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England player watch: Northampton out-half Fin Smith vs Exeter
By Liam Heagney
It was quite the ripple effect afternoon across the Gallagher Premiership on Saturday regarding the candidates jockeying to fill the No10 England shirt when Steve Borthwick’s national team host the All Blacks in just five weeks in London.
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You had the ‘veteran’ 31-year-old George Ford, the summer tour absentee with an achilles injury, limping off just seven minutes into Sale’s crash at Saracens after missing a long-range penalty. It won’t be until after a scan on Monday when the extent of the damage done to his quad is revealed.
Sharks physio Navdeep Sandhu explained: “He is a little bit sore. It is probably too early to say [how severe his injury is], but the fact we are getting an image of it means we suspect something. But we probably do not know enough.”
You also had the seasoned 25-year-old Marcus Smith, Borthwick’s 10 in Japan and New Zealand, back starting for Harlequins and producing an attack-minded display that included three line breaks. There was also what TNT Sports dubbed a “monster hit at the death”, driving back and dumping down rookie Ben Redshaw.
Quins coach Danny Wilson was impressed, suggesting: “He has had a long lay-off, so to come back and be as influential as he was is a testament to the man.” That compliment, though, wasn’t a patch on what a purring Steve Diamond exclaimed. “Smith is a class player who looks cool,” cooed the beaten Newcastle boss. “Every time he gets the ball he is never under pressure, conducted everything and is a world-class player.”
An early blow for @SaleSharksRugby as George Ford limps off with an injury ?#GallagherPrem | #SARvSAL pic.twitter.com/moZkDLvfKl
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) September 28, 2024
Ford and Smith were the day’s mid-afternoon auditions, one stalled and one that fired. Then came the 5:30pm contribution, Fin Smith needing to show his sleight of hand to remind the England head coach that he too is a worthy form shout versus New Zealand.
Five caps off the bench is the story of this 22-year-old’s fledgling Test career but in delivering a player-of-the-match effort to edge Northampton past Exeter without the absent Alex Mitchell servicing him from scrum-half, he illustrated his credentials to be considered an England starter at 10 in the four-match the Autumn Nations Series.
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It’s been a while – October 2021 – since RugbyPass originally took a shine to the all-court kid. He had just been called back to Worcester from a loan at Ampthill when he first interviewed and he certainly wasn’t your typical tongue-tied 19-year-old apprentice. Even then he fancied bossing it.
“I’d like to think I’m quite assertive,” he told us from Sixways, describing his style at a time when Jonathan Thomas had no qualms about taking a punt on him. “I’d like you to think I can lead a group of boys, I quite enjoy defending.
“You would look at me and think he is not going to be a really good defender but I quite like getting stuck in there, and then I’d like to think how I am fairly knowledgeable around how I play.
“So decision making at a line, understanding when to kick, when to pass, when to run, things like that. I would say I am not the most flashy fly-half ever. I am not going to have an exciting highlight reel or anything like that but I think I can put a team in a decent position on the pitch and move the ball around.”
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Nearly three years later, Smith was precisely that and more when aiding and abetting Northampton to their deserved 30-24 round two win that would have been far more comfortable but for the concession of two late tries to Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, another Borthwick young gun on the rise and clamouring Test involvement.
The view from the cinch Stadium @ Franklin’s Gardens media seats has always been a good ’un over the years, the back row of the Church’s Stand providing a panoramic but still close to the action perspective of the exchanges, and the jottings about Smith’s varied involvements were frequent and encouraging.
Is that SHOT of the weekend?!
Marcus Smith with a monster hit at the death ?#GallagherPrem | #HARvNEW pic.twitter.com/z6DqNaDa2W
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) September 28, 2024
For starters, there was his big boot: a howitzer of a penalty kick from near halfway to put his team 10-0 clear caught the eye as did a host of crosskicks, including two in the excellent move that ended with the also impressive George Furbank kicking the third teaser in the sequence to put in the clean catching Rory Hutchinson for the score.
Best of all on the kicking front, though, was the 60th-minute drop goal from the 10-metre line that made it 30-10. The sweetly instinctive kick, which gave him a 15-point total on the day, shouldn’t have needed TMO verification before the points were awarded by referee Adam Leal; it looked good from the second it left Smith’s right foot.
The strike from distance wasn’t the highlight. It was how he visited the previous breakdown to ensure the ball carried by sub hooker Robbie Smith was secure for recycle.
As soon as it was passed clear, he was up on his feet and racing back into the pocket having sensed the opportunity was on to pull the trigger once the follow-up breakdown was complete. That was a classy piece of awareness and typified afront-foot confidence where there was also a variety of passing and some neat footwork.
If all that was good, his defence was even better as the RugbyPass match centre credited him with a chart-topping 23 tackles that included two first-half dog leg chases to help ensure that a pair of Paul Brown-Bampoe breaks were neutralised.
For sure, Smith is quite the hardy buck, his repeated defiance not lost on second row Alex Coles, who had opened the Saints scoring. “All our backs put their body on the line so much, it sort of sets the standard for us forwards,” he reasoned.
“That physicality level is right there. They all throw their body on the line. Ten is often seen as people that can’t tackle – but you wouldn’t want to run into Fin. So fair play to him, he gives us forwards a bit of a nudge to keep banging as well.”
Coles knows first-hand the punch Smith packs in the collision. “I have run into him a few times; I’d say I have got the better of him a few times but he might disagree,” he quipped before agreeing his teammate must be close to a first England start.
“Yeah, he has got to be. He is a quality player. He makes such a big difference to us. He was integral to winning the league last season and he has started so well again… He has got to be right up there, but there are some other quality 10s out there as well.”
Having signed in October 2022 after Worcester financially imploded, Smith is just a few weeks shy of completing his second full year at the Gardens. He bossed it when needed versus the Chiefs on Saturday, but Coles insisted Smith was very much the real deal as soon as arrived at the club.
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“There’s actually not that much (change),” he said. “Fair play, he came in and has always had that air of authority that a 10 needs. He has always been willing to move people around the park, tell people what to do, give opinions on how we should play.
“There hasn’t actually been a huge amount of difference, he has always been in terms of personality right on it. Technically he has got great skills. Probably it’s just forming those partnerships so that those connections that you build over time with some of the other backs, that has been massive for him – but I wouldn’t say he has changed too much.
“He has always been a quality player. He came in when we still had Dan Biggar here and wasn’t worried about that, just wanted to give it a crack straightaway. Credit to him.”
Smith’s director of rugby Phil Dowson joined the chorus of approval a few minutes later in the under-the-stand media room, claiming: “We always talk about his age but he is somebody who is just growing every week and is dominating that, is leading that from a club point of view in terms of how we attack and how the game moves forward.
“There is a lot of competition there (with England). I only saw the first half of the Quins game and Marcus Smith was back and flying around and doing some good stuff. It’s a great competition to have, for Steve to make those decisions, and there is George Ford in that mix as well and others. But Fin’s definitely in the conversation.”
About the only thing Smith didn’t do versus the Chiefs was kick the restarts, a task left for Furbank to execute. “He is taking our restarts because he is getting some great hang time and that’s something we have gone after,” explained Dowson.
Might this one unticked box count against Smith’s England appeal, even though Furbank has every chance of being the Test team No15 and the kicking load at that level can be shared between him and his more youthful club colleague? We’ll know in November.
Northampton Saints are up and running ?
Fin Smith says the champions are back!#GallagherPrem | #NORvEXE pic.twitter.com/BR2Tvzc9G0
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) September 28, 2024
