Why Marcus Smith offers Japan hope of a brighter future

As he absorbed a seventh Test defeat of 2024, Eddie Jones admitted his young Japan side had been taught a “lesson in pressure rugby” by England at Allianz Stadium.

But the Australian coach insisted that it was from such harsh experiences that the Brave Blossoms can create the tools that will help them climb back to the highs of their recent past.

It is now more than nine years since Jones masterminded the Rugby World Cup 2015 victory against South Africa, the ‘Miracle of Brighton’, that appeared to signal Japan’s arrival as a coming force.

Four years later, as tournament hosts under Jamie Joseph, they created history as they reached the quarter-finals following another pair of memorable pool-stage results against Ireland and Scotland.

However, the intervening five years have been hard on the Brave Blossoms and they arrived in Europe this month shorn of most of the stars who had carried them to those successes.

The 15 players who started Sunday’s encounter with England had won only 201 caps between them ahead of kick off, an average of 13 per man. Six had played fewer than 10 Tests, while hooker Seunghyuk Lee – a late call-up – was making his debut.

“They don't have any accumulated adaption on the field, so when something doesn't go right, they can't adapt to it,” Jones said. “And you only learn that by doing it.”

But he believes they only had to look at the man pulling the strings for the hosts, Marcus Smith, to see what improvements can come with experience.

Jones first brought Smith into an England training camp in 2017, when the fly-half was an 18-year-old schoolboy.

Although it was another four years before he gave him his full Test debut, by the time Jones departed England, in the wake of a disappointing November in 2022, the Harlequins star was his starting No10.

But his transition to the senior ranks was not always a smooth one as both the Australian and his successor Steve Borthwick wrestled with how to best use his mercurial talents.

Sunday was Smith’s 39th Test appearance – more than any Japan player on display – and it showed as he piloted England around the pitch with apparent ease.

“I look at Marcus,” Jones said, “having brought him in when he was young and now, he's so competent in his decision making.

“You know, he makes the right decisions most of the time. He's composed. He's still got that bit of electricity, but now he's [played] 40 Tests, and that's what you get from 40 Tests.

“So, you know, we've just got to be patient. We've got to be patient and stick to the process and keep backing ourselves to be a bit different.

“And because we want to play differently – we want to play faster – that puts more pressure on your skills, and [on Sunday], in the second half, for instance, we got on the front foot three or four times and we gave the ball back to the opposition.

“And that really hurts you but [we’ve got to] just stick to it, mate. There's no magic solution here.”

Despite Japan’s defeat, Jones was at least happy that his former assistant, England coach Steve Borthwick, was able to end a difficult November on a high.

Asked for his opinion on his former side, Jones suggested they were a team in transition but believes they are “going in the right direction” under Borthwick.

“You’ve got some young guys coming through, some good young players there,” he said.

“Chandler Cunningham[-South], he looks a prospect. [Tommy] Freeman's starting to come through, [Tom] Roebuck's starting to come through. Ollie Lawrence is getting some consistency in his play.

“So, it's the melding of the team where you've still got, you know, a lot of the guys who played in the 2015, 2019, 2023 [World Cups], so you always get that little sticky period where, in the big games it doesn't quite work, and you get beaten by a point or two points or a penalty goal.

“But I think they're going the right direction. [On Sunday] they gave a lesson in pressure rugby. Every time they got on the front foot, they put the ball behind and chased hard.

“And so, we got suffocated and they played really well and I'm sure, knowing Steve fairly well, that's how he wants to play and it's going to take some time. But I think they're going in the right direction.”