Sandon Smith insists he remains the best halfback option at the Sydney Roosters despite a tough NRL finals initiation against Penrith.

Smith produced a couple of poor kicks and put his foot into touch in the second half during the 30-10 loss to the Panthers last Friday.

Commentators including Matthew Johns suggested more than once over the weekend the Roosters might be better served by using Joey Manu in the halves rather than sticking with 21-year-old Smith, who was parachuted into the No.7 jersey following Sam Walker’s season-ending ACL injury in the second-last round of the regular season.

But Smith said coach Trent Robinson had already assured him he would be his halfback for Saturday’s clash against Manly – and hopefully the following fortnight.

Smith said he had learned from veteran teammates James Tedesco and Luke Keary to ignore any external talk, and insisted “what happens internally is what really matters”.

Asked by this masthead if he feared being dumped for the Allianz Stadium semi-final, Smith said: “All that belief is still there – they’ve shown that belief in me, and ‘Robbo’ told me to take my lessons out of that game.

“I’ve learned some really good lessons last week, now I have a chance to bounce back from that, and hopefully I will. Robbo said not to dwell on it and beat myself up too much and lose confidence.

“He said to analyse what happened, why, and what I do next, but after that, ‘Put it into the back of your mind and know that it’s done’. I need to go after the game right from the start.”