Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:31 am  

I believe Harry Smith isn’t in the Wales squad which points to him being in the England squad for the World Cup. I see on social media a lot of other teams fans in uproar and saying he’s only been picked because he plays for Wigan and the Wane link but I think he deserves it, I don’t have many I would have in front of him. Lomax will probably miss it through injury, Welsby better at 1 imo, Hastings has been out for a while after a bad injury, Williams coming off the back of a poor season, Mikey Lewis has the X factor and comes up with some brilliant plays but I believe Smith is the better more rounded player currently imo. Either way if it’s true congratulations and some turnaround after a lot thought he would struggle to establish himself in the Wigan 13,

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:50 am  

Not sure why anybody would be annoyed if he is. He’s had a terrific season, has played well in big games, has a history of playing well in academy rugby against the Aussies and offers a nice balance to more off the cuff players like Williams or Welsby (who I expect to play in the halves).

I get the feeling he will be in and sadly I think it’ll be because Lomax will rule himself out of contention but if that is the case, I can’t think of many other options we could turn to.

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:54 am  

CobraCraig wrote:

I believe Harry Smith isn’t in the Wales squad which points to him being in the England squad for the World Cup. I see on social media a lot of other teams fans in uproar and saying he’s only been picked because he plays for Wigan and the Wane link but I think he deserves it, I don’t have many I would have in front of him. Lomax will probably miss it through injury, Welsby better at 1 imo, Hastings has been out for a while after a bad injury, Williams coming off the back of a poor season, Mikey Lewis has the X factor and comes up with some brilliant plays but I believe Smith is the better more rounded player currently imo. Either way if it’s true congratulations and some turnaround after a lot thought he would struggle to establish himself in the Wigan 13,

Other fans are the exact reason why I don't follow international RL. If you listen to them, then you'd think we'd come bottom of the league. Every one of our players is a grub/overrated/bang average etc, whilst they laud over the actually bang average Joe in their side.

I'll save my money and time for Wigan thank you.

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:58 am  

I though he saved one of his worst performances of the year for the Leeds semi, however I don’t think on the basis of most of this season he can be left out of the squad.

Personally I’d go with Lomax and Welsby as they have played together for long parts of the season as a pair.

Assuming Lomax is out I’d have to go with Williams over Smith simply because he has proven to be capable of playing at a higher level so far in his career.

I think Smith will get a chance to play himself into the team though and the way he has progressed under Peet there is no reason he shouldn’t be starting 7 for England in the next World Cup.

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:32 pm  

sergeant pepper wrote:

Other fans are the exact reason why I don't follow international RL. If you listen to them, then you'd think we'd come bottom of the league. Every one of our players is a grub/overrated/bang average etc, whilst they laud over the actually bang average Joe in their side.

I'll save my money and time for Wigan thank you.

Or just ignore them, enjoy the world cup and support whoever has an England shirt on?

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:38 pm  

jonh wrote:

I though he saved one of his worst performances of the year for the Leeds semi, however I don’t think on the basis of most of this season he can be left out of the squad.

Personally I’d go with Lomax and Welsby as they have played together for long parts of the season as a pair.

Assuming Lomax is out I’d have to go with Williams over Smith simply because he has proven to be capable of playing at a higher level so far in his career.

I think Smith will get a chance to play himself into the team though and the way he has progressed under Peet there is no reason he shouldn’t be starting 7 for England in the next World Cup.

Agreed. Smith will be there as cover I expect.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Welsby alongside Sneyd, although Sneyd's defence is probably the weakest of all the halves so Wane will probably stick with Williams.

I do also prefer Welsby at 1 but Tomkins is obviously going to play there.

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:04 pm  

A Welsby/Williams combo doesn't feel right to me. Sneyd would be the best candidate to replace Lomax - he at least has a good long kicking game on his day and he was in good form towards the end of the year to be fair to him.

Hopefully Lomax will play - if he doesn't it probably speaks volumes about club/country priorities.

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:39 pm  

I would worry about Harry Smith defence if he's picked for England. For that reason alone I would go Williams and Welsby.

I can see England struggling badly and you wouldn't want Smith being made a scapegoat of as he is clearly a confidence player.

I can't see us beating Samoa in game 1 which will likely mean a QF with Tonga and an early exit

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:48 pm  

MadDogg wrote:

A Welsby/Williams combo doesn't feel right to me. Sneyd would be the best candidate to replace Lomax - he at least has a good long kicking game on his day and he was in good form towards the end of the year to be fair to him.

Hopefully Lomax will play - if he doesn't it probably speaks volumes about club/country priorities.

Smith has a good long kicking game and was on form nearly all of last season.

Re: Smith for England : Tue Sep 27, 2022 2:20 pm  

bazdev wrote:

I would worry about Harry Smith defence if he's picked for England. For that reason alone I would go Williams and Welsby.

I can see England struggling badly and you wouldn't want Smith being made a scapegoat of as he is clearly a confidence player.

I can't see us beating Samoa in game 1 which will likely mean a QF with Tonga and an early exit

Tonga might not be as strong as in previous years, so I wouldn’t rule us out regardless of that first fixture. Samoa named their squad last night and we’ve a job on that’s for sure but I again wouldn’t rule us out of beating them. I’d say with home advantage it’s a pretty even game.

It should be a fantastic tournament anyway. The likes of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG are bringing great competition for the traditional big three now. Australia still look comfortably the best side on paper but you never know.