DEAL ME IN
Card games with Biggar gave Smith harsh lesson
MARCUS SMITH will have a score to settle with Dan Biggar when England face Wales after being fleeced by him on the British & Irish Lions tour.
Smith flew out to South Africa midway through the summer tour as an injury replacement and, as a 22-year-old Test rookie, was walking into the unknown.
Fellow stand-off Biggar immediately took him under his wing by asking him along to a sitting of the card school Wales’s players run – only for Smith to come out on the end of a mugging.
“Dan’s a brilliant guy,” said Smith. “He was very accommodating and very welcoming.
“He invited me to my first game of cards out in South Africa, which was nice. He didn’t have to do that. All the Welsh boys invited me. I lost a tenner – they were stealing my money.
“Dan brought me up to speed with the playbook quickly and the way they wanted to play out there. He always greeted me with a smile on his face.
“We worked really closely together with our kicking and I learnt a lot about the game from him – Finn Russell and Owen Farrell as well.”
Both players’ careers have rocketed since with Biggar, above, now Wales captain and Smith England’s firstchoice No.10.
After avoiding each other at club level – Northampton and Harlequins’ first meeting fell during the November Test window and Smith had Covid when the sides met again at the Stoop on December 27 – they will be reunited a week on Saturday at Twickenham.
It will be Smith’s first taste of the uniquely feisty occasion that is an England-Wales Six Nations game.
“I’m very grateful because I have been brought up in a rugby-mad family,” said Smith. “My dad is a very proud Englishman and he always told me how big this game was. If I get the opportunity to play in the game, I know how much it will mean to not only my dad but every other English fan in the country.
“For me and this team, if we get this opportunity, it will hopefully put us in a better position in the Six Nations table.”
Smith was outstanding in England’s 33-0 win against Italy on Sunday to help them bounce back in style from their opening-day defeat by Scotland.
He said: “We were extremely disappointed after the Scotland game to only come away with one point but we quickly shifted our attention to Italy and to get five points against a very, very proud Italian team was good.”
Smith is in the England camp this week with the squad staying in Chelsea and training at Latymer School.
Back at Harlequins there has been significant activity in his absence with attack and backs coach Nick Evans, scrum coach Adam Jones and lineout and defence coach Jerry Flannery all signing contract extensions with the English champions.
❑BATH’S ex-England wing Semesa Rokoduguni has been banned for three weeks after being sent off for a dangerous tackle against Wasps.
❑FORMER Wales centre Jamie Roberts is set to make his debut for the Waratahs off the bench against tournament new boys Fijian Drua in Super Rugby Pacific tomorrow.
Roberts, 35, left the Dragons last month to move to Sydney.