Smith’s played 110 games btw. Please stop excusing him.

At the same stage George Williams had won 2 GFs playing alongside Matty Smith, and also 10 internationals (Smith just 1).

Smirh has previously partnered Hastings, Leuluai and Cust. Hardly all crap halfbacks.

When I saw Smith lining up the kick on the 3rd, you assumed he was either aiming for a 40/20 or he saw clear space to aim at for territory. Either one of those would have been fine but unfortunately it sailed right into the arms of the fullback. I can kind of admire him taking the initiative but if you take a risk like that you have to get it right (particularly as KPP had got us in a good position with an offload the tackle before).

I thought Smith was great on Saturday.

He’s under too much pressure and an easy target because he is our only go to play maker and kicker but he as usual ran the show.

He is developing a habit of becoming a nuisance in defence and managing to slow down the play the ball very nicely with a bit of niggle too.

He though got that play very wrong and that is what he will be remembered for in that game. It was a poor decision which in the crucial throws probably lost us the match.

All the best players have these incidents happen as they develop, hopefully he learns from it and we get a proper 6 in the team going forward to support him.

Agree.

A couple of other players came up with dumb plays in the 2nd half but they won't be scapegoated for it like Smith is.

For me Smith is the most important player in the team. If he was unavailable we would be totally and utterly rudderless.

Generally his kicking game and defence were good and I agree that there's too much pressure on his shoulders.

Smith has been consitently good this season and has improved his game steadily, being a key cog means he will get that scrutinty and criticism all the time (unfortunately). I'm not 100% sure who decided on the 3rd tackle kick - I'd expect the coaches/Snr players would have discussed this in the break at full time? TBH, not the worst idea but just didn't work out. Last time we were in GP we knocked on, so try something different?

Good to see some support and recognition for Smith on these pages. Yes he messed up in extra time, but at half any mistake is magnified.

One other thing I couldn't understand is why Faz and Brad O'Neill were the ones closing down Schneider before the winning drop kick. We have two of the quickest in Field and French and on the previous drop goal attempt Schneider couldn't get the kick away as Field was on him in a flash.

I thought the charge down was a 50/50 personally. He’s running towards the player but he turns away and I think it just comes off his leg. It’s one of those where someone’s gonna feel hard done to either way. I’m not sure what the letter of the law is for a deliberate charge down to reset the tackle count, but I didn’t think he actually made a play for the ball when I watched it.

That's an interesting point - I assumed it would have to be a charge down as the arms were up with the intent to block the ball. But maybe it wasn't given as it hit the legs rather than the arms - I'm not sure on the rule.

You've misunderstood what a charge down is. If the player moves towards the kicker with arms up it's a charge down irrespective of where it hits or whether he turns his head.

It was a charge down. The ref got it wrong.

I don’t think that’s right. You see it all the time as well when it hits a player and goes out of play and they deem it not played at. You also see it plenty of times when someone kicks on the last and it hits someone and the ref waves play on. I think it has to be played at to constitute a charge down and I don’t think moving toward the kicker is sufficient for that. Like I said I’m not sure of the letter of the law, so maybe raising his arms is enough for that, but by my understanding you have to make a play towards the ball (not the player)

What about jumping 4 ft off the floor with your arms in the air? Is that a charge down?

He didn’t jump though lol