to all those who were arguing that Lomax and Wheeler (who i think are both great players) are better half backs than him now, HA HA HA

Matty Smith should have got the MoM lastnight for his performance. Played the conditions superbly. Made Briers look like a know-nowt numpty. And all this after less than a week back at the club. He didn't have a clue when doing the warm up drills

I said the same thing before the game last night. I'd have kept smith before scott moore as imo smith would do better job at hooker.

Matty smith should now play the rest of the year. He always played very well and i thought it was mistake even letting him go out on loan.

He will never have the x factor that kyle has or shoot thru defences like kyle but smith is a proper scrumhalf with a top class kicking game. He also has passion which i think kyle may lack a little bit of passion and heart.

When sia smashed mathers but also caught smith, i doubt kyle would have got up from the bang smith took.

Smith plays the same style as long did in the latter years.

He got Sky's MoM. Jamie Foster got KR's MoM. I think that takes care of two players who had outstanding matches.

Let's not go overboard here, he had an exceptional game but looked like he always has done, a younger version of Paul Deacon.

He's a Steady Eddie that will always give 100%, last night was no exception and proved his professionalism. However he'll never have the unpredictability that Eastmond gives us and won't hit the heights Eastmond will.

To those who say that Eastmond can't organise the team, were you not watching us before the last 6 weeks? He's got a better kicking and passing game than Long ever had, never mind at the same stage of his career.

And what a difference a 'steady Eddie' can make to a team, don't you think? It's all well and good having unpredictability but, as I've said on here before when Smith has been discussed, we need someone who is solid also; someone who can steady the ship, organise, kick well (and hey, why not have two good kickers as halfbacks?), etc. I think Smith and Eastmond working together or Smith, Eastmond and Lomax as a threesome (loose, 7 and 6) would have been really, really good. Alas. Not to be.

I,d tend to agree with Billinge_Lump, the short term future is probably going to be Eastmond/Lomax/Pyrce. Impressed with Matty's professional attitude though, he said it was an honour to play in the Red Vee Shirt whatever the circumstances.

I do not think eastmond would work with smith as eastmond would want to be the centre of attention.

Sadly some people just cant grasp the fact that we cant keep everybody. Matty Smith is a good player but as we can only play 2 halfbacks and we have Leon Pryce as a cert thats leaves 1 spot. The club and coaching staff obviously believe Eastmond is a brighter propect and it's in the best long term interest of the club and the player that Smith move on and get the first team Rugby he needs and we can develop more young players with the extra cap money/squad space (players like Ellis and Gaskell)

Matty had a top game for us and personally with Pryce out and Kyle unlikey to be 100% fit I hope he keeps his spot in the team and picks up a grand final winners medal but all the people bleating about keeping him should just take a breath, look at the squad and answer the following easy question , If we were injury free with the squad we have would Matty Smith be in the 17 ? In my opinion the answer is no and by the fact that he was loaned out all year I guess Mick Potter would agree.

I think thats nonsense. I'm not sure they would be the best combo but if Eastmond is fit then a I would expect Eastmond to pick up the Leon Pryce type of role and play as a 6 and Smith to play 7 for the rest of the playoffs.

Where does this come from that he was somehow treated shoddily by Saints?

He understandably wanted more 1st team experience, we felt we couldn't offer him that because he was behind better players in the pecking order.

That's sport, and the simple fact is that he wouldn't have been considered had our halves and back-up halves not been decimated.

That's not to detract from Matty, all credit to him for the professional way he answered the Saints' call, he was superb last night and let nobody down. He's given Potter a selection problem if Eastmond and/or Lomax are fit in a fortnight.

I think you need to get off your high horse.

People are perfectly aware we can't keep everybody. The point people are making - on the whole - about Smith is that he provided us last night with two things we struggle to have: a real kicking game and good organisation. Our backs were caught out a couple of times by his kicks, not because they weren't good kicks but because our backs weren't used to responding to that kind of a final play. Wello was alert to the possibilities which is why he was the one to get to that first grubber and had it not been raining he might well have taken it in. But there were other occasions when, had our backs been used to a good kicking game, we might have scored had we been more alert to those sorts of possibilities. It was a joy to watch us actually being able to put the other team on the back foot by some seriously good kicking: tactical kicking, kicking that shows independence of thought.

On top of that, of course, most Saints fans thought we would struggle to win last night because we were without our halfbacks so to watch someone do what Matty did under those circumstances was simply fantastic.

Saints didn't contact him while he was at Salford. He was interviewed in the press and he was still waiting to hear from Saints. This was just before he signed with Salford. And now Saints contact him when, as Mick Potter so delightfully put it, we had no-one else. I think it's shoddy to send a guy out on loan and then not talk to him about his future when his contract is coming to an end, especially a guy who has made it consistently clear he wants to play for the club. And I'm not the only fan to think that.

Agree with a lot of the post, but this is highly unfair.

Eastmond has a great kicking game.

His contract ends at the end of the season. Contract negotiations are often carried out late in the season. It's a non story.

The problem always lay in the fact that he wanted to play for the club, but he would have had to have settled for a bit part position given the talent that already sits at half back.

I agree, Eastmonds kicking game this has been pretty good but matty smith has a much better short kicking game and also likes the odd 40-20

Just think. How many times have you seen Kyle kick mid field? How many 40/20s has he attempted? He has kicked some lovely kicks across the tryline and has kicked goals but he hasn't got the tactical and creative kicking of Smith. Maybe he will develop that side of his game over time but to do so he will have to start thinking outside the box a bit more. Smith is a natural tactical kicker and that was present in his game when he was last with us. It was a real treat having a kicker like Smith in a red vee. Or it was for me, anyway!

His kicking on friday was top class.

He has to play in all our games this year IMO.

Smith's game is probably more mature than Eastmonds but thats to be expected.

FWIW 'Saintsfan' I'm not on my high horse I just find all the hysteria amusing. Smith is a good player who put in a very good performance however Eastmond is a very special player in the Longy mould. the only way I could see us keeping him would have been to move Leon to 13 (I'd love to see that) or shift Eastmond to fullback and dump Wello ...

I don't know when talks are held over things like loan terminations and such like. I'm sure we knew Scott Moore was returning for quite a while before the end of the season?


This is a problem only if the club considers there is no place for him. On the evidence of last night, there is a place for him but not instead of Eastmond; rather as well as. He would complement Eastmond I think, providing us with a much rounder halfback partnership than we have at present. Kyle is flashy and he darts and ducks around. He can also kick over the tryline very well indeed. But other teams will try and nulify that and will succeed over time. We needed a foil: someone who could add a different kind of unpredictability; something Smith would do with his kicking game. On top of that, Smith can organise. I'm not at all sure Kyle can.

It's a shame we let him go but that's how it is. Perhaps if he plays for us again in two weeks he'll have a rubbish game and everyone on here can tell me what a dork I am and how I don't know what I'm talking about.

I agree that eastmond seems to be a special player(when fit) and is prob the best number 7 in super league when match fit but matty smith is the old style scrumhalf and in certain games we need a bit of that.

If im being honest i'd rather we binned moore and kept matty smith. Smith would fit in very well at hooker and give us cover in the halfs. I do like moore but if it came down to losing pryce, eastmond, smith or moore then i'd bin moore.

Smith had a good kicking game when he was last with us and he was Eastmond's age then so while he has obviously gained some experience in the interim (although at Crusaders he was largely left out in favour of Aussies), I wouldn't put it all down to maturity. He's just a different player from Eastmond.


Fair enough. But I think what you are probably seeing is shock more than anything. I don't know about you, but when I was standing on the terraces before the match I didn't think we were in with much of a chance even with Smith included. Having seen what Smith brought to the party, and the fact that we dominated 60 minutes of the game, something I haven't seen us do all season, it's not really surprising that there is a bit of hysteria around, surely? I know I have felt hysterical ever since halftime!

I totally agree. I also think his kicking game is natural and therefore very valuable. Also, I think some people are getting distracted by Kyle's flash. It is great, I love it, but I'd also like some solid stuff too. To have both would be ideal.

And I know this will be considered as tantamount to blasphemy and will probably bring mockery and much beating of breasts, but I actually was extremely impressed by Kyle when he played centre for us last year. I thought he executed some fantastic centre play. He seemed like a natural there to me.

Matty smith short kicking game on friday was the best ive seen for many years.

Also, his long kicking game was very very good. Even tho at times he kicked straight down mathers throat but he kicked it very very deep from in our own half.

Great old style scrumhalf display.

Yes. It was a joy to see.


Yep. A good tactical kicker. He made Mathers concentrate and gave plenty of time for the chase.