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'We were a bit shaky towards the end': Marcus Smith's England view

(Photo by PA)

Player of the game Marcus Smith has saluted the close-run England win over Wales. Eddie Jones’ side appeared to be cruising to victory as they led by 17-0 early in the second half, but they were dragged into an epic tussle as the Twickenham visitors struck back with three tries and the 23-19 win wasn’t guaranteed until a late Maro Itoje turnover. 

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The manner of the victory suggested England had learned from the malaise of their opening-round loss to Scotland. Ahead 17-10 at Murrayfield after Smith had scored all their points, Eddie Jones hooked the rookie Test out-half with 16 minutes remaining instead of allowing him to see that game through to the finish. 

In his absence England collapsed, going on to lose 20-17, but Jones allowed Smith to play the full 80-plus minutes versus Wales and it proved to be the right call as he helped them to secure the four-point win that keeps them in the hunt for the Six Nations title.  

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      Voted player of the match for the second game running following his impressive showing in the 33-0 second-round win over Italy, Smith was pleased by the grit England had shown to hold off fast-finishing Wales. 

      “Yeah, we were a bit shaky towards the end,” said Smith in his post-game ITV flash pitchside interview. “We know how proud the Welsh team is and we knew they were going to come back but we stuck at it as a team, the leaders spoke well under the posts and we got the job in the end. It was close but we got it done.  

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      “We just said, ‘Keep going, keep lifting the tempo’. The forward pack put us on the front foot really nicely. Harry (Randall) lifted the speed around the ruck. We were just a bit off accuracy-wise but we built a nice score. It was nice to go in the half 12-0 up or 15-0 up, whatever it was (9-0 followed by eighth rapid early second-half points).  

      “As I said earlier, we know how proud the Welsh team is, we knew they were going to have their patch and luckily we have built up a lead but we are going to have to look at that second half in the fallow week coming up and we will try and improve on that going into Ireland.”  

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      IkeaBoy 45 minutes ago
      Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

      Very, very thoughtful piece!


      It’s far too much rugby for players as it stands and the new competitions - club world cup and Nations cup - are proposed on the basis it’s the best players competing who will usually be established test players.


      An established NH test player is in pre-season from August (at the latest) then going thorough until the following July. They likely will have carried niggles and some injuries into their pre-season. They would then have between 22-30 domestic games if their teams went far and contested finals in say the URC and CC. Although many would have stand down periods, they would still train and be squad ready for all of those games.


      Their test commitments across that same time would be 3/4 games (Nov series) then 5 games (6 Nations) with a rest for the July development tours. That rest would only now be once every 4 years with the Lions, Nations Cup and RWC warm-ups occupying the July window.


      A squad player at club level would potentially have a full run of games in any given season but run a greater risk of injury the more often they play. They would likely know that form alone wouldn’t get them to the next level and into a national squad. It would be their bodies and their ability to recover quickly and deal with elite level competition. They wouldn’t have the baseline of having played an 11 month season so how could they upsurge a 40 cap player?


      I think there will be a huge divide before long between solid club players, who are basically salary men, and the ringfenced test animals who will likely dwindle in numbers as their playing demands increase.

      13 Go to comments
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      LONG READ Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us