Good luck to him. Bit of a shock though, thought Potter would have gone with Lomax and Moore. I have someone to support in the playoffs now

Lomax is apparently injured (again), although not sure how serious.

If Smith does return to Saints, how will it fit with the salary cap?

Presume Salford are still paying his wages

made my day

Just had a text saying RFL have given the thumbs up... the plot thickens

That was already confirmed in the MEN article wasn't it?

Awesome news. I always knew he was the one. We should release Kyle, Johnny and Mr Wheeler. I'm sure McVities would be interested in a deal.

But really, this must mean that Kyle and Johnny aren't going to feature at all in the playoffs.

Maybe we could swap him back for Wheeler & Ellis & we'll throw in Gaskell..

He would be a good option, especially if we are lackingall three of our first choice half-back options. He would be a little unfamiliar with our plays, but his kicking game alone would be a great boost as we were dreadful in this area in the semi against Leeds.

So, let me get this straight. Matty Smith is widely respected at your place?

I never believe anything until I've heard it from Saints... Papers don't always print factual stories

Hes not in the same class as what we have. but he has proved he can do a job. Nothing spectacular but will give us some organisation and a very good kicking game. We have injuries in the halves so he would be better than having to move other players out of position.

Good, solid organising 7. Exactly what we need at the moment.

Less talented than Wheeler/Eastmond/Lomax though, so was let go.

Wish Wheeler/Eastmond/Lomax were half as robust as him though!

playing for free for the love of the club.

Confirmed

[urlhttp://www.saintsrlfc.com/news/2810[/url

Fair assessment of him. And I suppose that every player moved out of position to accomodate the injured halves is only going to create new problems. Good move Saints!



All the best for Friday.

I want us to keep hold of Matty, thought he was very underrated here after his heroics getting us to the 2007 GF, would have been a better option than Scott Moore IMO.
I hope he tears it up, and the saints board are left embarrased by the decision.

Would it be Leon or Eastmond you would have had him in front of? If you think we'd play him hooker - he's no Roby and we resigned Moore in the year he made the Dream Team at hooker.

Even if he wins every MOM between now and the GF, there's no reason for the board to be embarrassed about the decision not to re-sign him. He's 23 years old - he doesn't want to be sat around waiting for injuries to better players, nor could our salary cap allow him to do that with Lomax/Wheeler who can play in the halves.

Others have summed it up, he's not in the same league and doesn't have that bit of magic that Kyle does, but he's a more than competent squad member and a great option for Saints to have.

He'll do a solid job for Saints and in particular our kicking game should improve with him in the team.

In the days of pay as you play contracts, the likes of Wheeler and Eastmond would have had a pain killing injection and go out onto the field. I seriously think that some of these young pro's expect to be 100% fit and healthy for every game when in reality, someone like Longy and Kieron spent their entire career carrying one injury or another.

My honest opinion is he may have been a victim of bad timing. Kyle is better, but i doubt we'll keep him longterm and i think Matty would make a better 9 or 7 than Scott. Matty's distribution is much better, but as you say when we resigned Scott he was in the dream team.

You'd think it was Lockyer you'd had the thumbs up to play Friday