Marcus Smith looked like he would become the fulcrum of Steve Borthwick’s team – Getty Images/Dan Mullan
From unassailable to unable to force his way into the starting XV, only the shares of Blockbuster have tanked quite as quickly as those of Marcus Smith.
Coming out of the 2023 World Cup, he seemed ready to inherit the throne vacated by Owen Farrell’s retirement from international rugby. A calf injury suffered in the training camp in Girona before the 2024 Six Nations delayed the coronation, but Steve Borthwick had been planning to build the team around the Harlequins playmaker. Borthwick duly handed Smith the reins for the tour of Japan and New Zealand.
The 26-year-old duly continued in the No 10 shirt through the Autumn Nations Series campaign and remained in that position entering this year’s Six Nations.
His excitable representatives were talking about him cracking America like he was a member of the Fab Four in the 1960s. “We think he can transcend the sport of rugby,” Michael Yormark, the president of Roc Nations Sport told Planet Rugby in January. “He wants to transcend the sport of rugby. We’re leveraging Marcus’s commercial partners to help in that process. We’re going to create more content, do more PR, take him to America and do unique activations that will hopefully broaden his following and start to make him more relevant outside of the rugby world.”
Alas for Roc Nation, Borthwick places far more currency in victories than he does in “unique activations” and in Smith’s eight-game run as England’s starting fly-half the only opponents who appeared in his win column were Japan. Funny as it sounds, individually he was playing well, but alas the back line and the wider team were not, or at least not for long enough periods to get over the line in their run of seven successive defeats by tier-one opposition.
Smith has found himself upstaged by the more subtle talents of namesake Fin at No 10 – PA/Ben Whitley
The notion that England would benefit more from Fin the facilitator than Marcus the magician started doing the rounds and lo the latter was moved to full-back following the 27-22 defeat by Ireland. In an interview with Telegraph Sport before the Six Nations, Marcus Smith had made clear that full-back was only a position he would fill reluctantly. Despite one or two bright sparks, especially against France, England’s back line continued to splutter.
So now, as Telegraph Sport first reported, Smith has been relegated to the bench for the first time in 12 months. It is difficult to argue that Elliot Daly did not deserve his promotion to the starting XV nor that he will offer a better balance to the back line at full-back.
No matter how Borthwick dresses it up – and Italy is hardly the highest-profile fixture in England’s calendar – it will still come as a crushing blow for Smith to find himself going from the No 10 to 15 and now 23 shirt. Parallels have already been drawn between Smith and New Zealand utility back Damian McKenzie, who never seems to be fully trusted by the New Zealand management to run a game from fly-half.
Smith will fight like hell to prevent himself being permanently cast in this type of role. He clearly has the talent but now, having faced the biggest blow of his career so far, he needs to prove he has the temperament.
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The post Marcus Smith faces ultimate test of character after he is dropped by Steve Borthwick first appeared on Rugby 247.
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2025-03-05 17:19:24
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