“WE were poor” – that was Shaun Wane’s typically short and to the point assessment of Wigan’s performance at Huddersfield.

The Warriors, who host Saints on Thursday in an eagerly-awaited first v second encounter, didn’t blame injuries to key men because the Giants who are looking to secure a top eight finish, had their own problems

After a fifth defeat in eight games, Wane instead pointed to the number of penalties conceded which he said didn’t give Wigan a chance to win the game.

Saying this, I’ve no doubt Wigan will be out to turn things around against their fiercest rivals. We will be clear favourites going into the game though, and just needed to make sure we don’t underestimate the depleted Warriors.

St Helens with our free-flowing style have taken the Betfred Super League by storm and are eight clear at the top with two games to go in the regular season.

But Justin Holbrook will be well aware of the danger of taking the foot off the gas against second-place Wigan.

He also recognised the impact of man of the match at the KCOM Stadium Jonny Lomax.

I totally agree, Jonny has been outstanding this season and looks back to his sharpest self. His two tries in that barnstorming second half was a major factor in the 34-18 victory.

On current form I can only see one winner in this game...the mighty Saints! I will go for a 10+ points win (6/4 at Betfred)

Finally I was interested to read about RFL ref boss Steve Ganson revealing the amount of abuse that goes on in the pro and community forms of our game.

Beer was thrown at one official and there was the case of a referee’s car being followed – and that’s not to mention the homophobic abuse.

There is absolutely no room for this behaviour in our great game. Refereeing is a thankless job at times as you will never please both sets of players and fans..but without them there is no game. Our game has always prided itself on the respect shown to officials and something we mustn’t let slide.

Ganson was also critical of professional coaches who publicly blame officials after defeats rather than accept their team played badly.

I wasn’t always a Saint on the pitch..but one thing I did was show respect to the match officials and a conversation I had with the England Youth players over in France this week, how many times when you rant and rave at a referee has he changed his mind?...never! So the best way is to show respect and try to influence decisions going forward.