England player watch: Northampton out-half Fin Smith vs Exeter

It was quite the ripple effect afternoon across the Gallagher Premiership on Saturday regarding the candidates jockeying to fill the No10 England shirt when Steve Borthwick’s national team host the All Blacks in just five weeks in London.

You had the ‘veteran’ 31-year-old George Ford, the summer tour absentee with an achilles injury, limping off just seven minutes into Sale’s crash at Saracens after missing a long-range penalty. It won’t be until after a scan on Monday when the extent of the damage done to his quad is revealed.

Sharks physio Navdeep Sandhu explained: “He is a little bit sore. It is probably too early to say [how severe his injury is], but the fact we are getting an image of it means we suspect something. But we probably do not know enough.”

You also had the seasoned 25-year-old Marcus Smith, Borthwick’s 10 in Japan and New Zealand, back starting for Harlequins and producing an attack-minded display that included three line breaks. There was also what TNT Sports dubbed a “monster hit at the death”, driving back and dumping down rookie Ben Redshaw.

Quins coach Danny Wilson was impressed, suggesting: “He has had a long lay-off, so to come back and be as influential as he was is a testament to the man.” That compliment, though, wasn’t a patch on what a purring Steve Diamond exclaimed. “Smith is a class player who looks cool,” cooed the beaten Newcastle boss. “Every time he gets the ball he is never under pressure, conducted everything and is a world-class player.”

Ford and Smith were the day’s mid-afternoon auditions, one stalled and one that fired. Then came the 5:30pm contribution, Fin Smith needing to show his sleight of hand to remind the England head coach that he too is a worthy form shout versus New Zealand.

Five caps off the bench is the story of this 22-year-old's fledgling Test career but in delivering a player-of-the-match effort to edge Northampton past Exeter without the absent Alex Mitchell servicing him from scrum-half, he illustrated his credentials to be considered an England starter at 10 in the four-match the Autumn Nations Series.

It’s been a while – October 2021 – since RugbyPass originally took a shine to the all-court kid. He had just been called back to Worcester from a loan at Ampthill when he first interviewed and he certainly wasn’t your typical tongue-tied 19-year-old apprentice. Even then he fancied bossing it.

“I’d like to think I’m quite assertive,” he told us from Sixways, describing his style at a time when Jonathan Thomas had no qualms about taking a punt on him. “I’d like you to think I can lead a group of boys, I quite enjoy defending.

“You would look at me and think he is not going to be a really good defender but I quite like getting stuck in there, and then I’d like to think how I am fairly knowledgeable around how I play.

“So decision making at a line, understanding when to kick, when to pass, when to run, things like that. I would say I am not the most flashy fly-half ever. I am not going to have an exciting highlight reel or anything like that but I think I can put a team in a decent position on the pitch and move the ball around.”

Nearly three years later, Smith was precisely that and more when aiding and abetting Northampton to their deserved 30-24 round two win that would have been far more comfortable but for the concession of two late tries to Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, another Borthwick young gun on the rise and clamouring Test involvement.

The view from the cinch Stadium @ Franklin’s Gardens media seats has always been a good ’un over the years, the back row of the Church’s Stand providing a panoramic but still close to the action perspective of the exchanges, and the jottings about Smith’s varied involvements were frequent and encouraging.

For starters, there was his big boot: a howitzer of a penalty kick from near halfway to put his team 10-0 clear caught the eye as did a host of crosskicks, including two in the excellent move that ended with the also impressive George Furbank kicking the third teaser in the sequence to put in the clean catching Rory Hutchinson for the score.

Best of all on the kicking front, though, was the 60th-minute drop goal from the 10-metre line that made it 30-10. The sweetly instinctive kick, which gave him a 15-point total on the day, shouldn’t have needed TMO verification before the points were awarded by referee Adam Leal; it looked good from the second it left Smith’s right foot.

The strike from distance wasn’t the highlight. It was how he visited the previous breakdown to ensure the ball carried by sub hooker Robbie Smith was secure for recycle.

As soon as it was passed clear, he was up on his feet and racing back into the pocket having sensed the opportunity was on to pull the trigger once the follow-up breakdown was complete. That was a classy piece of awareness and typified afront-foot confidence where there was also a variety of passing and some neat footwork.

If all that was good, his defence was even better as the RugbyPass match centre credited him with a chart-topping 23 tackles that included two first-half dog leg chases to help ensure that a pair of Paul Brown-Bampoe breaks were neutralised.

For sure, Smith is quite the hardy buck, his repeated defiance not lost on second row Alex Coles, who had opened the Saints scoring. “All our backs put their body on the line so much, it sort of sets the standard for us forwards,” he reasoned.

“That physicality level is right there. They all throw their body on the line. Ten is often seen as people that can’t tackle – but you wouldn’t want to run into Fin. So fair play to him, he gives us forwards a bit of a nudge to keep banging as well.”

Coles knows first-hand the punch Smith packs in the collision. “I have run into him a few times; I’d say I have got the better of him a few times but he might disagree,” he quipped before agreeing his teammate must be close to a first England start.

“Yeah, he has got to be. He is a quality player. He makes such a big difference to us. He was integral to winning the league last season and he has started so well again… He has got to be right up there, but there are some other quality 10s out there as well.”

Having signed in October 2022 after Worcester financially imploded, Smith is just a few weeks shy of completing his second full year at the Gardens. He bossed it when needed versus the Chiefs on Saturday, but Coles insisted Smith was very much the real deal as soon as arrived at the club.

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