Smith hails Widdop partnership

England and Wigan scrum-half Matty Smith is enjoying developing a good working relationship with Gareth Widdop.

The St George-Illawarra stand-off linked up solidly with Smith in England‘s Four Nations’ opening victory against Samoa last weekend.

Now they have a chance to knock Australia out of the competition by beating them in Melbourne on Sunday.

“Gaz is a great player,” Smith told reporters Down Under.

“I’ve watched him for a few years now. He’s my roomy on tour and I think it was a great move by the coaching staff to put me in with him.

“You get to know each other a little bit and I’ve been spending a lot of time with Gaz, drinking a few coffees and hanging around with him. That all helps when you go into the games to get a good partnership going.

“It’s pretty new for me obviously being in this environment. I’m enjoying playing with him and hopefully we can have a good last couple of sessions and go into Australia really confident that we can do a job.

“It was nerve-wracking for me putting on an England shirt for the first time but it was great to get off to a winning start.

“I thought as a team we probably could have played a bit better but we got the job done, we got the two points, and we’ll be better this week against a tough Australian side.”