He's also said in today's MEN that he now sees himself as a full back. Shaun Wane has ruled out moving him from full back to stand off so please stop bleating on about it. There is a reason why Shaun Wane is the coach and not any of us!!!!

Can we please give Matty Smith a chance without comparing him to Finch, Tommy, Trent, Deacs or any other player who has graced the halfback jersey in the last 20 years. Posters on here were dead against us signing Eric Luauki (spelling) saying he would be a liability but if you look at his stats, he's been awesome for us, hardly missing a tackle and has lots of go forward and raw agression - something that Shaun Wane loves!

Let the guys at the club do their job and just sit back and enjoy the magic that our team produces on the rugby field!

Made me chuckle too.

Don't be arrogant and insist people not to share their opinions on a message board, there's many people who think Sam will eventually be put back into the halves once he develops a quality passing game and there's others who think he's a fullback for life. It's not coaching it's sharing an opinion.

This place is not a dictatorship and as TB pointed out it is not about coaching but sharing opinions and another of mine I will share with you for free is Eric Lauaki has been average, never awesome (Lima has been, as have HH and others) and he isn't as good a prop as Lima, Prescott and Mossop. I would have kept O'Carroll.

And why wouldn't we compare Smith to current or past players? We do it with every signing we make and every player who progresses from the juniors to the first team! Or is it not allowed to compare Sam to Radlinski or as I am sure we will be doing one day, to Shaun Edwards?

It does make me laugh though that people keep talking about moving Sam back to stand-off at some point as if this is the final piece of the puzzle, which Wane hasn't quite worked out yet.

Only in Wigan ...

The guy is looking better at full-back than almost anyone I can remember in a Wigan shirt, including Rads, who was a great attacker but - let's be honest - not in the same league as Sam.

And people still want to move him somewhere else!!!

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but some leave me gobsmacked.

Ha Ha Ha! You lot are sooooo funny!!! You get on your high horse about everyone is entitled to their opinion but at the start of the season when someone new to this board commented on the quality of the current replica shirts he was totally berated!

You preach about everyone is entitled to an opinion and then berate me for having my own - priceless!!!

Sam is a full back and he will always be a full back! I fully agree with Cruncher - the guy is outstanding in this, now his preferred position. Shaun Wane will not move him to half back - get over it!

Eammon O'Carroll before Eric - really????? What a shame Shaun Wane doesnt read this!

Yep, we would have a 100% record, and nilled every other team... Wane must be an idiot...

He'd be in good company on these boards then!

very much agree with this comment and i think although it seems to be happening don't think he could ever live up to the hype or the famous Wigan number 7 shirt

I don't understand all this stubbornness from people regarding the possibility of Sam moving back to 6, if Finch leaves along with Tommy. When you are signing one new half that we think is Smith and we still lack depth / experience in that area it makes sense that our best player moves to a playmaking role in the halves, particularly when we have a potential replacement FB (Russell) ready to play. In my view it's whats best for the team in the long term. Sam will be wasted at FB if we have no direction in the halves. A combination of Smith and Mellor or Smith and Powell is far too much change in the pivotal roles.

This is my thinking, Sam is allowed to show his brilliance because he's working of the forwards hard work and linking up with Finch and Tommy without the this halves combination his talents wouldn't be completely realised. I believe Sam is both a runner and a ball player he can utilise both of these assets of his game playing 6 or 7 in a similar way to Benji Marshall and Shaun Johnson, he'd have a lot more influence on a game in this position I feel. Concerning Russell I've heard of too many good things from respected people to assume he won't be our future fullback.