Eddie feared for Marcus
‘BLUNT’ TALKS WITH SMITH
EDDIE JONES feared Marcus Smith was wasting his talent and throwing his England career down the drain before it had started.
Smith first caught England head coach Jones’ eye during the 2015 World Cup, when the Australian was coaching Japan.
He went to see then-schoolboy Smith boss a match for Brighton College, and by October 2017 the fly-half was training with England as an ‘apprentice’.
But Smith, right, did not win a full cap until this summer against USA.
He was then was called up by the British & Irish Lions in South Africa before nailing last Saturday’s winning penalty against the Springboks.
But, in a new book, Leadership: Lessons From My Life in Rugby, Jones revealed he had a heart-toheart with the 22-year-old to get him back on track.
Jones wrote: “When the first lockdown hit in 2020, I called him so we could have a proper conversation. I’d had my eye on him for a while, because I think he’s got real potential. But I was not sure whether Marcus had the desire to be the best he can be. I wondered if he might be happy being a nice Harlequins player, talking about England in glowing terms, without really testing the limits of his ability or character.
“We had a reasonably blunt conversation about the state of his game. I suggested that he needed to come up with his own identity. I wanted him to outline that identity as a player on a piece of paper for me. He did that and sent it over to me. We’ve been continuing that conversation ever since.”
Smith has scored 63 points in five internationals and the roof came off at Twickenham when he slotted Saturday’s matchwinner.
But Jones told the England faithful the best is yet to come.
He added: “No.10s are like quarterbacks. You’ve got to allow them to fail.You’ve got to give them time to mature. The good ones come through. They repay you. They might have two or three years at their very best. But it is a demanding position.”