'Am I allowed to say? I think he is available'

Marcus Smith is poised to play his first match of the season for Harlequins next Sunday at Exeter after assistant coach Adam Jones confirmed that the out-half is available for selection on this occasion. Many eyebrows were raised last weekend when Quins took the field without the 23-year-old as he was being held back under the RFU player welfare rest programme.

That decision to hold Smith back starkly contrasted with opponents Saracens, who were able to select Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola to start and then Jamie George and Mako Vunipola provide support from the bench – and the outcome of the game was ultimately a win for Mark McCall’s team.

All England players were subjected to a ten-week stand down in between matches and with Smith having finished up his 2021/22 campaign with a start in the July 16 series-clinching win away to Australia in Sydney, it meant that he wouldn’t be available to play a club match until the weekend of September 24.

A system was put in place, though, whereby clubs could apply for a dispensation on behalf of a particular player. This was what Bristol did to free new signing Ellis Genge to play in round one of the new season against Bath on September 10 and Saracens did likewise with their contingent of England players for last weekend’s round two games at The Stoop.

Harlequins, though, have had to wait for Smith to become available to them and assistant coach Jones has now admitted he understands the frustrations of his club’s supporters that they couldn’t field their England star in contrast to other clubs and their England players.

“Am I allowed to say? I think he is available,” said Jones when asked about the status of Smith regarding Harlequins’ round three Premiership trip to Exeter this Sunday. “There is some sort of a deal going on between all the clubs and the RFU where they have done these blocks and all that type of stuff and you always want your players to play for England and at World Cups.

“You want to get them across the line but you still want them to play for you as much as possible. Eddie (Jones), Tabai (Matson) and Billy (Millard) would be the people around that and hopefully, we will get him because he gets people through gates, gets crowds on their feet and is one of our main players.

“We want him to play. I guess for the fans it is a bit frustrating when they saw the team last week. We are missing one England player but Saracens must have done a different deal with Eddie.”

How did Smith take the situation? “He is so competitive he just wants to play every time and he is young… and you think you can take on the world. Look I get the fans, I understand the fans are teed off with it because you see in the first week, Genge playing for Bristol and all this, so I understand purely from the fans’ point of view and the players’ point of view. So it is a bit frustrating, but there is not a great deal you can do except just get on with it really.”

What criticism from the fans has Jones detected about the enforced absence of Smith? “Only stuff that somebody relayed on social media about a few comments. I didn’t hear anything but when Eddie’s face kind up of came up on the TV screen I don’t think he got booed or anything like that. Well he might have, did he?

“I just think once you get to Saturday afternoon you have just got to get on with it. There is no point whinging is there really? You can’t do anything about it. They made the decision and it is what it is.”

How is Smith feeling heading into this weekend having gotten a long rest under his belt? “He missed the first block (of pre-season at Harlequins) because he came back from Australia and had the five-week sit-down period but he has been in, he has been typical Marcus, bobbing around the place, competitive, driving people. He has been good to have around the group the last few weeks.”