WITH Paul Sculthorpe arriving at Knowsley Road a fortnight ago, Saints put the finishing touch to their Christmas shopping list when flying winger Chris Smith jetted in from Castleford on Monday to become the club's sixth close-season capture.

Leeds-based Chris signed a three-year .

contract and Saints are negotiating a fee with the Tigers, and although a figure of £110,000 has been mentioned by Cas, an exchange deal involving Ian Pickavance is possible.

The son of former York scrum-half Gary, 22-year-old Smith stands 5ft 10in and tips the scale at 13 stone and joined Castleford from the Redhill junior club in April 1992, the same month that his new club faced Wigan at Wembley.

Chris became out of contract at Wheldon Road on December 31 and had been pursued by several clubs, including Bradford Bulls, who were doubtless impressed by the 90-yard try he scored against them last season.

The Bulls dropped out of the chase when they snapped up Tevita Vaikona from Hull Sharks, but Smith - who played Rugby Union for Newport in 1996-97 - was never in doubt that he wanted to come to Knowsley Road, to where he will make the regular journeys from Yorkshire with his friend Paul Newlove. Smith scored 10 tries for Castleford in the first Super League season of 1996 and six in the last campaign, when he underwent knee ligament surgery, while from a representative angle Chris has two Great Britain Under-21 caps; he played against the Junior Kiwis at Wembley in 1994, and was a member of the GB Nines squad in Townsville in 1996.

Probably the highpoint of his career so far came when he was selected in the original train-on party for last November's Test series against Australia, but ambitous Chris Smith is naturally optimistic that becoming a Saint will lead to further honours, both at individual and team level.

"Saints are a very high-profile club who can field around 10 international stars," said Chris, "and I see no reason why they shouldn't regain the Super League title and make it a hat-trick of Wembley appearances this season."

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