Hampshire is an immense talent in my view. You don't pick halves for their defence, it's one of the nonsenses of the modern sport. He'll frighten the life out of defenders from 6 and he has a passing game to go with his outstanding running threat. That stuff is rare.

Wigan are guilty of overhyping him, as they do with everyone really. That doesn't change the reality that Ryan Hampshire is a huge talent that deserves better than what he is presently getting. He's been shoved at 1 because it worked for Tomkins, when he simply isn't suited to it. I don't care how poor he is defensively from 6, his attack will rip teams to pieces. Long was a poor defender, Smith is an absolute turnstile, all halves are targeted but not all have that ability that Hampshire has.

It's common knowledge Saints want Hampshire and have done for a good 18 months or so. If I were Wigan, I'd be wary of another Sean Long scenario; Williams is a big talent, Smith is serviceable but neither have the truly devastating threat that Hampshire possesses with the ball.

Halves don't need to be big. Even in the NRL, there's Sandow, Hunt, Milford, Barba...

I'm afraid that if you can't defend you will struggle in the modern game. Smith isn't a turnstile by any means as his defence has improved immeasurably since coming to Wigan.

Wigan haven't overhyped Hampshire, but the fans on here have - big difference. I'd be interested about where you have spotted this 'truly devastating threat' because he's hardly shown anything in Super League (I only get to see the U19s about twice a season - maybe you've seen more than me).

I think you are in danger of overhyping here.

Nice to know that it's only Wigan fans over hyping him and then going on to criticise others for over hyping him!

Entirely valid points.

Just my view but I rate him and think he's too talented to not come good. My view is that Wigan have decimated his mentality by putting him at 1 where he's far too isolated defensively and his mistakes are impacting his confidence. I think that's poor from Wigan personally. They usually go okay in developing players but I think they've got it wrong with this lad.

As ever, time will tell. I don't expect him to have a future at Wigan and believe he'll end up at either Saints or Leeds. Those two clubs don't fancy him because he's average.

As you say time will tell. I think you are right about his confidence though. I have noticed that one error tends to lead to another pretty quickly as his head does seem to go down. I wonder if he has the mentality to go along with his skills?

The full back position has exposed his weakness under the high ball. Now, he isn't the first full back to suffer from this, and they all drop them, but he needs to be able to put it behind him quickly. Dixon at Hull KR the other week for example finished with a hat trick after having what can only be described as a mare (I forget the opponents). Hampshire hasn't been able to do that.

Wigan struggled early season by not replacing Green with a seasoned pro like Campese. And I was one who criticised Wigan for that. However I was wrong. Wane has persisted with Williams who is showing how good he is. But surely it would be folly to have two rookies in the halves at the same time? So Hampshire misses out.

I can see another Bobbie Goulding situation here. I remember him making a Lions tour when he was understudy both at GB and at Wigan to Andy Gregory & Shaun Edwards. Ultimately he moved on because he was too good to play second fiddle.

And limited though Matty is, he is the best kicker we've had since Trent Barrett (way better than Hampshire).'"

Eh?

Isn't it obvious that I wasn't referring to place kicking by the fact that I omitted Pat Richards?

Matty Smith's all round kicking game was largely responsible for us winning the double after the vastly superior (in all parts of the game bar kicking) Leuluai and Finch had won us nothing the year before.

Did I need to spell that out?

He'll be singing a different tune if that sniff of Saints signing him disappears!

The lad is blatantly not a full back.

I don't think Smith brings enough to the team to warrant keeping his place over Hampshire - not if the alternative is Hampshire leaving at the end of the season.

Didn't leu lieu win it in 2010?

Now Pie don't get upset. We are only trying to help you overcome these little deficiencies in style.

does anyone still think he's the next great half back then?

i've seen him a few times now, and just don't see what he offers (apart from wearing cherry & white) i can't see anything that marks him out as any better than any other half back/hooker in the competition.

He's a scrum half to me, he should be playing 7 instead of Smith.

He's got the brain for it and with more experience he can deliver. My only concern for his development is that the current set of forwards at Wigan really aren't helping. If they don't get quick PTBs and get on a roll the team is on the back foot in attack. I mean, in terms of his brain that pass he attempted on Thursday, when he delayed the pass only to put out a bad pass. Sure the pass was awful but to have the nous to even attempt it is something that no other British half back in the game has (maybe Chase would see it but I doubt it). Another season or two and that pass is floated out and we're all talking about how brilliant it was. Without those forwards though he's up against it.