Marcus Smith has handed England a major injury scare before the start of the Six Nations after he limped out of training and was later seen using crutches. Smith was due to undergo a scan on a leg injury on Monday night leaving Steve Borthwick with a significant headache over his fly-half plans for Saturday’s opener against Italy in Rome.
If Smith is ruled out against the Azzurri it would be a significant blow following the decision by Owen Farrell to make himself unavailable. Smith was deployed as a makeshift full-back during the World Cup but without Farrell, the 24-year-old Harlequins fly-half was hoping to seize the No 10 jersey. At England’s training camp in Girona, Borthwick is already without the majority of his World Cup backline with Farrell choosing to step away, Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence injured, Joe Marchant and Henry Arundell off limits in France and Jonny May retired.
Without Smith, George Ford would be expected to start though Borthwick could hand a debut to the in-form Fin Smith while George Furbank is a more left-field option. “If he is not [fit] it would definitely be a blow,” said the England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth. “It wasn’t a big incident, that’s why I was hoping it was nothing much. He was just jogging, but he pulled up and happened to be right next to a physio when he did it by the sideline.”
Ford has endured injury troubles of his own of late and received two injections in his knee this month before missing Sale’s Champions Cup trip to South Africa. He returned for the Sharks’ defeat by La Rochelle but notably relinquished goalkicking duties late on and yesterday he was seen doing shuttle sprints on his own. “He’s fully operational,” added Wigglesworth. “I spoke to him and [stopping kicking for Sale] was just that bit of knee pain that was affecting his kicking on the snap right at the very end.”
Fin Smith is the Premiership’s form No 10 having guided Northampton to the top of the table and turned in a virtuoso performance in Saints’ stunning away victory over Munster before joining up with England. He is yet to win his first cap but Saturday’s trip to Rome would appear to be the ideal time to blood the 21-year-old, who is also eligible for Scotland, either from the start or as a replacement. “Fin is that sort of character who is very keen to improve,” said Wigglesworth.
“He’s got a winning mentality, a winning edge to him. I really like that he’s driven that team forward at Northampton and he’s made a big difference to them. He’s a very impressive young man in terms of how he has got good opinions on the attack, good solutions for people – he’s proactive and already offering that [at 21]. I very much want him to do that.”
With Lawrence sidelined – Wigglesworth is hoping he, Luke Cowan-Dickie and George Martin will be back in the squad in a week or two – Henry Slade is shaping up to be the senior figure in midfield. The 30-year-old was the shock omission from the World Cup squad but has been in fine form for Exeter, coming up with a series of late match-winning interventions in recent matches. He is out of contract at the end of the season, however, and revealed he has yet to receive any concrete offers.
“We are just about talking with Exeter now about what is going on,” he said. “[Rob Baxter] seems to be keen for me to stay around, so hopefully they give me a good offer. Playing for England is amazing and it’s definitely a big reason to keep me in the country. I’ve got to see what is there – what cards are on the table. I’m more than happy to stay at Exeter, I’ve been there for my whole career, but I will make my decision when I have my options.”
Slade has been joined at England’s training camp by Exeter’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Ethan Roots - two of the uncapped contingent in Borthwick’s squad. Feyi-Waboso was also eligible for Wales but opted to pursue a future with England and Slade revealed the role he played in the 21-year-old winger’s decision. “He was having a chat with me about England and Dafydd Jenkins was talking to him about Wales and Joe Hawkins got a picture of it,” added Slade. “It sounds like I won that discussion! I didn’t realise the couple of options he had but he has been really impressive.”
