==when you compare sinfield IMO will never be a half back is picked before time served backs we are in trouble on the international scene.matty is short of a class standoff to work with!!

Err..that doesn't prove anything and gives no credit to the player for improving or coaching staff at his NRL club.

Also whenever [iwe[/i sign a player who is deemed as average as Cooper was in SL you can guarantee someone will post that once Wane and Bitcon get hold of him he will go well (and to be fair quite often this is how it pans out) so the fact Cooper has improved could be for exactly the same kind of reasons and has got nothing to do with Smith or his ability v NRL half backs.

That's exactly my point though. A player goes to the NRL from superleague and does well and it's due to great coaching whereas if the go and do poorly its because they're an inferior superleague player. It's the same as when they come over here from the NRL. If they go well it's because they're a super human NRL player coming down a level whereas if they fail it's because they're here for a holiday.

The truth IMO is there are a pretty large number of average NRL players and there are dozens of players over here that can go there and have very solid NRL careers. We need to stop being so negative about our lads abilities and so ready to blow smoke up the NRL's backside. Superleague may not be the NRL but it's a very good competition and many NRL players have been found out over here.

Matty Smith like 10-15 of his Wigan teammates would go well in the NRL.

I honestly believe that this Wigan squad could hold its own in the NRL

I think we would as well. It's hard to judge where we stand on the WCC alone but there were a lot of factors that counted against us that day (not least our own performance which was way off the standard we're capable of).

I'm confident we could challenge to make the play offs.

Agreed