I thought in the first half his kicking game kept Leeds off our line as we were hardly making the 30 mtr line in the sets.
In the 2nd 40 mins very few kicks if any went straight into Leeds hands.
He was kicking often from inside his own 30 mtr area and turning Watkins around. Once or twice Watkins did show what he can do with ball in hand but generally I though it was the best kicking game we've had for some years both from Smith and Green.
Matty Smith's goal kicking was excellent as well. His conversion following Thornley's try was as good as it gets.
I do think we've found a 2nd kicker after Pat.
A very good game from Matty and would suely be second only to Farrell for his impact on our game.
I also think there's a great deal more to come from him but he does have a good all round game which is neeed for a half back.

I couldn’t agree with you more. At one time last night my son commented, “at last we seem to be developing some sort of kicking game” and though our kicking efforts are not yet where we would like just yet, I had to agree with him too, and another half decent goal kicker is a big plus too.

Going to go against the grain here and say I thought Smith really struggled last night aside from his kicking and has done for a few weeks. His decision making with ball in hand has been poor with 3 occasions highlighting this last night. He gave an obstruction away in the first half by taking too long to make a decision, threw a pass behind a Wigan runner in the 2nd half giving Leeds possession in our half and he should have passed the ball on that last play rather then kicking for the corner with Wigan having a huge overlap. The defensive side of his game has been better then I thought it may be but it needs work still.

His kicking out of hand was ok and his goalkicking was exceptional(kept saying last year he should be well ahead of Charnley in the pecking order) but we need some improvement from him imo. I'm certainly not writing him off as I do rate him and believe he will improve but i'm not convinced he's anywhere near his best at the moment.

FWIW i agree with this.

He's brought a good kicking game and he's played ok BUT he's not that much of a threat with ball in hand whether that be via his passing or running game. Maybe this will possibly change when the ground firms up. We need him to offer a spark or threat will ball in hand just like we had with Tommy L

I thought Matty Smith's goalkicking was exceptional last night, if he keeps that up I would install him as our main goalkicker.

I agree with this as well. Certainly didn't think he was fantastic last night.
Was it Smith who threw the ball into no-man's land in our own half which JJB eventually scored from in the 2nd half? That was a killer moment!

In the second half Leeds were reading the pass from o'loughlin to smith for the usual routine and rushing smith who seems to need a lot of time to make decisions

He was playing behind a beaten pack and Leeds were rushing up on him. I'm not saying a better halfback wouldn't have done better, but he did have a tough job on his hands. He put some decent kicks in too

I agree.

Apart from his kicking, and some of it last night was dire straight into Leeds hands. He doesn't offer many attacking options at all.

We need this feller to step up.

How many scrum halfs do you know who have a good kicking/passing and running game?
Tommy L was an excellent defender , strong runner but a poor kicker/passer.

His lack of a real running game isn't a major issue for me because he has threats around him on that score with obviously Sam Tomkins the major one and he's the best in the business. It's his decision making and quality of pass that i'm really worried about at the minute. I thought it was all going pretty well for him until the 2nd half of the Cas match when he missed runners in good positions with 2 or 3 passes to kill the game off and it's gone a bit wayward since then.

I'd see his role as a Paul Deacon type halfback for us of keeping the ball moving through the backline, keeping it nice and simple and playing a pretty error free game but that's the issue at the moment, there are too many errors and his decision making is off.

I think it's just a confidence issue and he'll get there. The one thing you could never say about the guy is that he isn't giving it everything because he is a real 100% man. If anything I think sometimes he tries too hard and becomes a bit frantic.

I thought he was woeful in defense against Cas but he wasn't on his own with ST, Charnley and Hughes all shirt grabbing and making a meal of Webster and Carney. Last night he was a lot better and his kicking game is a real asset to us, I just hope Blake Green compliments him a bit more with a running game and taking the line on more, his pass to Thornley could have been better when we were attacking in the 2nd half, but in contrast maybe Thornley's positioning wasn't the best. Personally i think the jury is still out on Green IMO. It's got to be about the 17 taking the field complimenting each other and I don't want two half backs that are similar in style. All in all i thought our performance was good and with a bit more field position we could have caused them a few more problems, basically we put ourselves under pressure more than Leeds did, i accept they bombed a few chances but so did we. With a few forwards back from injury and ST fit we will go okay, more confident now than i was at the start of the season.

Exactly.

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