We're starting to get to the point in the season when the games and the results get more important. Second chances are running out.
Pattern
Let's take a look at the start of the game between Warrington and the Giants.
The Wolves managed to score four times before the Giants crossed the try line. All four of these tries came either directly from a handling error made by Paul Anderson's team (three inside their own half of the field) or from a penalty that was conceded after they'd made a handling error.
It's hard, if not impossible, to come back and win a 'sudden death' game in those circumstances.
On Monday night at the DW Stadium, a similar pattern emerged. Wigan's first two tries came directly from a Viking's error, as did another later in the first half.
So what do you do about this? Well the Vikings probably won't feature in the Play-Offs at the end of the season, so they've got rather longer to work on it, but Anderson's team have just eight weeks before they'll be faced with a repeat of the pressure that they were put under last Saturday.
If anything the pressure is even greater on them now, especially after their previous mid-season collapses in recent years which have been highlighted so frequently by the media. In last season's Play-Offs they embarrassingly limped out when they lost by 46-10 at Hull. Surely it can't happen again this year?
But this scenario is what makes sport so special. Can they rise to the Challenge? What did they learn during that opening 30 minutes at the Halliwell Jones Stadium? Are they mentally strong enough to cope with the pressure? Will they be any different next time?
It's virtually impossible to artificially recreate the pressure and nerves that the Giants were under last weekend, but I think that they've got six more first halves of Super League action to use as full dress rehearsals for this year's Play-Offs.
It's rare to see a team play for 40 minutes without making a single handling error or conceding a try, but that must be a goal for the Giants. When the bullets get loaded in that pistol they need to be capable of hitting the target.
