Being honest he has been a bit of a slow burner for me in his first season, and for much of it I have been thinking he would be used better in the hooking position.

I feel though the last few weeks and especially last night he has showed why Wane has had such faith in him. He made some outstanding decisions last night that showed great maturity. His kicking game was outstanding and his try was absolutely fantastic.

He is becoming the dominant half in the team controlling things but also offering threat and taking the line on and you would now have to say going forward Smith's inclusion in the team us coming under increasing pressure beyond this season.

I will add I think Williams has been helped massively by our pack in particular our Props, who took control last night.

Agree with everything you say especially this.

They missed Walmsley massively but Flower was immense. Wasn't far off MoM for me.

We were chuffed when Wane took George Williams off, Williams was finding loads of space and opening things up. For some reason Wane decided Micky Mac should come on, who isn't a runner, so we got left off the hook.

Always rated Williams since seeing him for Wigan u15s. I dont think last night was his best game thou if im honest. Try looked great but he never had to do a great deal, quinlan never lays a hand on anyone who breaks the line. Also thought some of his decisions near the saints line helped us greatly. Having said that credit to him for trying something different because if we was still playing now I dont think you would of added another score. Our defence was too good last night.

I think you are getting George Williams mixed up with Sam Powell who was the sub brought on as sub for Mickey Mac.

Williams is the best all round rugby playing half back in the competition. Give him another season or two and baring injuries he will be the best player in SL.
I await the howls of derision from opposing fans but apart from Carney at Catalans no one else has the all round ability of Williams and I include Brough in that list. I respect Brough but I don't think that he takes the line on enough these days and he seems to have lost a little bit of pace.

Great individual try. But Wigan's best half was Matty Smith. Great work in pinning us down in our own quarter for seemingly a full fifteen minutes.

Ultimately he was let down by his defence.

Will have to agree to disagree.
Great defence by you guys. I just hope that our confidence isn't knocked back too much.
The semis whatever ties are eventually decided should both be crackers.

To be honest - I think SL XX should be cancelled due to excessive mediocrity. Huddersfield aside the top teams look a pretty poor bunch right now.

The effort is there. But the skill levels are down across the board.

If things continue as they are whoever wins should feel a touch embarrassed picking up the trophy.

No derision from me he's a cracking player, I like how he finds space. Should be a future England half back in a few years, something we desperately need.

Unless he's not that type of person I expect he'll be in the NRL pretty soon. They are desperately trying to recruit good halves from abroad and you can bet they'll offer Williams (and anyone else) a king's ransom.

I don't know why; they must have loads coming through their system. Have you seen that lad Hastings at the Roosters? Amazing talent, and he's only 19!

Are they?

He was brilliant and I agree regarding Flower, he got through some ridiculous amounts of work. It's simply amazing how we didn't win last night. You just have to credit Saint's amazing defence, to be camped on your own line for that long and not concede is simply amazing.

They need some. Other than Thurston this is the weakest group of Aussie halves I can remember.

A euphemism for: "That'll teach you to keep on producing quality youth."

well, JT is one of the greats. You wouldn't expect many, if any, to be in his class. But Maloney, Cronk, DCE, Pearce, young prospects like Brooks and Hastings, I wouldn't say they were too lacking.

Would that we had that level of riches in SL!

You can see him/her now with their fingers and toes crossed that Williams moves on soon because they know he'll cause them plenty more problems!

Williams and Sam Tomkins will have a field day next year.

Just watched Williams try for the first time since watching it last night (on a small tv with an awful picture in Portugal) and I'm sat shaking my head that the rest of the side didn't see the game home after a piece of magic like that. The balance, the swerve, the step and then the pace is exceptional and the lad is going to get better and better.

I wouldn't be surprised to see McNamara take a punt on him against the Kiwis.

None of them are that great, though. The Pearce, and Maloney in particular have been exposed some what when they've been on the back foot playing for NSW. Someone like Hodgkinson doesn't look as good as someone like Brough, or Luke Gale on current form.

Compared to the last era of Aussie halves which included Johns, Kimmorley, Barrett, Gower, Fitler, Prince, and Lockyer, it's miles away in terms of quality.

The next crop do look to have a lot more quality though, as you say. Jack Cogger at Newcastle looks like the next 'immortal' from the limit times I've seen him.

Williams' try was outstanding, but I thought Swift's try was better.

My favourite moment was in the 1st half when he went to ground a grubberkick for a try and the the saints player palmed the ball out, but on multiple video reviews all the referees and commentators ignored the fact that he was blantantly tackled off the ball.

Kimmorley?? Not in the same league as the ones I mentioned in my view.

I've never been Pearce's biggest fan, to be fair, but the slagging he has got from some NSW fans (is it his dad's fault?) during Origin, is crazy and way OTT as far as I'm concerned when by any reasonable standards he is a very good half indeed. Maloney is just about my favourite player in the comp. A class act in every aspect of his game, who, crucially, is a much better player now than he was at the Warriors.

And in my book, and I suspect many people's, JT stands head and shoulders above them all.

I don't rate Hodkinson much at all, though, I'll give you that.

In the build up to the Cowboys game they called JT the 2nd best player of all time.

Wonder who they regard as #1? Johns? Lockyer? Wally Lewis?

I'd say a year or so ago the NRL crop looked poor, but Ben Hunt has developed superbly for the Broncos (and Milford is as a 6 alongside him), and you've inexplicably missed Johnson off the list as well. Morgan at the Cowboys and Blake Austin at the Raiders have also come along in leaps and bounds. There are some weaker teams for halfback around, but the current batch is looking pretty good albeit without a dominant figure like Johns.

I seriously doubt that NRL clubs will look seriously at SL halfbacks. I'd argue it would be the very last position they'd look at importing, as its where the gap in standards between NRL and SL is most obvious. The most likely route for a SL halfback into the NRL would be via reserve grade at a club willing to give them a chance. There's no way on earth an NRL side would break the bank for a SL halfback, so it would be a gutsy (and financially risky) move for a star SL halfback to take that kind of chance.