Having read a few of your comments I thought I might post as I watch him every week. Absolute top bloke! One of the most passionate players u will have had. Has improved tenfold since he joined us. I know there have been a few negative comments about him but he is a good scrm half, whether he is top 4 quality we don't know as he plays behind a weak pack and only a hand ful of world class players.My questio with him has to be his running with ball, he is quick, but has no step. His passing has improved but many people go on about his kicking. Holdsworth is the main man for kickIng for us and smith keeps his boot away, he probably kicks 30% of our open play and to be honest it's ok. Hope he does well for u guys ,except against us, as he will give 100% and will be a fans Fav! If not we will have him back!

I think all the Wigan fan's have to get optimistic about Matty's future at Wigan, he's obviously going to be compared to Finch and Tommy but given time and continued coaching I can see him being a good acquisition for us. The potential of Tomkins and Smith halves combination could work very well with Russell playing a similar role to how Sam does now, but that's merely forecasting the future.

agreed, i imagine stood next to the best player in england he will look good

any good youngsters out of contract next year? any props or fb? bar russell who im not sure is great under the bomb

Well you obviously admire his effort but you are damning him with faint praise a bit here (no step, not your main in-play kicker, passing improved suggesting it wasn't very good in the first place).

read into this what you will

for me a 7/10 scrum half, will probably improve to an 8/10 with you guys, no thomas tho!!

I realise this thread is about Matty Smith but I really wish people would stop going on about Sam to 6 with Russell at 1 as it got old long ago, For the love of god give it a rest for as long as Sam Tomkins is at Wigan now, Wether thats 1 more season, The agreed 3 (including this), The 5 of his contract or the rest of his career (god willing), Sam Tomkins will only play Full-Back not 6 not 9 not 13 or any other position simply 1 and after Etihad Magic & Leeds away why anyone would want anything different is beyond me. I guarantee at 6 vs Leeds he wouldn't have made 4 clean breaks with 3 resulting in a try.

My thoughts on Matty Smith we all know what he can do he beat Wire in the playoffs on his own a couple of seasons ago

At Saints he didn't really get a chance he was in and out of that team plus going on loan to worse clubs

Salford he's done ok there imo it's not easy playing behind a beaten pack near every week and if anyone who has played rugby will tell you this

The guy is still young and can play well his kicking game is good yes we all know he's not better than Tommy or Finch but with the right direction from Harris and Deacon he could be a very good halfback time will tell

I keep wondering which ready-made world-beating scrum half is currently available whom we can afford.

People keep saying Danny Brough, but he'll be 30 this time next year.

In 2010 and this year too, we've seen that, under the right coaching, 'lesser' players can have a big impact. Matty Smith is not a lesser player, he's a pretty decent player. For me - unless Cooper Cronk suddenly rings up and says that he's bored in Australia - Matty Smith would be a very good option.

I think Holdsworth, Smith's half-back partner at Salford, is the better player out of the two.

What I love about this thread is that there's plenty of comments about how TL is great in his position and we haven't had the normal "he's a hooker" comments.

Before you posted this no one had mentioned Sam at 6 in this thread. However he has said himself he is expecting to play at 6 at some point this season.

He's also said in today's MEN that he now sees himself as a full back. Shaun Wane has ruled out moving him from full back to stand off so please stop bleating on about it. There is a reason why Shaun Wane is the coach and not any of us!!!!

Can we please give Matty Smith a chance without comparing him to Finch, Tommy, Trent, Deacs or any other player who has graced the halfback jersey in the last 20 years. Posters on here were dead against us signing Eric Luauki (spelling) saying he would be a liability but if you look at his stats, he's been awesome for us, hardly missing a tackle and has lots of go forward and raw agression - something that Shaun Wane loves!

Let the guys at the club do their job and just sit back and enjoy the magic that our team produces on the rugby field!

Made me chuckle too.

Don't be arrogant and insist people not to share their opinions on a message board, there's many people who think Sam will eventually be put back into the halves once he develops a quality passing game and there's others who think he's a fullback for life. It's not coaching it's sharing an opinion.

This place is not a dictatorship and as TB pointed out it is not about coaching but sharing opinions and another of mine I will share with you for free is Eric Lauaki has been average, never awesome (Lima has been, as have HH and others) and he isn't as good a prop as Lima, Prescott and Mossop. I would have kept O'Carroll.

And why wouldn't we compare Smith to current or past players? We do it with every signing we make and every player who progresses from the juniors to the first team! Or is it not allowed to compare Sam to Radlinski or as I am sure we will be doing one day, to Shaun Edwards?

It does make me laugh though that people keep talking about moving Sam back to stand-off at some point as if this is the final piece of the puzzle, which Wane hasn't quite worked out yet.

Only in Wigan ...

The guy is looking better at full-back than almost anyone I can remember in a Wigan shirt, including Rads, who was a great attacker but - let's be honest - not in the same league as Sam.

And people still want to move him somewhere else!!!

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but some leave me gobsmacked.

Ha Ha Ha! You lot are sooooo funny!!! You get on your high horse about everyone is entitled to their opinion but at the start of the season when someone new to this board commented on the quality of the current replica shirts he was totally berated!

You preach about everyone is entitled to an opinion and then berate me for having my own - priceless!!!

Sam is a full back and he will always be a full back! I fully agree with Cruncher - the guy is outstanding in this, now his preferred position. Shaun Wane will not move him to half back - get over it!

Eammon O'Carroll before Eric - really????? What a shame Shaun Wane doesnt read this!

Yep, we would have a 100% record, and nilled every other team... Wane must be an idiot...

He'd be in good company on these boards then!

very much agree with this comment and i think although it seems to be happening don't think he could ever live up to the hype or the famous Wigan number 7 shirt

I don't understand all this stubbornness from people regarding the possibility of Sam moving back to 6, if Finch leaves along with Tommy. When you are signing one new half that we think is Smith and we still lack depth / experience in that area it makes sense that our best player moves to a playmaking role in the halves, particularly when we have a potential replacement FB (Russell) ready to play. In my view it's whats best for the team in the long term. Sam will be wasted at FB if we have no direction in the halves. A combination of Smith and Mellor or Smith and Powell is far too much change in the pivotal roles.

This is my thinking, Sam is allowed to show his brilliance because he's working of the forwards hard work and linking up with Finch and Tommy without the this halves combination his talents wouldn't be completely realised. I believe Sam is both a runner and a ball player he can utilise both of these assets of his game playing 6 or 7 in a similar way to Benji Marshall and Shaun Johnson, he'd have a lot more influence on a game in this position I feel. Concerning Russell I've heard of too many good things from respected people to assume he won't be our future fullback.

Spot on.

Its a bit disrespectful to Sam to think he wouldn't also be a world class HB. He's got every trick in the book needed to be a class 6.

I'd certainly prefer a world class 6 to a world class 1. If that makes me stupid then so be it.

We've got other options at FB in Russell but very few options to replace Finch.

Its not rocket science

Sam is one of the most dangerous full-backs in the world.

He's not just pretty good at No 1. He's totally astonishing. He's mastered that positon a la Billy Slater - (not as good as Slater yet, but certainly getting there) which almost nobody else in my memory of British players has ever managed to do.

And people want to move him?

I understand that sometimes needs must, but surely a better option would be to find another good halfback?

And please don't tell me, folks, that one of the motivations for moving Sam would genuinely be so that Matty Russell would have somewhere to play? For me, Russell may need to earn his first-team corn in another position.