Matty Smith

This article is about the English rugby league player. For the Scottish football, see Matty Smith (footballer, born 1997).
Matty Smith
Personal information
Full name Matthew Smith
Born (1987-07-23) 23 July 1987[1]
St. Helens, Merseyside, England
Height 176 cm (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Weight 13 st 5 lb (85 kg) [1]
Playing information
Position Scrum-half
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2006–10 St. Helens 20 3 10 1 33
2008(loan) → Widnes Vikings 9 3 0 0 12
2009(loan) → Celtic Crusaders 16 3 2 1 17
2010(loan) → Salford City Reds 26 8 4 1 41
2011–12 Salford City Reds 50 6 3 0 30
2012–16 Wigan Warriors 139 24 301 25 723
2017– St Helens RLFC 0 0 0 0 0
Total 260 47 320 28 856
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2011–12 England Knights 2 1 5 0 14
2014–15 England 4 0 0 0 0
As of 3 December 2016
Source: rugbyleagueproject

Matty Smith (born 23 July 1987) is an English rugby league footballer who currently plays for St. Helens in the Super League. His position is Scrum-half. He previously played for his home town club St Helens, Salford and the Wigan Warriors also spending time on loan at Widnes Vikings and Celtic Crusaders. Before converting to rugby league, Smith had a youth career with Premier League association football club Everton, occasionally appearing in the reserve team.

Club career

St Helens (2006-2010)

After coming through the junior ranks at St Helens, Smith made his Super League debut for the club in 2006 in a match against Huddersfield Giants.

After a loan spell in the Championship with Widnes in 2008, Smith joined Celtic Crusaders on a season-long loan and played for the Welsh franchise in their first season in Super League. He later had a loan spell at Salford, for whom he eventually signed on a permanent basis.

After his Salford loan, Smith was recalled by his parent club St. Helens to play in the 2010 Super League Grand Final against Wigan, which St Helens lost despite a valiant performance by Smith.

Salford (2010-2012)

Following his successful loan spell at the club, Smith signed for Salford after the 2010 season and spent all of 2011 and the first half of 2012 with the club, before moving to the Wigan Warriors

Wigan (2012-2016)

Two days after making his England debut against The Exiles, Smith completed his switch to Wigan on 6 July 2012, after a successful negotiation between the clubs to the early release from his Salford contract.[2] He made his debut on 3 August 2012 against Hull, with Wigan winning the match 48-10.[3]

In 2013, Matty received the number 7 jersey formerly worn by the likes of Thomas Leuluai, Adrian Lam, Shaun Edwards and Andy Gregory.[4] Smith won the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match in the 2013 Challenge Cup Final as Wigan defeated Hull F.C. 16-0 at Wembley. He was also part of the Wigan team that beat Warrington Wolves 30-16 in the Super League Grand Final as Wigan earned the rare distinction of a Super League and Challenge Cup double. He ended the year with selection in the Super League Dream Team.

After goalkicker Pat Richards returned to the NRL at the end of the 2013 season, Matty Smith was given the goalkicking duties for Wigan. Smith also kicked 6 drop goals in the 2014 regular season for Wigan as well as earning a spot in the 2014 Super League Dream Team. On Friday 19 September, a night after Smith scored 21 points in the 57-4 playoff rout against the Huddersfield Giants, he signed a new four-year contract with the Warriors.[5] Smith signed a new 2 year deal, On 11 October it was announced Matty had signed a 4 year deal with former club St Helens RLFC for the beginning of the 2017 season.

International career

After a stellar 2014 season Smith was selected in England's 24-man squad for the 2014 Four Nations held in Australia and New Zealand.[6] Smith played in all 3 of England's matches. In 2015 Smith was selected in England's 24-man team for the end-of-year internationals[7] but did not feature in the test against France or in the first two tests of the three-match test-series against New Zealand. He was a late call-up in the final test-match at the Wigan Warriors's home ground, DW Stadium, in place of Wigan teammate George Williams. He was influential in the final game delivering a man-of-the-match performance.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Matthew Smith Wigan Warriors". www.superleague.co.uk. Rugby Football League. 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  2. ↑ "Matty Smith completes Salford City Reds to Wigan move". www.bbc.co.uk/sport/accessdate=2012-07-06.
  3. ↑ BBC Sports
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ http://www.wiganwarriors.com/WContent.aspx?id=9738&type=news
  6. ↑ "O'LOUGHLIN NAMED ENGLAND'S NEW CAPTAIN FOR THE FOUR NATIONS". englandrl.co.uk. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  7. ↑ "MCNAMARA NAMES 24-MAN SQUAD FOR 2015 INTERNATIONAL SERIES". englandrl.co.uk. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
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