the first 20 minutes but after that we never had a look in.

Their line speed killed us and Percival was flying out stopping Field a lot of the time. We started strong but Saints changed and we didn't move to a plan B.

Ideally I'd have liked to have seen our props offload more, more scoots and kicking behind the defence out wide to stop them closing Field down. With Powell looking like he's getting a long ban I hope Brad O'Neill gets a chance.

The Wakefield game made up for it, our props stood up to the challenge and for the first time in years our props battered their pack.

Kaide Ellis worked hard taking the ball up twice a set and making himself available as a runner in the same set.

Singleton was a battering ram, Byrne has improved massively this season, Mago is a handful and Havard works hard and makes the yards.

It was good to see some players get a chance.

I thought Harry Smith, Sam Halsall and Miski did well, though I'd have liked to have seen Miski have a bit more flair near the line as a few times he could have gone for the corner but he came back inside.

Liam Farrell carries on showing his quality and I think is playing very well lately, him and Cust seem to be gaining a good understanding and again Cust hit Farrell with a few good balls.

It was good to see us play well in front of a home crowd on a nice sunny bank holiday with lots of kids and families there and we should play more daytime games to get more families and kids to games.

Jon Lyon

Well that was an Easter of two halves. A fantastic start against Saints gave us a “what might have been” with the early bombed try, followed by a fantastic score from Jai Field.

Despite a good effort we were clearly second best across the whole game.

There was enough shown in the first half that we have a chance in the upcoming cup semi final, but we need to be far more clinical with our chances and play as a unit for the full eight minutes, as Saints do week in week out.

There were some great individual displays, I thought Willie Isa worked incredibly hard and we noticeably missed Tommy after he left the field injured, ultimately we just didn’t earn enough field position to do enough damage.

After a grumpy weekend, always a given following a derby defeat, Monday's thrashing of Wakefield was the perfect pick me up.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen our forwards completely dominate the opposition pack from first minute to last. To a man they were outstanding, it’s hard to single people out.

An angry Brad Singleton took on all comers and Liam Byrne has been improving with every game this season. This was also by far Kaide Ellis’ best performance of the year, possibly with something to prove after his excessive five match ban.

There’s not much better in life than basking in the sunshine enjoying watching our backs tearing Wakey apart, some of the tries were breathtaking.

I think Lee Gaskell is still trying to figure out where Bevan French is. It’s exciting to think how much more there is to come from Bevan and Jai once they have had more game time together.

The pair create absolute mayhem and it is almost impossible to mark both out of the game.

Special mention to Harry Smith, who has come in for some unreasonable criticism after his fleeting performances so far this year.

I’m not sure how people expect him to play like Andy Gregory when he only gets onto the pitch once every five games.

He was outstanding against Wakefield and equally importantly, like Zak, it seems he has worked incredibly hard on his goal kicking in the off season, which is something we desperately needed after last season.

Channel 4 beckons on Sunday for our match against Salford, and hopefully with the extra exposure that will bring we can put on another offensive clinical display.

Salford started the season well but have quickly levelled off. There’s no doubt they are capable of scoring tries, and they always seem to save some of their best performances for matches against us, but they have been conceding far too many points in recent weeks.

No disrespect to the Red Devils but this is a home game we should be winning and winning well.

If we go into the game in the same frame of mind as we did Easter Monday, we should hopefully be looking for a similarly comprehensive win.

I would like to see Brad O’Neill given a chance, even before Sam Powell’s suspension. We need to rotate the squad and he deserves an opportunity to show he can be the long term future of the hooking role at the club.

Darren Wrudd

I always cringe when the Easter schedules come along, two games so quickly is not right in my eyes and shows no care from the RFL towards player welfare.

But as a fan of rugby, I love going to the games and Easter is a bumper weekend with some big clashes.

None more so than our Good Friday Derby.

The game was within our grasp to be fair but for a few errors things could have been so different, but that is a heartening thought with a certain semi-final looming shortly.

The biggest cost of that game though is sure to be Thomas Leuluai, with an unknown as of yet, knee injury.

Not sure at the time I write this of Sam Powell’s tribunal result, but I do hope that his previous record is taken into account and they are not too harsh. Sam is not a dirty player and just got it wrong on the night.

Fast forward to Monday and what looked like a different team.

Not by doing things that differently, just better. Less errors, better choices of pass, a well drilled defensive line all buying into the structure and knowing when to scramble too and finally that little sprinkle of stardust that allows one or two to shine so very brightly.

The obvious stand out partnership is French and Field and they certainly put the fear of God into the Wakefield defence each time they ran the ball.

I would single out two players who have done it tough recently and previously found any kind of form an elusive commodity.

Harry Smith was simply ace, playing so well off a very dominant and classy Cade Cust around the ruck he directed play and took the team around the field like a veteran.

Kicking like he was born to it, Smith has struggled this year to show his stuff but box ticked young man.

Also, Abbas Miski, with some high profile errors recently was no doubt beginning to wonder if he was jinxed.

He ran the ball better, positioned for defence better, tackled better, just everything about his game – better. He should get such a boost of confidence after that game and quite rightly along with Smithm firmly justified his place in the squad.

Sunday see’s the visit of a Salford side who have not been doing too well recently, but don’t let that fool you.

The reds have the roster to cause some real problems for us if we give them space to play. We need to put a score on, push hard and then push harder still and be ruthless.

Points difference is what is keeping us in second spot and it is important to go out and play. Hit hard, run fast and add another two points to the tally. I am loving this season already.