It was a beautiful day in Bagshot. The kind of afternoon made for chucking a ball around and contemplating a calculated risk or two. Slightly firmer pitches, the sun shining, a licence to thrill … if ever there was a week made for a player like Marcus Smith to go out and express himself from the start against an apprehensive Italy this was probably it.
So let’s just say the England teamsheet will have landed with a heavy thump in the Smith household and the offices of his agents, Roc Nation. It is only a few weeks since Netflix was projecting the 26-year-old as the poster boy – “the best hair in world rugby” – for their latest fly-on-the-wall documentary, with a shiny new Mercedes G-Wagon to reinforce his profile.
How swiftly the wheel of fortune turns. Because, in common with that other rising star Icarus, Smith is now discovering the flip side of the fame game.
This week’s descent, admittedly, has only landed him as far as the replacements’ bench but the impact will be painful nonetheless. One minute he was England’s most eye-catching player, a shaft of golden light in an often monochrome autumn. Now he finds himself staring at a jersey with the number 23 on it, the victim of the management’s latest recalibrations.
As they squinted into the Bagshot sunshine, it felt like a moment, both for the player and his head coach. Of course Smith still has a role to play, potentially an important one. In the last half hour, against a tiring defence, he could easily rip it up. But is that going to help secure the British & Irish Lions fly-half jersey or boost the brand?
Then again, it was probably bound to happen sooner rather than later. Once Fin Smith was picked to start at 10, the writing was effectively on the dressing-room whiteboard. Smith M is not a natural all-round full-back; maybe his mercurial talent is better suited to the final quarter of games than standing beneath swirling high balls with foam-flecked hounds of hell charging at him. There is obvious logic to surrounding Smith F with as many Northampton teammates as possible, with Italy’s excellent midfield combination also partly explaining Fraser Dingwall’s inclusion as a defensive organiser.
Not for the first time, though, it also begs a few questions. Nothing against the seasoned Elliot Daly, picked in the 15 jersey for England for the first time in four years, or Dingwall, so often a squad bridesmaid. But their selections feel like further examples of reactive thinking in the wake of a stunted performance – in this case against Scotland – rather than anything particularly proactive.
Without Henry Slade, who could not train fully earlier this week, England clearly felt they needed another kicking option, which aided Daly’s cause. The latter’s sharp late try against France was also England’s champagne moment of the championship to date but he will turn 35 during the next World Cup. If this is Steve Borthwick throwing off the tactical straitjacket, as England supporters would love to see, he has not tossed it far.
Will Carling’s observations this week about the relative Test inexperience of the England coaching panel have also upped the ante, to the point where another stilted outing against the Azzurri will test the public’s patience. Borthwick rightly points out that England scored four tries against the French and three in Dublin but a maximum of three completed phases and a skyfall of box kicks in perfect conditions against Scotland were scarcely proof of a team comfortable in its attacking skin.
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It is not hard, then, to see why Borthwick has fallen back on five Northampton players in his starting backline. It might have been six had George Furbank been fit, a real credit to Sam Vesty, Phil Dowson and everyone else involved at Franklin’s Gardens. All Saints’ Day has come early, to the point where it might be less hassle for England simply to run out in black, green and gold.
But what if the quintet don’t exhibit the freedom they so often display at club level? What if a clunky attack is not instantly transformed in the absence of Smith and Slade? What if more fundamental problems are holding England back? If the first half is a tough watch you know which tracksuited reserve the TV director will be demanding to see in closeup.
So, no pressure. The first objective is clearly to win the game and to win it sufficiently well to keep England in with a mathematical shout of the title. But this weekend, to a large extent, will be as much about the performance as the outcome. It is time for the real England to stand up, regardless of who is wielding the baton.
