Boy racer Smith perfect choice to light the England fireworks
MARCUS SMITH has been billed as the potential saviour of England rugby, which is both unfair on a player of 22 with two caps to his name – and entirely accurate.
After their dreadful fifth-placed finish in last season’s Six Nations, playing a soulless style of rugby, England need an urgent kick-start. Smith is the man with the jump leads.
The visionary game he has been playing at Harlequins this year lit up the English club scene and inspired them to a first Premiership title in nine seasons.
If he can translate that form on national service over the next three weeks,twickenham will be bouncing, England will be transformed and rugby in this country will be relevant again – because it isn’t at the moment.
The uplifting chariot ride of
2019, when England reached the World Cup Final, seems like a lifetime ago.
Since then, the air has been allowed to escape from the balloon. Rugby union has drifted to the margins of the sporting picture.
The Covid shutdown did not help but the virus did not help any sport. If the bounce-back since has been strong in some sports and weaker in others, then English rugby certainly falls into the latter category.
The Gallagher Premiership, tucked away on BT Sport with its terrestrial TV highlights show discontinued this season, operates in its own small echo chamber.
There is some entertaining rugby on there for devotees, particularly now the mothballing of relegation seems to have made defence optional in some matches, but the international game is the real showcase for the sport.
The turgid Lions series in South Africa over the summer represented a huge opportunity missed for rugby in these islands but, broken back down into their constituent parts, the home nations will attempt to rekindle the flame this autumn.
It will not be straightforward with England,wales and Scotland’s matches on Amazon Prime Video but if a new star can emerge to capture the imagination, rugby has a chance to come in from the cold.
Smith is that sort of player who can get people talking about the game again.
He has the flair of a Danny Cipriani without the defensive issues and can thread a pass like a Sewing Bee finalist.
He can run and kick too but what really sets him apart is his gift of assessing how the moving picture in front of him will evolve and act on it. He is a playmaker who can see into the future.
He can change the way England play and the way they are perceived with his boyband looks, mop of unruly black hair and ready smile.
The issue is that Eddie Jones first has to pick him. Jones can be a contrary customer and his kneejerk instinct, when he comes across a selection bandwagon, is to look the other way.
But having dropped George Ford, Jones appears to have prepared the ground for Smith to start in the No.10 shirt against Tonga on Saturday. Selecting him is half the battle – the other half is giving Smith the freedom to do what he does for Quins.
When Paul Gustard, Jones’ former defence coach, locked him in a tactical straitjacket at The Stoop, Smith was half the player and Quins were half the team.
Once Gustard departed in January and the ties were loosened, Smith and Quins took off.
International rugby is a more claustrophobic environment but that makes a player like Smith, with the ability to see space and exploit it, even more invaluable.
Jones, of all coaches, must recognise Smith’s talent, having picked him for an England training camp back in 2017 while he was still waiting on his A-level results.
Of course, if Jones wants to persist with the mind-numbing kick-first-think-later strategy that entombed Ford, there is no point in picking Smith.
He has Owen Farrell in his squad who can do that job perfectly well and who would be a heavier-hitting defender in the No.10 channel than the 13-stone Smith.
But playing Farrell outside Smith at No.12 is the way to go if England want to push on and let off some fireworks this November.
Twickenham will be full again for an England international for the first time since they facedwales in the Six Nations 18 months ago.
The faithful are yearning to see an England side capable of making the place shake again.
Time to hand over the keys to the chariot to the boy racer.