Darts rival gives brutally honest verdict on Luke Littler's World Cup display

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Michael Smith didn't hold back as he gave his verdict on England's shock exit at the World Cup of Darts.

The defending champions were beaten in their opening match at his year's tournament back in June.

Hosts Germany dumped out Luke Humphries and Luke Littler in the second round in Frankfurt.

The upset saw the world no.1 and world no.2 lose 8-4 to Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko.

Gerwyn Price later labelled the English duo 'rubbish' as the top seeds came under fire following their defeat.

It ended their reign as champions after Humphries and Smith had claimed glory in 2024.

However, 'Bully Boy' was replaced by world champion Littler after slipping down the PDC world rankings.

Reflecting on the surprise loss to Germany, Smith believes the pair's 'egos' were to blame for their defeat.

He admitted Humphries and Littler were too busy trying to outdo each other on the oche rather than play as a team.

The former world champion explained, via Oche180: "The way I'm going to say it might sound bad for the other two players so I'm trying to reword it before I say it.

"I didn't have an ego going on the stage. I was world number two at the time and I had just come from world number one.

"Luke Humphries had just taken over and yes, I play him week in and week out, but I was like, 'this is not me against Luke'.

"This is me and Luke Humphries versus everyone else, so I let my ego go to one side.

"I thought he is the number one, he is the main player, and I do everything for him.

"I'll do everything he needs by leaving his favourite doubles and I'll take myself out of the comfort zone where I am not used to throwing myself at a certain treble to leave a double on the left-hand side because that is not my game.

"So, if I miss, I know I have the World number one sat on his favourite double."

Smith continued: "This year I watched a couple of legs and I think Littler was on 125 against Germany.

"He goes for the treble 15 for double tops where nine times out of ten those are the shots he hits.

"In that situation he messed up and left Humphries 93 instead of 60 or even tops.

"That was his ego taking over - they were trying to compete against each other instead of with each other, whereas I wasn't.

"I think that's what helped us to win and that is what was their biggest downfall."

Germany went on to reach the semi-finals before losing to eventual winners Northern Ireland.

As for Smith, the 34-year-old is a veteran of five World Cup of Darts campaigns.

He had featured in each of the last three editions prior to this year's event, partnering both Rob Cross and James Wade as well as Humphries.

However, a string of early tournament exits and poor results have seen Smith slip to 21st in the PDC world rankings.

His drop in form also saw him miss out on qualifying for last month's World Matchplay for the first time since 2013.