Harry Smith.

[NICKYKISS]

Experience and learning from your mistakes are what makes players better game managers IMO. Some young halfs may be asked to do it but it doesn’t mean they’re good at it straight away. It can take years to build up that experience and confidence to look comfortable in the role. I’m happy that Harry Smith shows flashes of what he can do in that regard but he needs to get rid of the silly errors and I think he will as he builds that experience and confidence up. I look at guys like Luke Gale and Johnny Lomax and it’s taken them years of experience to look as comfortable as they do now. Lomax has been lucky in having Coote to shoulder the burden and it will be interesting to see how he copes with having two kids in the spine with him now. As good as they are, it’s still early days.

[cherry toffee]

Good points NK I think the four players saints have lost, coote, fages, naiquama and Bentley will have a far greater effect on the team than the players they’ve signed. The players that have left were all 7 or 8 out of 10 every week all were reliable and gave the team a solid base,

[No straw damn us]

Good points NK I think the four players saints have lost, coote, fages, naiquama and Bentley will have a far greater effect on the team than the players they’ve signed. The players that have left were all 7 or 8 out of 10 every week all were reliable and gave the team a solid base,

Bentley was the next John Bateman according to Saints fans, until of course he decided that he wanted to go to Leeds. Like all fans when a player leaves their club he "was dispensable" and not really that good. George Williams anyone?

[Exiled Wiganer]

I think he has shown glimpses of enough talent to be very much worth persevering with.

[morley pie eater]

Agreed and the only thing we should want from Smith after last night is for him to learn. In conditions like those and kicking close to the touch line, he needs to be drilling that along the floor, not chipping it up in the air but mistakes happen and it was a minor blot on a second good performance in two weeks. At least he did it well in to Wires half and not kicking from our 40m zone.

looks like Cust might be the man to teach him about game management, he was very good and composed the other day

Does game management get taught or do some players just have it? (Rugby brain, communication, leadership etc)

Good question.

My answer would be that, like many skills in life, some people have them and some don't. BUT, those who have innate abilities (a good singing voice for example) need teaching how to use them well, and also improve with practice and experience.

So Harry Smith has potential as a game manager, but still has a way to go to become the real deal. And he'll need help and advice to realise that potential.

Personally, the fact he has Briers, Tommy and Cust around him gives me confidence that he will make it.

[southportcdm]

A point that I often remind myself about when comparing our players with those from other clubs is that we often only see or read about the highlights of the performances. i.e. we see their creative players scoring and setting up tries. We don't see them missing tackles and making poor kicks. Players like Harry are expected to 'force the issue' and create openings and this involves taking more risks than other players in the team. I'm confident he'll make good progress season.

[Exiled Wiganer]

Last year he was getting slow ball, there was no threat anywhere else, and was carrying an injury. At some point this year he could have Cust, Field and Friend around to distract the opposition, and be getting the ball on the front foot after an offload or because Mago and Ellis have given us momentum. Let’s see what he can do in those circumstances…

[NICKYKISS]

I do wonder what impact his shoulder was having on his game, especially his passing. Straight away in these two games passing the ball looks far easier for him. At times last season it looked like he hardly had the power to throw a simply cut out pass and so many balls were going behind players.

It may just have been a confidence issue in general rather than just having confidence in the shoulder but we’ll see. You only need to look at his defence on Saturday against Williams to twig it may have been a pretty big issue for him last season. It certainly looks to have freed him up to do more work on the weights because he looks bulkier/stronger.

[widdenoldboy]

Sad, but I was bored and noted Harry Smith's involvement from Wigan TV's coverage.

So, he came onto the pitch on 50mins and was "involved" 30 times,

13 tackes plus 1 miss
2 "hurries" forcing Wire mistakes
4 kicks plus one out on the full
7 passes
2 runs but was ruled to have knocked on for one of them (Ref was wrong on that!).

Nothing spectacular but some decent work.

[Dan2266]

Like I said. Should be nowhere near the first team.