Smith's 'brilliant position' warning to Harlequins' title rivals
Marcus Smith has warned Harlequins’ title rivals that his Gallagher Premiership champions are a more formidable outfit than last season as they go in search of the perfect performance. Quins head to Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night for a top-four clash with resurgent Northampton knowing that with three matches left, their presence in the playoffs is all but assured.
Leicester and Saracens have been setting the standard as the regular season nears its conclusion, but 2020/21 demonstrated that Quins’ attacking mindset is at its deadliest during the business end of the campaign.
“I’m excited. We’re in a brilliant position to finish the season, a much better position than we were in last season,” said Harlequins fly-half Smith. “I feel we are a much team better than last year, but a lot of our team are still very young and we have got loads to grow as well.
"We’re confident but at the same time we know we have got to up our game over the next couple of months and come up with the perfect performance and we know there is a lot of work to do. The Premiership is on fire at the minute. There are a lot of close games, a lot of tries being scored.
"Hopefully now the weather is getting better there will be a lot of rugby being played. Fingers crossed that brings the best out in us, but a lot of other teams can play as well so we know that the competition will be fierce. We’ll just focus on ourselves, improve individually and as a team and give it our best shot. That is all we can do.”
Unlike Leicester, who face a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Leinster, Harlequins are able to limit their focus to the Premiership after losing to Montpellier by a single point over two legs in the last 16. While the demise of their European ambitions was disappointing, Smith insists it was still an invaluable experience. “We have learnt how to play in big knockout games.
"There was massive learning for us in that two-leg game against Montpellier and even though we didn’t come out on the right side of the result, we learnt as a team and as individuals. That experience has made us a lot stronger as a team and the more experiences we have in knockout games sets you up for the next ones to come. They are not something you can prepare for on the training field.”
Smith appears in ‘Prep to Win: Harlequins’, the new documentary on Prime Video directed by his England teammate Ben Obano which airs for the first time on Thursday. “I hope it shows to the public how much fun we have together on and off the training field,” Smith said.
“We are very lucky to do what we do day in, day out and as a club, we always remind ourselves of that. The fun we have on the training field transfers quite a lot and it’s not forced, everyone loves being there. Everyone spends time together after work, playing pool or kicking a football about. Just spending time with each other, which counts in big pressure moments.”
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Look, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
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