Exeter boss Rob Baxter wades into the Marcus Smith, England debate
Exeter boss Rob Baxter has backed the decision to release Harlequins star Marcus Smith from England duty for Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership clash against the Chiefs. Smith has played under nine minutes of Test rugby across the last two Guinness Six Nations games after starting England’s tournament opener against Scotland on February 4.
England captain Owen Farrell was the fly-half in Six Nations appointments with Italy and Wales, while Smith found himself reduced to brief cameos as a replacement. Smith was then omitted from a 26-man group for this week’s England training camp in Brighton, losing out to a fit-again George Ford.
While England head coach Steve Borthwick insisted that Smith will return for preparations to face France on Saturday week, his place in the matchday 23 now looks under serious threat. Smith looks set to line up for Harlequins when Exeter arrive at Twickenham and Baxter said: “The reality is that Marcus Smith needs to play. He has not played that much.
“Despite the howls of derision from pretty much every area of the press, it seems like very good management to me to let him go and play some rugby. I'm not necessarily pleased he has been let back to play some rugby! But I don’t think it is the wrong thing for him to get out and get back to his club and play some rugby.
“He is still a young player and the one thing you know young players want to do is to be on the field and playing. It is the right management of him to get him playing again.”
Exeter head to south-west London in fifth place, one point adrift of the playoff zone with six Premiership games left. Four of those fixtures are away from home, though, with the Chiefs having claimed just one league victory on their travels this term, beating Bristol five months ago.
Baxter added: “We haven’t had a great away record this season. We have got the results at home, but haven’t picked up the away wins. The table is going to shift week in and week out, and Saturday is a very important game.
"We have got to be open and honest about it. Unless we collect some points away from home, it is going to be a tough run-in for us. We have got ourselves in the (playoff) mix and if we want to stay in the mix, we have to collect points and stop other teams from collecting points.”
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wel the crusaders were beaten by a queensland reds side that hadnt beaten them at home since 1999 and queensland reds partied like it was 1999
Go to commentsThink it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
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