The Borthwick World Cup verdict that will please Marcus Smith
Marcus Smith is expected to be named in the England World Cup squad after Steve Borthwick indicated he will take three fly-halves to the tournament.
While Smith starts Saturday’s opening Summer Nations Series match against Wales in Cardiff after being picked instead of Owen Farrell and George Ford, he was seen as the most likely of the three playmakers to miss out on selection for France 2023.
England took only two fly-halves to Japan four years ago but Borthwick, who names his 33-man World Cup on Monday, insisted the technical nature of certain roles means the team cannot risk being exposed by circumstance.
“Right now I have got a pretty clear framework. In those key positions you need to have depth, three players who can play in that position,” Borthwick said. “With the number of cards that are issued and HIAs, you need to have depth for those specialist positions.
“If someone does take a head knock you are looking at 12 days out potentially and could miss two Test matches. You need to be protected and have the right amount of depth in those specialist positions, which means positional flexibility is really important in your 33.”
Now destined to play in his first World Cup as part of England’s creative brains trust, Smith can approach Saturday’s first of four warm-up Tests unburdened by the need to convince Borthwick that he must be involved this autumn.
Farrell and Ford are more experienced and provide expert game management, but the 24-year-old Harlequins ringmaster offers the type of running threat that can turn a match on its head.
“I rate Marcus exceptionally highly. He has an incredible skill set and an ability to find space. He recognises when there are defenders that he can pick off,” Borthwick said. “He can either pull them out of the line and put other people through space or find space himself.
“I have been hugely impressed with Marcus throughout this camp but also in all my interactions with him. He is a young man who has already achieved a lot in the game, but he has got even more exciting things to achieve in the future.”
Smith’s last start at fly-half came during a heavy defeat by France in the Six Nations, a tournament that saw him swap in and out of the role with Farrell. He was among a number of players to struggle that day – and he has not forgotten.
“France was a long time ago now and I have played a lot of rugby since then,” Smith said. “It was a tough afternoon and I have learnt a lot of lessons. It has definitely put me in a much better position as a person and on the field as well as a player.
“I would not say I want to rectify it, but I am a very competitive person…”
Danny Care joins Smith at half-back for the visit to the Welsh capital and with just one player from Premiership finalists Saracens and Sale present in the starting XV [Max Malins, who has since joined Bristol], the side is littered with fringe World Cup contenders.
Ellis Genge captains the team but apart from Care it is an inexperienced line-up that sees fast-rising Northampton flanker Tom Pearson make his debut at openside, with Theo Dan and Tom Willis poised to win their first caps off the bench.
Borthwick and his coaching assistants will hold their final selection meeting on Saturday night before each player is told the following day whether they have made the cut.
“Out of the 33, the vast majority of those positions we are pretty firm on where we are. There is always a few that are written in pencil, as it were,” Borthwick said.
“The players are very clear about where they stand, where they are in the rankings of their position and what they need to do to earn their place in the 33.”
Borthwick’s squad were given a talk by England football coach Gareth Southgate during their World Cup training camp. “Gareth has got such a vast experience of tournaments as a player and in management. He shared that with the players,” Borthwick said.
“They enjoyed it, asked him plenty of questions and he was very generous in terms of his lessons and his experiences and things he has picked up on in the journey.”
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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