Ryan Hampshire's patience is set to pay off as he prepares to make his Castleford Tigers debut. - See more at: www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... N3WBC.dpuf. Interesting article by Ryan.

Ryan Hampshire's patience is set to pay off as he prepares to make his Castleford Tigers debut. - See more at: www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... N3WBC.dpuf. Interesting article by Ryan.

Read this yesterday. It is an interesting article. He is clearly sending out a message to SW that it is either the halves or nothing. The confusion is though, he has signed a new contract and there is much debate of who actually wanted him to have that contract. Surely the future must be Hampshire 6. Williams 7 but Smith has hardly put a foot wrong so far this season and he never get's dropped when he has a run of stinkers so i just can't see where he fits in. I appreciate the job Smith does and i applaud his much improved kicking game but when does Rocky get bloodied in? You can tell Matty is working his socks off trying to improve and you have to give him credit for that.

The signing of the new three year contract on the day he left means in my view it was on Wigan's insistence , if he decides he doesn't want to come back Wigan can demand a fee for the remaining 2 years of his contract.

While SW is coach of Wigan I do not think there is a future for Rocky at the club.

I really hope he does well and it would make Powells decisions very interesting when Roberts is fit again, particularly in view of his new three year deal. What I have never understood is Ryans insistence on playing #6, he is cutting his options of first team rugby by 50%. Had he stayed at Wigan I have no doubt that he would have played at least four games this season (including reserves) whereas at Cas he hasn't had a game at all.

I've said it many times before but the majority of todays fullback started off in the halves, what would have happened if they had insisted on staying there?

Back to Hampshire, I hope he plays well and that would also give Wane food for thought.

Agree with all this, but it bugs me a little when kids try to stipulate where they must play.



In the modern age of big bodies and hyper-fitness, it always strikes me that kids are lucky to get any first team action, let alone action in their preferred shirt.

Whilst I agree with him that he's more of a half then a fullback you have to worry why the kid doesn't want to play at fullback in the first place. He gets his hands on the ball a lot in the position and he can influence the play so in attack he's seeing no real difference. That leaves the defensive side and you'd imagine it's this that puts him off. He always looked tentative taking kicks in traffic and going in to tackles but that doesn't bode well for his career full stop, regardless of position.



I hope it all works out for him as he's supremely talented. I'd love to see a future at Wigan for him in the halves but under Wane I can't see it.

I don't get the issue with him wanting to play 6.



Perhaps he has seen what happens to players who play out of what they feel is their natural position. The last player we had do that was Hughes who took on the job of centre when he was really a forward and despite making a better stab at it than some other so called centres he ended up out of the forwards and eventually out of favour in the pack. His willingness to fit in with the needs of the team out of position did him no favours.



And if full back is just another half back why have we never seen Smith there? Or Williams? Why not play Williams at 7, Hampshire at 6 where they played in their academy days and stick Smith at full back?



I am sure the answer will be no one thinks Smith at full back is a good idea. Has it ever entered anyones head as a plausible idea? If not then Hampshire at full back isn't a good idea either.

Do you think Smith is fast enough to play full-back? I've never seen him show that kind of pace.

The answer is quite simple, all the players who have moved to fullback have a lot of pace, Smith doesn't, Wiliams has a bit, but nowhere near the likes Hanbury, Dorn, Tomkins, etc.

Another player we did it with was Sam Tomkins.. how did that work out?



I'm with Rogues and Cruncher on this one and have been banging this drum for some time. I don't like that a 19/20 year old is trying to dictate where he should play and equally I don't really understand why he would have reservations about playing FB when the modern style of play suits having a pacey playmaker chiming in from the back. As NK says, it may be the defensive side he doesn't like, he's not the best under the high ball but he'll need to do more tackling at 6 than he would at 1.



I hope he has a good season at Cas and comes back next season a better player, because he's an exciting attacking player who I think could have a good career at Wigan. But ATEOTD it's taken an injury to a first choice half back for him to even get a shot at Cas so there's no guarantee he's going to get 15/20 games in this "preferred position" of his.

I'm guessing he doesn't want to play FB because we already have Tomkins to come in so at best he'd be a stop-gap or 2nd choice and reserve player. He probably thinks he is a better player than Williams, which is a good thing - confidence is impossible to coach.