Marcus Smith can become a better full-back than fly-half according to the England assistant coach and brains behind his positional switch, Kevin Sinfield, who has insisted the experiment is worth persevering with.
Sinfield came up with the idea of shifting Smith to the No 15 jersey in the buildup to the 2023 World Cup where the Harlequins playmaker started against Chile, Fiji and Argentina in the bronze medal match.
After a subsequent run of eight matches starting at fly-half, Steve Borthwick made the decision to move Fin Smith there for the past two games – narrow victories against France and Scotland – with namesake Marcus shifting to full-back.
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For the elder Smith the move has proved a mixed bag, and though showing flashes against France, he made glaring errors while Scotland’s Duhan van der Merwe gave him a torrid time defensively last weekend.
There is a suspicion that his position may come under threat when George Furbank returns to fitness, but, citing the trend of employing two playmakers in the same backline, Sinfield is convinced that Smith has a promising future at No 15. Asked if he could become a better full-back than a fly-half, Sinfield said: “I’d like to think so. If we could get him into a position where he’s world class at both, it gives us some options.
“You look at how the game is played now and how valuable a second ball player can be. Marcus’s big strengths are when he is in space. We know he can do it when it is tight and there are lots of bodies around, he is able to move laterally very, very quickly so he puts defenders under a lot of stress. So clearly it makes sense to try and get him a little bit wider where the gaps tend to be a little bit bigger. It was never going to be an easy transition because he doesn’t play there for his club a lot although they have used him a bit.
“He has not had a great deal of time there, not a massive amount of minutes. We have all seen the reports how he loves playing 10, he is an outstanding 10 but I think he is a very, very good 15 as well. Clearly there are some elements that we all need to be better at, and I think Marcus would agree.
“Some of his 10 play and his 15 needs to improve, so I think if we all looked at the game from the weekend there will be some bits that are not as good as we could be, but if we throw it in the bin now it’ll be a wasted opportunity.”
England have decamped to York for the Six Nations second fallow week to prepare for their final two matches against Italy on Sunday week and Wales the following Saturday.
The second row George Martin has been ruled out of the remainder of the championship with a shoulder injury to go with his knee problem, but England are confident Tom Curry, Ollie Lawrence and Ben Earl – all of whom are nursing bumps and bruises – will be fit to face Italy.
The squad will host an open training session on Friday morning after more than 7,000 spectators attended a year ago, and Sinfield believes England should take Test matches away from Twickenham.
The last time they did so was a World Cup warm-up match in 2019 against Italy at St James’ Park in Newcastle. Though the financial imperative of playing at Twickenham – where matchday revenues can reach £10m - means that, against the backdrop of record losses, the Rugby Football Union is unlikely to take Tests on the road any time soon, Sinfield would welcome any move in the future.
“I love it up here, I love playing at the Allianz, I love the feel of the big stadium and being there and I know games previously have been played up north, I’ve been to a couple of them,” he added. “I know England football do it. I’d certainly be an advocate for it, to have a game somewhere up north would be fantastic. We’re representative of everybody across England, not just London, so from that point of view…. I get some of the counter arguments, why it’s important for us to be at the Allianz and it’s our home. But I also understand as well that if we want more boys and girls to pick up a ball across the country, we have to do a bit of this. We have to. We have to let kids and adults, but kids in particular, see the role models and the players close up and not everybody gets the opportunity to come down to London so I think in that regard it would be great.”
Meanwhile, Felix Jones has returned to South Africa as an assistant coach, just six months after handing in his shock resignation from Borthwick’s staff, ruling the Irishman out of a place on the British & Irish Lions tour of Australia. Jones stunned the RFU by resigning eight months into his tenure as England defence coach and will reunite with Rassie Erasmus on 1 March. He was widely tipped to be one of Andy Farrell’s assistants for the Lions tour but it is understood he will not tour Australia.
Erasmus said: “After spending some time in England, his experience of working in the UK and studying the opposition teams in the Six Nations and other international tournaments will add immense value in assisting us to adapt and improve as we cast an eye on a tough international season ahead.”
