Cannot defend to save his life.

Smith's attempted tackle on Ferres for the try was nothing short of (and I hate to use this word) cowardly, at one point it looked like a clip from 'Strictly Come Dancing'.

He just stayed down for ages after that try while everyone walked off under the posts. Not a good sign.

I know stand offs aren't known for being the best defenders but Smith is just taking the p"ss.

Neither can Lee Briers or Sean Long but they won't get the same amount of stick that Tim Smith gets.

[urlhttp://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?season=2008&stat=missed_tackles&hs1=2008&hp1=506&hs2=2008&hp2=357[/url

Doesn't make it anymore acceptable though does it?

But TBH Sean Long and Lee Briers are better than Tim Smith in defense.

The difference being Long and Briers create things for their clubs. Last night Tim Smith just ponced about waving his arms everywhere, missing tackles and doing nothing going forward aside from a few poor kicks.

Before we signed Tim Smith, there were always potential issues with him defending outwide. He used to defend much further in at Parra. Also, our defence is extremely slow to slide out and our opposition are getting outside us with alarming regularity, this isn't helping us out wide. Things didn't change on that right side when he switched with Leuluai.

He does a cracking impersonation of a windmill!

They both kick better , organise better, are quicker and show more commitment to their team and teamates than Smith.

To quote Bilko:



Second this.

Thirded

His defence is awful

Has the guy been taking lessons of Mathers

Is it down to poor technique, no bottle or both

The last tackle options last night were perhaps the worst I've ever seen from a Wigan team (and I remember Wendy Whitfield being our playmaker). DUMB plays - kicking out on the full, hoofing it more or less straight over the dead ball line and when they actually decided to run it they did so when aboslutely nothing was on and there was no support. The halves look absolutely lost at the moment and why the holy feck Tomkins can't be given a run with Tommy going to hooker I have no idea at all.

agree 100%

You could even say we are missing Trent in defense more than in attack due to Smiths aweful tackling.

Tim Smith is too hot and cold for my liking. One week he looks to be hitting form the next he looks like Dennis Moran MK2. The problem is hes only young and fairly inexperienced himself. What we need is a really experienced halfback partner next to him who can do the organising and kicking whilst Smith concentrates on set plays.

On the subject of halfbacks,i though Sean Long was awesome against Warrington last week. He virtually won Saints the game single handed.He was dancing about mid field drawing the Warrington defence in then moving the ball wide leaving acres of space for Pryce and Gidley to run into. Warrington couldnt lay a hand on Long.

And Tomkins' defence is better?

Wakefield targetted him and the Castleford did the same. It's been a clear issue that has to be solved.

I think we'dve won the game if he'd made that tackle.

But whatever the case, you can't concede 28 to any team at home. It's not good enough.

Again, why compare other teams to us? We need to look at Wigan and not Wire and Saints?

Barrett was an excellent rough tough defender, and we replace him with Smith who cant tackle to save his life.

Smith's by far the best passer of the ball in the team but we have no runners off him. IMO we need a few players running at gaps & just let Smith pick them out, then I think we'll see the best of him.

Although his attempted tackle last night was shocking!

Can't be much worse can it? What harm can it do?

I wouldn't mind if he made up for it in attack but he doesn't. As some has mentioned he's too hit and miss.

I agree with that

When Smith goes back to the NRL he will probably fill all the expectations there were of him before he had his bipolar disorder. This will be due to him playing like a traditional scrum half and having runners to pick out which he is very good at doing. If he goes back to Paramatta he will probably have Nathan Hindmarsh covering him in defence so he wont be as exposed

I cant see any NRL teams wanting him to be honnest

Some are saying not good enough for Wigan can't see the NRL teams wanting him.

We've missed Barrett more than I (and most people) ever expected.

NRL teams will want him because there main memories of him will be when he won rookie of the year so they know the potential is there

It's not just Trent(although we have missed him so much) that we have missed either

I miss Higham