Best half on the field by miles IMO. He ran the show for us second half and totally over shadowed his partner. I thought it was the best I’ve seen Harry Smith play in the first team.

Funny how people see things.

I’m a Smith fan but got to agree I thought both half’s were poor.
TL far too slow and Smith non existent in the the first 30

Just glad of a win tonight after a pretty awful first 30 minutes

Got to look at tonight with perspective - at this stage of the year it’s not about performances it’s about points on the board. We weren’t great but got the win. A lot of the lads have only played 40 mins in pre-season so that performance was expected. We’ll get players back in the coming weeks, we’ll get some momentum and when we click we’ll be one of the teams to beat

Even when we got on top I thought he failed to put us on the front foot, same as TL.

Leigh ran at him, and he struggled with the physicality they put at him.

That isn't what you said though is it?

Tonight's game felt like a friendly but without the massive switcheroo of players at half time. Thankfully I missed the first 30 minutes as I was working.

And lost by a massive 2 points. We should have won, but we didn't so never mind.

You played really well and if you had taken your chances you would have won.

Hastings is a must selection next week.

We desperately need a prop to both gain the hard yards and lead our young forwards however, there does not appear to be the funds available to recruit what is needed. We also need to get some pace in our backline, French, Gildart and Marshall can't get back quick enough for me.

On the plus side, we seem a very fit team. Given that most of our guys have only played half a friendly match we were still capable of wearing Leigh down.

I think we watched different games Smith had a shocker.

Agreed I thought he has very poor.

Anonymous for most of the match.

Our last tackle options and guidance round the pitch were shocking.

He stepped up in the last 15 with his kicking game which maybe caught the eye but for the first 65 mins thought he was very poor.

I guess in his defence though he wasn’t given any kind of platform by his forwards to build on so that would have made it a tough night for anyone playing in the halves.

As much as you should have been walloped you also should have won but you ran out of steam and ideas. And with halves such as Mellor and Wallace you’re not going to win many, if any, SL games this year. I make absolutely no apologies for that cold hard truth either. You have a team that is nowhere near SL quality but still better than Championship quality. I think you’re in for a real tough season and I don’t take any pleasure in saying that either.

Must’ve done, I watched the one where he got man of the match



Thought he was brilliant second half, especially in the last twenty minutes managing the game and closing it out.

[*

I didn’t think he was poor but he wasn’t good. He was better than most of our other playing staff who were nothing shy of p155 poor.

I’m glad we got the win but this needs improvement, and quickly. It’s all very reminiscent of 2020 and 2019 - won but need to be better.

I wouldn’t say brilliant but he was much improved in the last 20.

For the first 60 though he was totally anonymous.

Offered no guidance round the park and gave us nothing on our last tackle plays.

He looked like a novice half at times low on confidence.

The short side play where he threw the miss pass to Hanley summed up his first 60 for me. They had 5 defenders on the short side to 3 attackers. He made the wrong decision not only trying it but then giving a pass that was never on.

Several times we got caught on the last tackle doing a “power play” when we should have been sliding a kick in behind the defence because he, nor Tommy to be fair, too control.

As I said earlier it was always going to be difficult for a half because of the lack of platform laid by the pack, but in my opinion he needed to inject himself more in the proceedings.

It was a similar performance from him to what he laid on against Salford in the friendly I just hope next time he gets a shot our forwards are improved and he carries on where he left off in the last quarter.

The whole team were pathetic for the first half hour or so. After that I thought Smith played very well. Night and day to his Salford performance IMO and he clearly did something right if he’s walking away with a man of the match award (and I know Sky love a youngster). To read people saying he had a shocker is plain wrong for me. I thought he showed a glimpse of the game manager we can expect in the future.

Without doubt in my opinion he got MOTM for his last 20 where he did step up and take control.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not writing him off but he was missing in action for the first 60, and when he did get involved made some poor plays.

In his defence he was on the back foot for most of that first hour and Leigh targeted him in defence sending their big lads at him which probably affected him when we had the ball.

The whole side were missing in action for most of the game in fairness to him. I’m not bagging Tommy Leuluai in general but if we’re talking about a half missing in action (with the ball) in that game then he’d take that award. I just thought for a young half to take control like that in a side that had been beaten up through the middle was excellent. My overall view is probably clouded by that last twenty minutes and I think that comes from the fact we’ve been so poor in managing close games at times from the halfback position these last few seasons. I’m guilty in a positive sense for bigging him up as being brilliant throughout the game but we have this weird ‘feast or famine’ attitude with youngsters as fans and he certainly wasn’t very poor or shocking either.

Does a mean post match interview as well

We are renowned bad starters. Added to that the injuries, losing field early on, plus I thought Leigh were fantastic, a lot better than I expected. Liam hood and Adam sidlow tore us apart in the first half. Good to get the win. We will be better.

2 Pts, good run out for Smith. Move on, nothing much to see here.

Lucky to get out of that one with a win, a lot of factors going against us -

Missing our 3 best backs Hastings, French, Gildart

Missing both Wingers.

Field early injury - leading to 2 second rowers in the centres. A centre on the wing and a young rookie full back on the other wing.

Covid impacted preseason missed 2.5 weeks are training.

Playing Leigh at the worst possible time I.e there small squad is relatively fit, players chomping at the bit to make an impression in super league and to beat their big rivals.


After being 18-0 and winning against any team takes some doing.

I’m not happy at all with the packs performance but feel they will improve as the season develops. Their fitness showed tonight.

Partington - 22 years old
Smithies - 20
Havard - 20
Bryne - 21
Shorrocks - 21

It’s a long season and we can sleep walk into top 6 in reality. The more game time and experience these guys get the better.


As for Harry Smith (again just 21) he coped a lot of stick first half from people on twitter etc but iced the game for us with his kicking game at the end. At least he was trying stuff. Our new captain was totally anonymous the whole game imo.

Hanley I thought was steady for an 18 year old in his second start. Again he’ll improve.

We’re not a Warrington who drop young players after a shaky performance and bring in quick fix Australians, remember that year they bought Bodene Thompson and Mitch Brown!

Stick with them, support them, they’ll come good.

Not read all the thread...has anyone brought Bibby up? Showed up again massively (in fairness he never hasn’t)...he gets bagged week after week because he’s not Offiah. Every side needs a few players like him in it. It’s attitude & getting the basics right week-on-week that pulls you through the sh**e performances like last night.

i'm quite fond of bibby now. his support for the last try was great, dont think anyone else was within 50 yards of hardaker.

don't know why he didnt go for the line for the hardaker try but it worked out anyway