What part of a players “off day “do you think doesn’t make a contribution to his team eventually losing? His sloppy tackling, his bad defensive positioning , his slow thinking, wrong pass making, off timing all these things and more can contribute to a loss, without any single one necessarily resulting in a score against. In RL there is a lot of luck that must also be taken into account, and things like a refereeing decision, the playing conditions etc. The thing that troubles me most about Wane is his inability to admit his mistakes. He sees this as an admission of a possible fallibility on his part, instead of recognising it and learning from it which I think would make him a better coach.

I would not expect him to admit his mistakes publicly, its more how he deals with them personally that I am bothered about and we will not know if he learns from them until next year.

And that's the biggest flaw in Dave's logic of blaming Wane and criticising Murphy's mistakes. He says that mistakes that lead to points being conceded are the most important yet completely ignores the fact that the biggest mistake in the game was the one that saw Leeds score their only try - the try that really made the difference considering how Leeds struggled to break down a pretty determined defensive effort.

He also seems to think Murphy's knock on directly led to conceding points and yet it didn't. It contributed but it was Farrell being offside that led to the conceding of the crucial points. Murphy's error obviously played a part, just like Finch's dreadful kicking and organisation did. The mistake that led to the conceding of points was Farrell's.

Going to Salford on a season long loan. Sam Powell was rumoured to be too but don't know now

If he goes to Salford on a "season long loan" is there any recall clause?

Seems an odd decision as he appears to be our reserve half back.

If he can't come back when required who goes into half back, Hampshire or Williams?

Is it just the 28 days or one month then recall?

Can anyone clarify this please?

Sorry, meant if Powell were to go on loan not Murphy.

Still, does anyone know the loan details as I asked?

A season with that lot will certainly prove if he can catch a ball. Hope the lad doesn't come back shell shocked.

i think some are being a bit harsh on Murphy here, how many times last season did we see Sam do a similar thing or at times get nowhere near a spiraling bomb?? happened on a good few occasions iirc so had Sam played what's to say he would he have gotten under it....

I actually don't think many people are blaming Murphy per se. Of course young players make mistakes...it's part of the learning experience. Every single plyer who has ever played the game has made mistakes. It's just a matter of how you learn from them. If I have a criticism of Murphy in that game (and it's only a small one) it's that he actually dropped two high kicks yet, instead of learning from the first, he seemed to think he had 'something to prove' in taking the second even though he was probably in an even worse position. having said that, the counter argument is that at least he was undaunted by his mistake which could be seen as a strong mental attitude. Either way I think most are in agreement that he has bags of potential and hopefully he'll have put that game behind him and go on to be the player we all think he could be.

dont think murphy was helped after the game when kris rads came into the south stand bar and his opening line was 'everyone's going to be talking about a young full back who made a mistake'



his speech was defending him but tbh no one around me was even mentioning the mistake. dont get me wrong kris rads is a wigan legend and is my favourite ever wigan player but i thought that was poor form.



also agree with a previous poster - its not like sam never dropped a bomb or made a mistake when it mattered last year.

I thought Murphy was very brave in even going for that late bomb. He could easily have backed away and prayed for the best but he didn't, he took responsibility for the situation and gave it a crack. It didn't come off but at least he showed some guts in the first place.



The sad part is if he had wimped out and left it then I'm 99% sure he'd have got away with it but those are the breaks.



The team didn't play well enough to win that game. It wasn't Murphys fault not Finch's fault but rather the fact that as a team it took us 45-50 minutes to get going and play like it wasn't a run of the mill league fixture (also known as friendlies).

Far as I'm concerned Murphy has the hallmarks of a good, maybe a great, player. If I'd been picking a MOTM from your lot for the first half he'd have been my choice.