OUR THRILLER FROM MANILA
Meet the 18-year-old who is ready to gatecrash Eddie’s England squad
EVERYBODY’S talking about the new kid in town — a teenage sensation making tongues wag and eyes pop. He may have only completed his A-levels at Brighton College this summer, but at Harlequins Marcus Smith has quickly become the most exciting new prospect in the game.
Born in Manila in 1999 to a Filipino mother and a father from Brighton, he learned the game in Singapore before moving to Sussex as a 13-year-old.
He played for England at Under 18 and Under 20 level. Then, at just 18 years and 200 days old, he made his Aviva Premiership debut at Twickenham on September 2 to become the youngest fly-half to start in the top flight since a 17-year-old George Ford in 2010.
After three stunning performances so far this season, including a man- of- the- match display against Wasps, England head coach Eddie Jones already sees him as fourth-choice No 10 behind Owen Farrell, Ford and Alex Lozowski. He could even play his first Test this autumn.
So, who is English rugby’s latest golden boy?
NICK BUOY
(BRIGHTON COLLEGE RUGBY MASTER)
We were hosting Japan at the 2015 World Cup and their coach Eddie Jones watched a game between our 1st XV and Sussex U18s. I told Eddie that Marcus was worth looking at. They had a chat afterwards and while Eddie doesn’t give much away, you could tell he was interested.
By the end of his time here Marcus, the captain of our 1st XV, was taking sessions himself, coaching the backs and mentoring 15-year-olds. He was a brilliant role model around school, naturally hard-working but fun — he was certainly not boring! His parents, Jeremy and Suzanne, are very supportive — they came to watch but would only get involved when they needed to.
Last summer Marcus trained with the England team — after taking an A-level exam in the morning. That was kept under the radar, no one knew! You could see he was not fazed by it, so that was probably another box ticked for Eddie.
Marcus loves playing games. He scored a hundred for the cricket 1st XI as a lower-sixth boy and had trials at Tottenham and Brighton & Hove Albion — the family love football and watch Brighton.
NICK EVANS (HARLEQUINS ATTACK COACH)
Marcus barks at senior players and the biggest compliment was that forwards at Quins came up to me to say how pleased they were that he was shouting at them.
For a guy to come in straight away and do that is a pleasant surprise.
Marcus just gets the game and where he needs to be — especially in attack. He knows when to lie deep or to come flat.
His rugby brain age is probably 25 but his body is only 18. When I was an 18-year-old I was down at the dock cutting off heads at the fishmongers, so it is a slightly different pathway!
The signs are there that he is going to be a very good player.
RUSSELL EARNSHAW (ENGLAND INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE COACH)
The way to get the best out of Marcus is to set him challenges — almost be sarcastic with him, ‘I bet you can’t do that,’ and he will want to prove you wrong. In practice I would give points to other players if they could agitate him. While he is pretty icecool he is super competitive — the best have that in their genes.
Marcus has had so many awesome experiences, like training with Jonny Wilkinson and George Ford at England camps. We also told him to study All Blacks like Beauden Barrett.
He is the type of kid who will challenge coaches to find better ways of doing things.
We get excited about that as in order to win World Cups we are going to have to think differently. Eddie is clearly very excited about these young guys.
TONY DIPROSE (SMITH’S ACADEMY MANAGER)
He is living with six guys from the academy who were part of a very successful group in the U18s. They won the academy final last year against Sale (in which Smith hit 10 of Quins’ 20 points).
Around the club he’s often with them, still part of that crew — they help bring him back down to earth.
We are linking Marcus with the University of Surrey to do a degree next year — we like players to have that rounded perspective. He just needs to enjoy the ride. Against Gloucester two weeks ago we had a scrum in our own half — it was the time in the game where you want to kick for a corner and pressurise the other team. He kicked the ball over the dead-ball line and suddenly we were under pressure. Exactly the same kick popped up against Wasps. It was the 70th minute of a tight game — and he absolutely nailed it. That was brilliant. Marcus is a natural player who wants to take people on, break the line and sidestep and he has the passing and kicking skills to go with it. He has the whole package as an outsidehalf. We do give him a bit of stick when physios are trying to manage his workload and he misses training — I say ‘Come on mate, I am 30 and playing every game!’ I hope he enjoys being 18. You don’t want those years to get away from you.
DANNY CARE
(QUINS AND ENGLAND SCRUM-HALF)
Since the first time I threw him a ball in training last year I knew he would be special. He took it to the line and threw a lovely miss-pass. With the next one he took someone on.
He is a joy to work with and I am excited to see how good he can be. I think we’re only just scratching the surface with him.