The London Scottish clubhouse may seem a peculiar place to embark on the life and times of England’s new fly-half star, but the rickety Richmond hangout is where Fin Smith’s story really begins. It was here, two miles or so from Twickenham, where Smith’s mother Judith first set eyes on his father, Andrew: two Scots not then knowing they would one day produce a player who will spend much of next week plotting their own nation’s sporting demise.
“I don’t actually want to know too much about that!” Smith says, understandably not wishing to dwell on his parents’ rugby union. But it serves to highlight that, in a different life and different circumstances, he would have been proudly wearing a thistle rather than a rose on his chest.
