I do not think eastmond would work with smith as eastmond would want to be the centre of attention.

Sadly some people just cant grasp the fact that we cant keep everybody. Matty Smith is a good player but as we can only play 2 halfbacks and we have Leon Pryce as a cert thats leaves 1 spot. The club and coaching staff obviously believe Eastmond is a brighter propect and it's in the best long term interest of the club and the player that Smith move on and get the first team Rugby he needs and we can develop more young players with the extra cap money/squad space (players like Ellis and Gaskell)

Matty had a top game for us and personally with Pryce out and Kyle unlikey to be 100% fit I hope he keeps his spot in the team and picks up a grand final winners medal but all the people bleating about keeping him should just take a breath, look at the squad and answer the following easy question , If we were injury free with the squad we have would Matty Smith be in the 17 ? In my opinion the answer is no and by the fact that he was loaned out all year I guess Mick Potter would agree.

I think thats nonsense. I'm not sure they would be the best combo but if Eastmond is fit then a I would expect Eastmond to pick up the Leon Pryce type of role and play as a 6 and Smith to play 7 for the rest of the playoffs.

Where does this come from that he was somehow treated shoddily by Saints?

He understandably wanted more 1st team experience, we felt we couldn't offer him that because he was behind better players in the pecking order.

That's sport, and the simple fact is that he wouldn't have been considered had our halves and back-up halves not been decimated.

That's not to detract from Matty, all credit to him for the professional way he answered the Saints' call, he was superb last night and let nobody down. He's given Potter a selection problem if Eastmond and/or Lomax are fit in a fortnight.

I think you need to get off your high horse.

People are perfectly aware we can't keep everybody. The point people are making - on the whole - about Smith is that he provided us last night with two things we struggle to have: a real kicking game and good organisation. Our backs were caught out a couple of times by his kicks, not because they weren't good kicks but because our backs weren't used to responding to that kind of a final play. Wello was alert to the possibilities which is why he was the one to get to that first grubber and had it not been raining he might well have taken it in. But there were other occasions when, had our backs been used to a good kicking game, we might have scored had we been more alert to those sorts of possibilities. It was a joy to watch us actually being able to put the other team on the back foot by some seriously good kicking: tactical kicking, kicking that shows independence of thought.

On top of that, of course, most Saints fans thought we would struggle to win last night because we were without our halfbacks so to watch someone do what Matty did under those circumstances was simply fantastic.

Saints didn't contact him while he was at Salford. He was interviewed in the press and he was still waiting to hear from Saints. This was just before he signed with Salford. And now Saints contact him when, as Mick Potter so delightfully put it, we had no-one else. I think it's shoddy to send a guy out on loan and then not talk to him about his future when his contract is coming to an end, especially a guy who has made it consistently clear he wants to play for the club. And I'm not the only fan to think that.

Agree with a lot of the post, but this is highly unfair.

Eastmond has a great kicking game.

His contract ends at the end of the season. Contract negotiations are often carried out late in the season. It's a non story.

The problem always lay in the fact that he wanted to play for the club, but he would have had to have settled for a bit part position given the talent that already sits at half back.

I agree, Eastmonds kicking game this has been pretty good but matty smith has a much better short kicking game and also likes the odd 40-20

Just think. How many times have you seen Kyle kick mid field? How many 40/20s has he attempted? He has kicked some lovely kicks across the tryline and has kicked goals but he hasn't got the tactical and creative kicking of Smith. Maybe he will develop that side of his game over time but to do so he will have to start thinking outside the box a bit more. Smith is a natural tactical kicker and that was present in his game when he was last with us. It was a real treat having a kicker like Smith in a red vee. Or it was for me, anyway!

His kicking on friday was top class.

He has to play in all our games this year IMO.

Smith's game is probably more mature than Eastmonds but thats to be expected.

FWIW 'Saintsfan' I'm not on my high horse I just find all the hysteria amusing. Smith is a good player who put in a very good performance however Eastmond is a very special player in the Longy mould. the only way I could see us keeping him would have been to move Leon to 13 (I'd love to see that) or shift Eastmond to fullback and dump Wello ...

I don't know when talks are held over things like loan terminations and such like. I'm sure we knew Scott Moore was returning for quite a while before the end of the season?


This is a problem only if the club considers there is no place for him. On the evidence of last night, there is a place for him but not instead of Eastmond; rather as well as. He would complement Eastmond I think, providing us with a much rounder halfback partnership than we have at present. Kyle is flashy and he darts and ducks around. He can also kick over the tryline very well indeed. But other teams will try and nulify that and will succeed over time. We needed a foil: someone who could add a different kind of unpredictability; something Smith would do with his kicking game. On top of that, Smith can organise. I'm not at all sure Kyle can.

It's a shame we let him go but that's how it is. Perhaps if he plays for us again in two weeks he'll have a rubbish game and everyone on here can tell me what a dork I am and how I don't know what I'm talking about.

I agree that eastmond seems to be a special player(when fit) and is prob the best number 7 in super league when match fit but matty smith is the old style scrumhalf and in certain games we need a bit of that.

If im being honest i'd rather we binned moore and kept matty smith. Smith would fit in very well at hooker and give us cover in the halfs. I do like moore but if it came down to losing pryce, eastmond, smith or moore then i'd bin moore.

Smith had a good kicking game when he was last with us and he was Eastmond's age then so while he has obviously gained some experience in the interim (although at Crusaders he was largely left out in favour of Aussies), I wouldn't put it all down to maturity. He's just a different player from Eastmond.


Fair enough. But I think what you are probably seeing is shock more than anything. I don't know about you, but when I was standing on the terraces before the match I didn't think we were in with much of a chance even with Smith included. Having seen what Smith brought to the party, and the fact that we dominated 60 minutes of the game, something I haven't seen us do all season, it's not really surprising that there is a bit of hysteria around, surely? I know I have felt hysterical ever since halftime!

I totally agree. I also think his kicking game is natural and therefore very valuable. Also, I think some people are getting distracted by Kyle's flash. It is great, I love it, but I'd also like some solid stuff too. To have both would be ideal.

And I know this will be considered as tantamount to blasphemy and will probably bring mockery and much beating of breasts, but I actually was extremely impressed by Kyle when he played centre for us last year. I thought he executed some fantastic centre play. He seemed like a natural there to me.

Matty smith short kicking game on friday was the best ive seen for many years.

Also, his long kicking game was very very good. Even tho at times he kicked straight down mathers throat but he kicked it very very deep from in our own half.

Great old style scrumhalf display.

Yes. It was a joy to see.


Yep. A good tactical kicker. He made Mathers concentrate and gave plenty of time for the chase.

Pryce is a shoe-in at stand-off. Therefore you'd have Eastmond and Smith both vying for the scrum half position, with neither of them happy to be second choice. You don't often have the luxury of being able to field a reserve scrum half on the bench given the need to spell your forwards.

So while I'm sure he [icould[/i complement Eastmond, I'm pretty sure Smith wouldn't be happy with playing back-up.

Some people need to get some perspective. Matty Smith had a great game on Friday but in a Saints shirt he has not shown the consistency to warrant the jersey. I'm grateful for what he did, and I hope he does it again if called upon, but I don't think a mistake was made in letting him go. I'm happy with our half back options when everyone is fit and I don't think Matty would be in the first 17.

Plenty. Often turning round the back three too.



Plenty, made a fair few too. I thought you watched all of the home games?

Christ, I can't believe this is even a debate, look at the stats for [url=http://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?hs1=2010&hp1=2302&hs2=2010&hp2=2844&stat=tries&season=2010this year[/url alone. He's better than him in most stats, and is only a small distance behind in kicks in general play and attacking kicks. In half the matches. Yet you haven't seen Eastmond make kicks from mid field? And you'd prefer Smith to Eastmond?

Kyle has only kicked one forty twenty in his entire career and it came in 2008.

This is all that needs to be said on the matter.

The one at Wakey? Thought he'd done more than that.

It's quite simple - Eastmond is a special player, Smith is a good kicker. If Eastmond is fit, Smith doesn't get a look in.

Would Smith have won us the play-off against Wigan last season with ball in hand? Would he have scored that try in the GF last year? Would he have terrorised the Kiwis like Kyle did last year?

Let's face it - Eastmond is better, which is why Smith is playing for Salford next year. Smith is 23 and won't want to be sitting around waiting for Kyle to get injured, so it's not even a debate.

Plus, why should we be in constant contact with Matty? He was on a season long loan and everybody knew full well he would sign for Salford and wouldn't get an offer from Saints, including Matty himself.