One for the purest, and one I thoroughly enjoyed. The good news is that we can win by playing scintillating rugby or we can grind teams down. It was a very important win for our young team and I believe it will be the springboard to future success. Let’s wallow in this one though.

How many tickets did we sell? The whole ground seemed to have Wiganers in it.

Watching it back now, he’s taken some stick this year but Mago had a cracking game. Big carries and put in some cracking shots on.

I was about to say the same thing. He made a massive contribution on building the momentum that put us on top.

Mago busted a gut to pressure the kicker at one point as well (last contribution before being subbed), which is a great sign of how he’s turned things around.



I’ve just watched the game back for the first time and I think Wardle deserved the MOM. Harry Smith was excellent outside of a couple of poor kicks. Jai Field scared them to death. I thought Smithies was superb as well (55 tackles he made). It was a shame to see Havard go down again and hopefully it’s not too bad. A real shame to see him miss the England series now.

I thought Mago put in an awesome stint. Really put in 100% effort around marker tackles something he never used to do.



Field has gone under the radar a little bit in this game - watching from behind the sticks at the 'Catalan' end he scared them to death in the 2nd half - and without taking anything away from Wardle, he opened up the space for him to make those runs. Only some very good scramble from Catalan prevented him making a much bigger mark.



With the confidence boost this gives us and the new signings it sets us up nicely for next season.

i dont know Zig,but it was bouncing.

You could have said hello as I had ironed my shirt especially

Not a great game for the neutral but brutal defence by Wigan. Ironically it was the type of game that would've suited Saints. Not saying for one minute we'd have definitely won but it was just the type of arm wrestle we normally do well in.



I've said for a while now too that I think Old Trafford has had its day as a venue. Poor transport links in and out and the kick off time means rival fans drunk and arguing. I was sat next to two Warrington fans who were arguing with Wigan fans in front. At HT I defused a potential fight between two Wigan fans, and thats in the hospitality parts. Obviously all the non-Wigan fans in there were supporting Catalans so they had a healthy number of "fans"



Since the CC SF I think Wigan have been the best team in the comp so no complaints from me, they were worthy winners on the night and will definitely be favourites next year. Will be interesting where they play Penrith.



Its going to be a long season when the Internationals are over.

I'm really hoping that we play Penrith in Aus.

I'd prefer it at Wigan - could never make it to Australia, we'd have a better chance at home and it wouldn't disrupt the season as much.

How seriously do we take the WCC? I really like the idea of the best sides in each competition going head to head but do the NRL sides even play their best available 17 these days? If not then it loses its importance IMO and just becomes an interesting friendly.

It's not the be all and end all and it certainly doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.



Just nice to play a different team and see some of our lads go against the best in the world. We rightly talk some of the Wigan lads up, but how will Faz do Vs Martin etc.

Penrith included it as part of the preseason challenge and rested 2 of their key players (Edwards and Martin) last week. Crowd was about 10k.



Hopefully they play a full team this year.

They were injured not rested, just as Batchelor was injured for us, so basically they had one more injury than us from playing a full team.



No doubt if its played in Australia and Wigan win it will be the greatest achievement in the history of British Sport. If Penrith win its because they've taken it "seriously"



Its a win win for Wigan.

Question for you Stu- Do you think Penrith took that Saints game as seriously as they did the Grand Final just gone against Brisbane?



I’ve no issue admitting that for us to beat them, we’ll need them to take the game lightly and be off their best. It would still be an immense achievement beating a team spending 4 times as much as us on players, just as it was for Saints.

Didn’t a challenge by Kierghan get put on report? If he gets banned we go in the season a player down for an incident that went against us.

I think he can use 1 in a friendly. I’d imagine he’ll get a game ir two for that KPP spear tackle.

“The Panthers decided on Tuesday not to risk the pair ahead of the NRL season, with Edwards managing a minor niggle and Martin out with a shoulder injury.



Both are not expected to be in any doubt for the club's round-one clash with Brisbane, but officials have opted to play it safe with the duo.“



They’d have played if it was a big game to them.

So they were injured. Cheers

I think they under-estimated us and obviously they wouldn't have treated it like a GF. However I'm sure any SL side would be more serious about a GF than a WCC.



I'm also under no illusions that were we to play them 10 times over there, they would win considerably more than we would especially if it was mid-season. However as you allude to when they can spend so much on the cap and have the quality of players that they have you would expect it.



Its just annoying that to some Wigan fans its as though they played like it was a testimonial and. I think you only have to see Cleary's ice in the veins celebration after his conversion took it to Golden Point and the reaction of their players at full-time to see what it meant.

The semi final and final sum us up.



We are the entertainers of superleague, throw the ball about, amazing pace and skill and score the best tries. Marshall, Wardle, Field and French.



But we are also the toughest team in the league in a dog fight.



On the back of Harry’s kicking game, our defence can hardly be broken and we can grind out arm wrestle wins.





All hail Matty Peet and the coaching staff.

I think our sides in the main do treat it like a GF but the Aussies don’t. It was an amazing win and something Saints fans will rightfully remember forever, much as we do with 1994 in Brisbane. There’s no shame in admitting Penrith just thought they had to turn up and seemed to have very little interest in the game. A side spending multiple times what we can on their salary cap should be able to win, even with that type of attitude towards the game and the fact Saints beat them was incredible.



Unfortunately though if Saints fans want people to say they beat a fully motivated, fully focused and fully fit and firing Penrith team, that just won’t happen because it’s not true. I suspect they’ll be all of those when they play us because Saints pulled their pants down and it’ll be one hell of a challenge for us. If we pull it off, we’ll get the same things thrown at us though and I’ve no issue with that. To beat them, I think we’ll need them to be of a similar mindset as well.

Exactly. I've been laughing all weekend at certain Saints fans intimating they woulda/coulda won that game, completely missing the point that, unlike them, Wigan can play it in many different ways. Saints are more toothless than Catalans whereas, even in what is seen as an attritional final, we scored one, had one disallowed for a forward pass, another for crossing, one held up on the line and bombed another couple of clear cut chances. On another day that would have been 30+



Imagine if we'd played it free flowing...

It’s been absolutely hilarious! Some bloke who does Red Vee TV now and again tweeted they’d have butchered both sides





Presume he’s been sleeping during Saints games this past few months. They haven’t got a butchering in them against anybody, let alone the two sides on Saturday, defending like that. I can’t recall many scoring opportunities for Saints in the semi outside of the try for Hopoate. Wigan on Saturday created loads of opportunities and only some unbelievable last ditch tackling stopped that being a comfortable night.

Didn't we beat Brisbane with the majority of our pack missing as well? I know we had a few injuries going into the game for sure.