To everyone's surprise, including my own, he was deservedly given Man of the Match in the deciding game against NZ today.

He was more effective than George Williams was in his games and has even outshone Widdop who has had a poor series in my opinion.

Can we now assume Smith is the best English halfback in Super League?

Based on his performances in SL, no. He was solid, and provided some much needed control, and shape, but lets not go overboard here, he was the best English half in the series, but mainly because the other 2 were pretty rubbish.

Matty Smith does a solid job and is perfect when he has more expansive players around him.

Best half in superleague=no

Best suited half in superleague to international rugby=quite possibly

To be more precise he is maybe the best "wet weather scrum half in Super League".

Spot on. By far and away his two top performances have come in pretty horrid conditions.

One top draw game doesn't make or break a career imo. Smith is still a decent player who will give you a full season of consistently 'ok' performances. Days like yesterday are however too infrequent to class him as the top HB (2012 CC final was probably his last high level performance).

What a mean spirited thread. Even when Matty puts in a MOM performance some people still can't bring themselves to just say "well done" to the lad.

I'm glad he stuffed Garry Schofields words right down his fat face.

And he saved Steve McNamaras job into the bargain.

Not a bad afternoons work. And I hope it gives Matty a confidence boost going into next season. The evidence is starting to stack up against the idiots who wanted us the stick rookies into the most important position on the field.

Well done Matty and long may you continue to defy your detractors.

Matty Smith always gives his all. He's passionate and I'm made up for him. He has his limits but who doesn't. We can't deny he's had a poor season but he's finished it with his best performance of the year so hopefully he can kick on in to next year.

I sense he's the sort of player we'd only truely miss when he wasn't here anymore. Look at Widdop yesterday. He can run a ball when his forms on but when it's not he looks dreadful and he needed Smith to pull his ar*e out the fire.

Mean spirited RL fans??? Surely some mistake!!

You really are a short term kind of guy aren't you.

One game and he's a superstar. It's the same with Wane 3/4 of the season is average and he last quarter is sublime so everything is Ok. What ever happened to a long term view of stuff? I know you didn't say it but it's the same with the people that write Lockers off after one bad performance. There's no weight given to anything that happened 6 months ago etc.

The telling factor with Smith is that in over 3 seasons you can count on one hand his truly top class performances. Compare that to youngsters like Bateman, Manfredi, Burgess & Williams and they've probably had more big games despite lacking in experience and age.

He's been average-to-poor all year, saved one of his worst performances for the Grand Final but he puts one ok performance in and suddenly all is looking great again.

Classic AUOP.

Might it be that a steady hand, holding things together in the middle of the park can allow others to flourish... ?

I like Matty as a lad and I think he's a very honest player, though not the most talented. The OP certainly has a point. He ran the game well for England and justified his call-up.

The question is what does this say about the overall standard of halfbacks in the British game?

Smith done a good job I think. Come the next tournament wiliams will have that spot nailed on.

Is that not what people have been saying? Stuff like being a general and having a good kicking game should be 'bread and butter' for any decent number 7 with a high number of games in the bank. He should be doing the stuff that let's the rest of the team tick over, BUT he also has to chip in with more MOM performances and big plays.

The stuff that would take him to the next level would be the money ball type pass or the show and go runs. For me if he doesn't have that now then he'll never develop it and that limits him as a truly top bracket 7.

He's a modern day Deacon imo, but just not as good. For me Deacon has impeccable kicking every week and a great range of passing to boot. When you add in his place kicking being up there with some of the best ever you have the model for what Smith should be.