The current train-on squad lacks a specialist number seven but Smith has made it clear he is unlikely to go back on his original selections and, therefore, there will be no place for the most obvious scrum-half replacement, Warrington's Lee Briers.
The Wolves skipper has been overlooked so often that his absence is now taken for granted and, since he is almost certain to pledge his future to Wales for the World Cup, his Great Britain career will now formally come to a close with a solitary cap, gained against France six years ago.
