Listen to Fin Smith wax lyrical about the Wales head coach Matt Sherratt, the influence he had during their days together at Worcester and the debt of gratitude he feels is obvious. Accordingly, Smith sent Sherratt a message of congratulations when he was handed the Welsh reins on a temporary basis after Warren Gatland’s departure. “I texted him saying all the best,” said Smith, “and he said: ‘Eff off, I’ll see you in a few weeks.’”
Sherratt’s reply was entirely in jest – “it was nice to know he’s not changed since he got the big job” – and Smith is only too aware of the threat Wales pose to England’s outside chance of clinching the Six Nations title in Cardiff on Saturday. Defeat by Scotland was a 16th in a row but Sherratt has Wales playing a far more eye-catching brand of rugby. In what is due to be his final match in charge they would love nothing more than to end their miserable losing run against England.
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It will be Smith’s first taste of the Principality Stadium and the hostility that comes with it but in Sherratt – contrary to his text message – he will meet a friendly face. The 22-year-old fly-half recalls how Sherratt, then backs coach at the Warriors, gave him “a bit of a slap”, a bit of tough love and the motivation to go the extra mile. Now that the England No 10 jersey is his for the foreseeable future after another polished performance in the 47-24 victory against Italy, Smith evidently paid attention.
“He actually sat me down for a really honest conversation that I won’t forget when I was midway through my first year as an 18-year-old,” said Smith. “He was saying Jonny [Wilkinson], Faz [Owen Farrell], Fordy [George Ford] were all playing week in, week out [at that age] and if you want to get to that level, which he said at the time that he thought I could, then I really need to push and not wait to follow the same trajectory that the boys in the academy who were the same age as me were on.
“It’s easy to turn up, follow the schedule like everyone else does, and he just said: ‘If you want to take that step you’ve got to be doing things slightly differently to everyone else.’ So he encouraged me to get in and kick on my days off, use my free time to look at video, be practising my skills, my passing. If you really want to jump out ahead of the crowd you’ve got to be putting extra work in, so he gave me a bit of a slap, told me to crack on and do a bit more and I’m super grateful he did that.”
England triumphed on their previous Six Nations trip to Cardiff two years ago, but the last time they went to Wales on the final day of the championship and in the hunt for the title they were thumped 30-3 by Gatland’s side in 2013. Smith, however, has learned to relish hostile away days. “I can’t say it’s not going to potentially have an effect on the way the game goes but it’s definitely something I’ll handle way better than I would have 18 months, two years ago. It’s something I’ve really tried to look forward to, rather than let crowds put me into my shell, really embrace it.”
At 32, Elliot Daly will be the senior figure of the backline assuming he keeps his place after an assured performance against Italy, starting at full-back then shifting to centre after Ollie Lawrence’s achilles injury. Steve Borthwick has called Max Ojomoh into the squad preparing to face Wales but Daly, Henry Slade or Tommy Freeman are the more likely contenders to line up at outside centre after Lawrence confirmed on Monday that his season is over, ending any hopes of touring Australia with the British & Irish Lions.
Assuming Ireland secure a bonus-point win in Italy, England need one themselves in Cardiff to move top of the table before hoping Scotland do them a favour in Paris. Daly has fond memories of playing in Cardiff after his late try proved decisive in 2017 but warned England against chasing the scoreboard.
“It’s always a tough place to go,” said Daly. “They always seem to rev up for our game. We’ve put ourselves in the position to put pressure on France now so hopefully we can do that. You go into the game wanting to win the game. As the game goes on, you start to think ‘do we need a bonus point?’, or that sort of thing. But if you go with the mindset of ‘we need five tries, we need 30 or 40 points’, you won’t achieve that.”
