I think it's great that Wigan keep persevering with Smith.
He's rubbish!

Thought Sargo had his worst game for us.
And Smith...does he get a prize for every kick-in-play that goes straight down the throat of the oppo?

Sarginson is a real threat from full back but his game has been littered with errors in the two games to date. If he can get rid of them is say it looks to be his natural position.

I think it's more so we're getting over the advantage line straight away. If we pass it deep an energetic defence will turn that into lost yards pretty quick, then all the momentum goes to the defence and the rest of our set gets a lot harder.

If you lie flat it gives the defenders time to get in your face, it also leads to hurried passes which itself leads to the ball going to ground or worse still finishing behind the player the pass was intended for.
When you lie that bit deeper it gives you time to get up to speed and also puts the defenders in two minds, making them think are you going to put some one inside of you or give a short pass for someone to go through on the outside of you.

If you want an example of what I am saying watch the under 19s, in the match at the weekend a lot of the tries came from players cutting back against the grain.

Maybe the senior coaches should watch it to.

The U19's play to exactly the same structure as the 1st team. You most also realise that London aren't really a team to be bench-marked against at that level.

Rouges I know it was only against London, but it was lads in the same age group and I don't think they stick so strictly to the system, they seem to have more licence to express themselves. Which is something all young lads will try to do until it is coached out of them. Cheers.

I haven't had chance yet to watch the U19s but agree with you 100% on that we are far too flat and we should lie much deeper than we do. We did this on a regular basis until the last couple of seasons.
We also hardly ever dummy runners these days as well.
I watched highlights the other day of the 2013 GF and our passing, running and playing from deep was much more fluent than our current style.

How do expect Smith to play with no partner
Playing a 13 at 6 what were you thinking how you ever gonna win anything like that?
Wait... forget that...


In all seriousness, smith is a fine player to steady a ship but he needs someone to create outside him or he looks very average
I still think he is good enough for wigan though, how many halves in SL can organise/run the game AND create?
For me its only 4: Gale, Mcguire (only in the past couple of years), Carney (when he can be bothered), and Brough, Brown is borderline but struggles to run games at times

Crap as usual, rubbish kicking and pathetic defense...

Again great to see the anti Smith gang out in force again this years scapegoat when anything goes wrong ....... Who's next then to have a bad game n get slated .....

I thought all of the team played well today manfredi of course the stand out player but I did not see anyone have as some suggest a terrible game ... But hey hoe each to there own deluded opinion I believe

Ziggy have you ever played the game and stopped a forward a lot bigger than you running at speed ????? Perhaps not time to smell the coffee and wake up like others on here the SL standard has gone poor and in his defence he is the only pivotal player playing in there correct position. Look at Salford Lui is out and they have now lost 2 from 2 since his injury not many teams can lose full back / loose forward not playing in his own position but stand off / first choice hooker injured and no natural loose forward and still win games...

Say you break the components of a half-backs game down: short kicking game, long kicking game, running game, passing game, defence. It's only the long kicking game with Smith that ever looks good, and some of the other sectors are almost completely missing. As was the case yesterday.

There seems to be a real link with Smith between his goal kicking and his general form. He had a poor night with the boot last week and his overall performance was very poor. He again started badly with the boot yesterday and it took him a while to recover his performance that ended up being ok.

I love his passion but you do wonder if he's going to get his form of 2013 back. I'd be more confident if we could pull a goal kicker from somewhere to ease the pressure on him.

Thought he came back from his nightmare game last week pretty well. (So it should against his hometown team). More of that please!