Father Ted wrote:
Smith would be better starting every week with Wigan and Tommy being the bench player.
I've always suspected TL was given an extra year as he been offered a coaching job and other than the first team there's no one else to coach in 2021. Come 2022 then the reserves will be back in one guise or another and TL will be involved from there on.
We need Smith's ability in the first team not playing for someone else and worst of all worlds playing against us.
We need Smith at Wigan this season.
I do hope this rumour in untrue.
I'd love him to start every week at Wigan but is that realistically going to happen when Leuluai was picked ahead of him more or less every week last year, and we've just signed Field? It's a bit of a stretch to say a guy who didn't make the 17 for our last game will start every game going forward, given that no halfbacks have left and one extra has come in.
I think he's great ball in hand, less confident in him defensively right now which is why I'd rather him be getting 80 minutes a week tackling men in the championship than 30 mins off the bench here or sitting in the stands if Field and Leuluai are ahead of him. FWIW I wouldn't have kept Leuluai as a player this year as I think it blocks Smith's development a bit.
