Quote ="SaintsFan"Don't be silly.'"
I didn't mean sexually, and your following defence of him proves it
Quote Well, I knew that Saints fans would be on his case if he didn't live up to the expectations he set for himself against Warrington. HOwever, I think you are being entirely unfair to him in your judgment. The only criticism that can be levelled at him was he had a poor first half kicking game, when Wigan were in his faces. Something, it can be noted, that was not true in the reverse. Unlike against Warrington, our forwards were not in Wigan's faces, not setting a platform for him or the backs as a whole to perform. Also, that was his first derby and his first Grand Final and he had been training for four weeks. He was inexperienced and also it is highly likely Potter will have told him exactly what he wanted him to do, in that marvellous gameplan he had going there in the first half. '"
Warrington's defence is nowhere near as good as Wigan's, to blame it solely on our packs performance is to discredit the opposition. I accept that he is inexperienced, and I didn't expect a match winning performance from him, what I did expect was a decent long kicking game. That didn't happen, I'm pretty sure that Potter didn't tell him to put the Wigan defence under no pressure with any of his kicks. He didn't have the quality to turn the game round, which at scrum half he is pretty much expected to do.
He's a competant scrum half and that's it, I hope he does well at Salford, but I find it unlikely that he will be playing in a GF again. Salford won't get there and no one bigger will sign him.
Quote Well, he made the break for Dixon's try'"
That was created after another throee or four passes and a cross field run by Wilkin.
Quote and passed in field for Meli's try'"
Him and a number of others, iirc.
Quote and would have created a try for Wilkin had Wilkin been able to hold on to the ball. '"
Problem with that is that Wilkin was the dummy runner and had he selected the correct ball, to Wellens behind Wilkin, we had a three man overlap. Wellens went ape at him, correctly. A better scrum half would have seen that pass, almost everyone else did.
Quote In the second half he also took on the line (I couldn't see whether he did in the first half) and he defended like mad. So I'm not sure what you mean by offering nothing with ball in hand. '"
He took on the line with little effect, and not very often, hence me saying he offered little with ball in hand. He wasn't a threat to the Wigan defence with the ball in hand.
Quote Well of course we did. Lomax is a stand off and so Smith would then have had a halfback partner who could play as a halfback. But that is Potter's responsibility, not Smith's fault. He can only play with the team on the field and if the team on the field is not structured well or not playing well (and both were the case) then he can only try his best, which he did. Under the circumstances - all the circumstances - '"
The team looked better, Smith did not.
Quote I think he did as well as any inexperienced halfback could.'"
He did as well as any player with his experience and talent would have done, that's my point. I'd back that Eastmond had he been fit would have done a better job.
