Inruin
Contributor
I think the main problem was the complete lack of structure from having juniors in the backline. I think he is a lot better than that and he will only improve with other quality players around him.
Magic Stick
Townsend was missing 1on1 tackles though..nothing to do with who was around him...something to keep an eye though
ryno
But his technique is rubbish. I thought he would be similar to Thomas and lead with the shoulder and take the hips. He seems to like scragging.
Hope it was just a structure thing as everything else looks really solid and is the perfect match for Johnson.
Inruin
Contributor
yes he was but majority of those were because defensive line wasn't set or structured and was having to cover a lot of players. Definitely something to watch out for, particularly with how we defend in first grade at times.
wallacenz
I like the sound of Matulinos' performance. Could he replace Mateo in the back row? That would strengthen the edges, Matulino and Mannering defending wide
ryno
Comment of the day
"Cricket is for pussies"
Hahahaha that cracked me up, I love listening to Vossy
"Cricket is for pussies"
Hahahaha that cracked me up, I love listening to Vossy
Inruin
Contributor
I was thinking Mannering at 13, Bakuya and Matulino in the second row and Mateo off the bench. Not sure about our depth in prop rotation though
ryno
You have Lillyman, Rapira, Matagi, Gubb, Vete, Sione Lousi
So he could go into the backrow. Was awesome to see Big bens offload back as well
Magic Stick
Elliott should look at it..Mateo is a queef and always will be...And we have the Lousi's,Gubb,Matangi,Vete,Lisione and Taylor knocking on the door for the front row ranks
wallacenz
The only problem I have with that is Mateo comes on for Bukuya or Matulino and our edges are weak. The last few years we have been so fragile out wide, the only person who has really held it together since 2010 is Manneriing
mt.wellington
Warriors Orange Peeler
Chad Townsend was everywhere on offence. Always supporting the ball runner. Was never far from the action. Put in some great grubbers with one resulting in Friends try. Really impressed with him. His defence on the other hand. Was owned 1 on 1 a few times and on more then one occasion he rushed out only to be standing behind enemy lines. Pretty poor in that regard. Maloney V2.0 for sure. No worse than Johnson to be fair and he does give 110%. Going to enjoy watching him play this season.
How awesome was Ben Matulino? Must have been allowed to have his tuna pasta salad before the game. He was on fire! I was having flashbacks to 2012 but this time with a lot more of an offload. Going to be a very interesting headache for Matt Elliott in deciding who our prop and 2nd row rotation will be. Im sold on Mutts moving back to his original position. Easily my MoM.
Feleti Mateo was back to his silky best after dropping the ball early on in the game. His offloads while the team still had the forward really opened up Wigan. Surprised to see him play after hearing only 3 weeks ago that he hadn't trained fully with the team. Really really hoping he can start Round 1 and continue this games form for the whole season.
Albert Vete was such a handful tonight. He stood tall in every tackle and make some handy offloads that weren't forced. He's not far off 1st grade material. My opinion on him is somewhat tainted by what I saw at the first week of training and how unfit he was but he could play two fifteen minute stints like Russell Packer did last season if needed I reckon.
Im a huge fan of Steve Waetford and he didn't disappoint me tonight. Looked really good out there and didn't look out of place even when playing Fullback. Hope the Warrior Reserves play him in the halves all season instead of playing musical chairs with him.
My main man Jerome Ropati went well IMO. Has lost a lot of pace but his head is still as sharp as ever. Wonder whether he can regain his speed?
Nathan Friend really stood out. Was really pleased to see him scoot from dummy half without overdoing it or overplaying his hand. Good to see him get a try. He'll be essential to our season.
Great honour for Sam Rapira being our captain tonight. Still a solid ball carrier and still IMO has the quickest play of the ball of any prop going. Both him and Jacob Lillyman went about their work in the dependable fashion we have all come to know and expect.
I thought John Palavi and Agnatius Paasi went well. Paasi has a good read on defence despite his edge giving away a few tries. Palavi ran well and hit even better. Handy fringe graders.
Anyone know anything on Jared Wilson who was meant to be marking Burgess? What about the level of Malo Solomona's involvement with the Warriors? Last time I saw him was when he was playing for the Pt Chev Pirates...
How awesome was Ben Matulino? Must have been allowed to have his tuna pasta salad before the game. He was on fire! I was having flashbacks to 2012 but this time with a lot more of an offload. Going to be a very interesting headache for Matt Elliott in deciding who our prop and 2nd row rotation will be. Im sold on Mutts moving back to his original position. Easily my MoM.
Feleti Mateo was back to his silky best after dropping the ball early on in the game. His offloads while the team still had the forward really opened up Wigan. Surprised to see him play after hearing only 3 weeks ago that he hadn't trained fully with the team. Really really hoping he can start Round 1 and continue this games form for the whole season.
Albert Vete was such a handful tonight. He stood tall in every tackle and make some handy offloads that weren't forced. He's not far off 1st grade material. My opinion on him is somewhat tainted by what I saw at the first week of training and how unfit he was but he could play two fifteen minute stints like Russell Packer did last season if needed I reckon.
Im a huge fan of Steve Waetford and he didn't disappoint me tonight. Looked really good out there and didn't look out of place even when playing Fullback. Hope the Warrior Reserves play him in the halves all season instead of playing musical chairs with him.
My main man Jerome Ropati went well IMO. Has lost a lot of pace but his head is still as sharp as ever. Wonder whether he can regain his speed?
Nathan Friend really stood out. Was really pleased to see him scoot from dummy half without overdoing it or overplaying his hand. Good to see him get a try. He'll be essential to our season.
Great honour for Sam Rapira being our captain tonight. Still a solid ball carrier and still IMO has the quickest play of the ball of any prop going. Both him and Jacob Lillyman went about their work in the dependable fashion we have all come to know and expect.
I thought John Palavi and Agnatius Paasi went well. Paasi has a good read on defence despite his edge giving away a few tries. Palavi ran well and hit even better. Handy fringe graders.
Anyone know anything on Jared Wilson who was meant to be marking Burgess? What about the level of Malo Solomona's involvement with the Warriors? Last time I saw him was when he was playing for the Pt Chev Pirates...
Agreed with all that - thought Matulino was our best tonight, Waetford was also really impressive at half and fullback. Be happy to see him get a game this year, he tried his arse off all game.
I thought Townsends first two defensive misses may have been down to his inside and outside men, then he missed that one on one tackle after the kick and the guy ran 90m to score. His attack was pretty good though, good support play and nice kicking. I think he'll start Round 1 - hopefully his defence is better with more stable players around him.
Vete would be an awesome addition to the bench. Four hit ups for four offloads was it? Palavi was solid.
I hope we do get Shaun Wane as coach - if our teams (20s, Reserves, NRL) had the structure that Wigan had then we would feature in the finals every year. I was impressed with how Wigan had options for which seemed like every single play. Their players are nowhere near as athletic as our boys but they rolled us because they made us guess on who was getting the ball nearly every play. There options forced us to make decisions. We make the wrong decision and it usually lead to a break or a try, every set they tested our defence, I enjoyed watching their play.
I was also impressed when their younger players came on things were still quite seamless. Everyone knew their role and did it just as effectively as their top side would of.
I understand our side was far more diluted than theirs - it seemed more like a trial for who will play in the reserve grade than anything. And I do have a lot of hope for our NRL side this year but it would be great to see structure with multiple options across all three grades. Hopefully we dont rely on hit up from hurrel, hit up from lillyman, a play to the edge, settle from mannering, kick. I know if Wane was coaching us we'd be killing it.
Inruin
Contributor
yes, which is my concern. Lillyman, Rapira definitely. Matagi and Gubb only just come in to grade, Vete no first grade experience and Sione has had injury problems. Not sure we got enough cover there unless Matulino starts in second row and moves to prop later in the game?
snake77
I shouldn't have laughed at that comment or liked this I used to be a gun cricketer when I was younger. We have one gun commentator with great one liners and another who mashes names together.
Matulino big performance, large amount of minutes and pretty high standard.
Friend dangerous while he was out there, we also looked a bit sharper near the end with Latu out there between that we did look like a bunch of guys who just meet each other. With the number of changes it would be hard to be anything else.
Townsend started poorly and his one on one defence didn't look anywhere near what it did in some of his games for the Sharks. He improved a bit as the game went on; kicking game was a lot more varied then just a bomb.
Hopefully next week against the Broncos with closer to a full strength line up and less interchanges we can see where we are at.
Hitman82
I think that is over-stating our propping problems a little.
Lillyman and Rapira both sweet for sure.
Matagi played 11 games for us and 2 for Samoa; seemed to get stronger with every single match and certainly never looked out of place. I think we can fairly say he's in the first squad to stay.
Lousi is another sure thing. He's been injured but so have a lot of other players - Rapira and Lillyman included. He's currently fit, so we can guarantee he will be in the top side.
There you have it... 4 props with Gubb and Vete for depth.
Gubb has proven he's a more than capable depth player imo and he gets another chance to show his worth this weekend.
Vete... well for all the criticism he cops in regards to his tackling and fitness, I thought he was a beast in offence and defense tonight. So much that I'd nearly say he HAS to be on our bench... offers more impact and offload potential than anybody else I can think of. He may only be able to play 10-15 minute stints but hey isn't that the idea of a big impact forward??? When we have big minute forwards all over the park, he really wouldn't need to pace himself.
On current injury status I think we can easily chuck Matulino in the back row... and if we lose a prop well shit - we swap him back haha. Easy!!
Mr Frank White
Contributor
Did anyone else see Ben Matulino getting subbed off and replaced by Mason Lino- Is that a contender for the worst substitution the world has ever seen?
In all seriousness, I don't know why we let ourselves pick such a young side, especially on the edges. This is not just a trial against any team, this is a trial against the best super league team in the Northern Hemisphere who are the English equivalent of the Melbourne Storm in terms of prestige over there. Why we picked inexperienced backs against Josh Charnley, an English international Super star was baffling to me. Hence why our edges were ripped to pieces when we didn't have the ball. Should have taken this trial more seriously.
The good part was when we had the ball, we always looked dangerous. Big Ben, damaging as always and Feleti Mateo had quite a lot of good offloads that created a lot of pace. I must say alot of the youngsters are very good hole runners- Adam Tuimavave Gerrard I thought shows incredible promise for a young lad. We look like having a good young crop of props too- Vete, and Papalii I thought were enormous as was Lisone who I believed played as well.
I would have loved to see Havili get some more game time, not enough of him I saw, though I know he is a gun when running the metres. If we had him as a sub for Friend, we'd have two awesome running hookers.
Townsend- the jury is still out on him, but definitely a good goal kicker if we need one of those in the side in case Shaun gets injured.
In all seriousness, I don't know why we let ourselves pick such a young side, especially on the edges. This is not just a trial against any team, this is a trial against the best super league team in the Northern Hemisphere who are the English equivalent of the Melbourne Storm in terms of prestige over there. Why we picked inexperienced backs against Josh Charnley, an English international Super star was baffling to me. Hence why our edges were ripped to pieces when we didn't have the ball. Should have taken this trial more seriously.
The good part was when we had the ball, we always looked dangerous. Big Ben, damaging as always and Feleti Mateo had quite a lot of good offloads that created a lot of pace. I must say alot of the youngsters are very good hole runners- Adam Tuimavave Gerrard I thought shows incredible promise for a young lad. We look like having a good young crop of props too- Vete, and Papalii I thought were enormous as was Lisone who I believed played as well.
I would have loved to see Havili get some more game time, not enough of him I saw, though I know he is a gun when running the metres. If we had him as a sub for Friend, we'd have two awesome running hookers.
Townsend- the jury is still out on him, but definitely a good goal kicker if we need one of those in the side in case Shaun gets injured.
RidingPie
Thanks for the running commentary guys as I start work early I didn't get chance to watch the match. I'll watch it tonight on Wigan TV.
Just a note though about you guys putting a young team out. It sounds like players like Burgess and Manfriedi, Powel and Hampshire had a good game for us. They are not our first team (actually I'm hoping Burgess is this year but I suspect in the WCC they'll play someone more experienced). I suspect some of the difference might have been that were more advanced in to our preseason.
As Danz pointed out the Wigan youngsters all know the first team structure and slot in really well. It certainly kicks the regulars when they put in a performance like that. Wane will drop anyone if he feels the reserve will play better.
Just a note though about you guys putting a young team out. It sounds like players like Burgess and Manfriedi, Powel and Hampshire had a good game for us. They are not our first team (actually I'm hoping Burgess is this year but I suspect in the WCC they'll play someone more experienced). I suspect some of the difference might have been that were more advanced in to our preseason.
As Danz pointed out the Wigan youngsters all know the first team structure and slot in really well. It certainly kicks the regulars when they put in a performance like that. Wane will drop anyone if he feels the reserve will play better.
Inruin
Contributor
I'm not saying they wont be picked, I'm not sure there is huge amounts of quality there. Rapira, Lillyman are proven although both have detractors. Matagi yes, but i'm unsure he has proven he can consistently play the minutes week on week. Sione is not rated by many, though I thought he was ok a few seasons back when he played a number of games. Gubb and Vete again, not sure of the fitness levels and can play the minutes week on week, I would say Vete lasts 5 mins max in first grade before running out of puff. Sure we have the names on paper, not sure we will have the fire power. Hope to be proven wrong, because I love the idea of Matulino in he second row.
Magic Stick
Wigans teenagers really impressed..had a lot more polish and game smarts than our boys.. Wigan must have very good coaching and invest a lot into there youth programmes
