And?

He might be patriotic to his scottish roots of Dewsbury

No, the point is that 'he did nothing wrong but...' and then make a made up point implying as to why he did nothing wrong. Why not leave it at he did nothing wrong, rather than creating excuses as to why the little Cas player managed not to mess everything up on the international stage.

Wakefield hadSean Gleason (Irish)
Ryan Atkins (Injured)
Luke George (Centre/Wing who finished the season in better form than any other threequarter in the SL (except maybe Ryan Hall, scoringsomething like 8 tries from 6 games)
Aaron Murphy (Wing/Centre, who's not ready for internationals)

Ahhead of Smith, In no particular order I'd have picked:
Tony Clubb
Michael Lawrence
Leroy Cudjoe
Chris Bridge
Kris Welham
Kirk Yeaman
Chris Riley (wing)
Darrell Goulding

Leroy Cudjoe?

Seriously?

I know he's only young, but if the main criticism of Smith's performance was his work in defence then I don't see how Cudjoe - who failed twice this season to cope with the superstar that is Francis Meli - represents any sort of an upgrade.

My team selected and posted long before the final squad was announced.
No sign of Lee Smith!

And while not many of the players on my list are in this team they certainly would have been before I selected Smith.

That's not to say I don't like Lee Smith, I actively defended him against Freaky when he said Smith's World Cup appearances had been atrocious. I pointed out that in Smith's one of only full appearance he scored a hat-trick.

None of that change is my opinion that he should not even be in the squad as a centre or a winger, though I may have had him at full-back. However his decision to sign for wasps rugby union club would have ruled him out completely for me.

and even more amazing neither of them are from Castleford.
Proving that bespeckled, carrot topped, milk bottle skinned hillbillies can naturally occur outside of their natural breeding ground.


just joking

I concede the point.

Kirk Dixon and darryl Goulding would've walked all over Inglis and Hodges and gotten us a victory on Saturday.

Dear me.

I've no problem with Smith going off to Union - he's a professional rugby player and if that is where he can get the best deal, then he is only exercising a right that Rugby League was founded to grant (I know it was more complicated than that, but humour me).

I think he is a decent and versatile back - ideal for a touring party, because he can cover 1-5, but I've never thought he looked very special. the alternatives [imight[/i not have been much better on Saturday, but they could not have been much worse with hindsight. I don't want to slag him off particularly, but he should be dropped or at very least switched to the wing.

Bridge isn't much of a replacement unfortunately and T.Smith must have a [ireally[/i low opinion of other English centres if he was seriously considering O'Loughlin there. Eastmond would get the nod for me.

Of those not in the squad, I can of a good few I'd rather see in the centres for the New Zealand game than Smith - [inow[/i

The only reason O'Loughlin played at centre in the warm up game was to try and get him 80 minutes - a number of other forwards had also either missed out on or taken little part in the playoffs and needed game time, so Todd Flanders got shifted into the centres so everyone could be accommodated.