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'It's frightening; you’d love to have all three on the pitch'
By Liam Heagney
England veteran Danny Care has claimed the potential that Marcus Smith has is frightening. Care and Smith were the half-back combination that helped to drive their club Harlequins to Gallagher Premiership glory in 2021 with a swashbuckling style of attacking rugby.
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They have since taken their partnership onto Test level with England, most recently starting together as the England nine/10 combination in the opening Summer Nations Series fixture away to Wales.
With Steve Borthwick set to name his team on Thursday to take on Argentina in this Saturday’s Rugby World Cup Pool D opener, Care and Smith are in contention for selection.
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The 36-year-old Care has claimed that getting picked to play in such a massive World Cup match would be the best week of his career.
He also played up the ability of Smith, who in recent weeks has been training at full-back following an impressive 27-minute try-scoring appearance off the bench in that position in the August 26 Twickenham loss to Fiji.
“I have spent a lot of time speaking about how good Marcus is,” said Care. “I always say it amazes me how he keeps getting better. The potential he has got still is frightening and he has got two brilliant people in terms of George (Ford) and Owen (Farrell) to learn off every day.
“Some of those combinations when those two or three of them get on the ball together, it is frightening. You’d love to have all three on the pitch.
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“But Marcus is one of the brilliant players we have got here (in France) and the idea is to get him the ball with some space but to do that we have got to run hard and win some collisions and win some quick ball. That is what we will be challenged to do this weekend.”
Care’s calling card at Harlequins is to constantly play at a high tempo. It’s a style that very much suits him, but he has learned over the years this approach doesn’t fully fit in at Test level. “It’s a key role for any nine to dictate the tempo of the game,” he explained.
“It’s not always fast. That is something I have definitely learned over my time, it’s not all helter-skelter. You have got to do what the team needs at the right time so whatever role I can play this weekend, I will try to do it to be best of my ability and whatever the team needs.
“Obviously I enjoy the fast tempo type of play; it’s something I have always backed in my game and the way we want to play is fast and physical and confrontational. When we get that going it is going to be fun.”
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MS is the best 10 in England right now, but England is playing the wrong kind of game that is contra his style of play. England is a laggard and can’t keep up with his style of play. If England had stuck with Eddie Jones, he would have broken the mould and let English rugby loose to play more like southern hemisphere teams and make the necessary transformation. RFU couldn’t see past the losses, but, let’s not forget, Eddie Jones dismantled the All Blacks on his way to taking essentially the same team to the 2019 RWC final.
MS is a little bit above average. Speed is medium not electric. Defence a bit suspect. Will definitely make a world C team perhaps. Perhaps they're managing him wrong. Should never play alongside Farrell.