Thurston is one of the all time greats, he's a very, very special player indeed.

Not sure it's fair to be mentioning Thurston in a discussion about Matty Smith....

I think that not having Blake Green in the side for the last year and a bit has severely exposed Matty Smith's shortcomings as a player. Whilst he generally has a great in-play kicking game, his pace is sorely lacking for a half back and his passing is sometimes woeful. I've often found him to be ball greedy in attack in trying to score tries himself whilst ignoring the easy pass option. That being said, I don't think moving him to hooker would be the best option as a stop-gap while MM is out but would be interested to see how Williams and Tomkins went at 6 & 7.

I just don't think he's good enough for Wigan, period.

And I don't think that comparing him to Thurston helps his case at all.

Smith may have similar physical characteristics to Thurston, but that's where it ends. There is absolutey no comparison beyond that. Thurston is a global star, while Smith is a journeyman who is holding Wigan back.

Like it or not Matty is the current Wigan and England Scrum Half. Comparisons with Thurston may be unfair but Thurston doesn't break the line and he doesn't do 30 yard passes either. He guides the team around the field like Matty does. Matty's range of passing isn't close to Thurston's of course and his kicking is nowhere near as accurate either but he gets the job done with no fuss.

I always find it hilarious that the posters on here seem to think they know better than the Wigan and England coaches. A bit of humility might be in order boys and girls.

I wouldn't disagree with anything you've said. But why single Matty out? If he's the best of a bad bunch then surely that means others are worse. How does that make him a liability? How does that mean he's not good enough for Wigan? He seems to be the current scapegoat on here for some reason.

And before you get too misty eyed about the past I well remember going to the 1992 World Cup Final at Wembley when our scrum half that day was none other than Derek Fox from Featherstone. A good player for sure, but give me Matty any day. His performance in a Man of the Match display in the third test seems to have been overlooked in a "What have the Romans ever done for us?" kind of way. Matty was the lynchpin of the double winning team lets not forget (Lance Todd winner too). He may well be missing Blake but I reckon if we put Sam in there it would make for a very tasty partnership.

I thought Dobson last Thursday looked far more dangerous than Smith. Not saying Matty was poor, more that he was quiet. Dobson has a great boot too.
For someone who was instrumental in our survival in 2006 cant believe we never made an approach for him since.

Despite other stuff I've said, this is honestly not 'pick on Matty week'.

I also feel we are lacking any strike-force in the centres. I don't rate Sarge and Gelling is too unreliable, while we have weak links in the forwards too (Mossop being the most glaring example, though even our back-rowers are very small).

But I feel that one of the biggest problems is our lack of creativity. George could be so much more dangerous running alongside a scrum half who can open doors for him. We are third in the league with a points-difference of only 15. The three teams below us have a better one than that, while the two above us are way higher. It was a key problem towards the end of last year that we couldn't score tries. Thus far in 2016, it's the same story. Surely our main play-maker must take a lot of the blame for that?

He's a willing lad, Matty Smith, and by all accounts a nice a guy, but I feel Wigan are in a real rut at present. Instead of recruiting experience, we've again relied on an exciting generation of youngsters - but the best one of those has now left and the one everyone used to really rave about can't even get into the Castleford first team. That's what happens when you bank on kids. You're lucky if one or two of them make the grade. Okay, that's not Matty's fault - but I just feel we need a big clear-out of those who aren't performing and to replace them with some real quality, and our midfield general role is the most vitally in need of overhaul.

I know that's not easy, by the way, especially mid-season. But I feel it's a new strategy we should be adopting at the soonest opportunity.

I agree that Smith is jot as bad as made out by a lot of posters, he has won games for us and he is a steady influence. I would like a fast line busting scrum half but that's not his game, he does have the best kicking game at the club and he is our goal kicker. His goal kicking looks better he seems to have added more range to his kicking he was close with every kick on Thursday.

Any replacement would have to tick a lot of boxes

Matty Smith worlds best number 7...

Got to give it to Smith. He messed up by kicking dead at a crucial time to hand Hull the lead but to fight back and drop two goals over should give him a lot of confidence.

It hardly handed Hull the lead. They did have 80 metres to go!!!

I assume you are referring to the grubber which went touch in goal rather than touch, resulting in a 20m restart rather than the desired 10m scrum. I think NK is referring to the kick off which went out on the full, which is a penalty of the halfway, so after the penalty kick to touch they would have had 30-40 to go with a full set. Surely you can't deny it was a big let off for them and strongly contributed to their comeback?

Having said that, impressed with Smith for nailing both drop goals and making the decision to go for them. I've been critical of him the past few weeks for not even going for the one point on offer at crucial times but he did the job twice here. Last season he tended to miss one before he got one as well but none of that on Friday. Ideally he would have kicked the touchline conversion, not given away big penalty and either put the grubber in touch or kicked the second drop goal at that point but I know he's not Thurston, or even Sinfield. He did the job well here.

My mistake, I remembered the grubber but conveniently forgot the kick off!

He seems to have added to his range doesn't he, unless there was a strong wind behind that kick. Anyway you are right, that was a bad error.

Referring to the last drop goal, he was very clever, he organised the backs to his right in plain view so that the defence weren't able to push up on him, thus keeping them honest. It gave him the chance to measure his kick instead of rushing it.