Marcus Smith stood accused of a ‘safety-first mentality’ despite pulling the strings on one of England ’s great comebacks.
Sir Clive Woodward was livid with the young fly-half’s decision to kick the ball dead and “accept” a draw with the final play of Saturday's game. No matter that Smith orchestrated England’s great escape from 25-6 down with eight minutes left to play, Woodward felt it reflected a team weakness.
Never mind that Eddie Jones hailed his young pivot’s second half performance as “brilliant, the best 40 I’ve seen Marcus play in Test rugby”, the 2003 World Cup-winning coach stuck the boot in. “Smith’s option showed that England’s mentality is not in the same league as the other top teams,” Woodward wrote in his newspaper column. “If I’d been the England coach I’d have gone absolutely mad.”
Smith, with his license to thrill at Harlequins, is used to feedback but it tends to be accompanied by heart or fire emojis. Being accused of conservatism is a new one on him. “If he had a Quins shirt on he would not have accepted the draw,” added former team mate Mike Brown. “That shows something deeper in the environment”.
For 70 minutes England were definitely lacking, given a rugby lesson in pretty much every aspect by the All Blacks. During that time Jones did feel that Smith, playing only his 16th Test, was not as aggressive in leading the attack as he needed to be.
But given the way the 23-year old belied his inexperience to dig England out of a hole late on, Jones was not about to bag him for ending the game deep inside his own 22. “It’s easy to make a decision on the sideline but the players understood that [referee] Mathieu Raynal was penalising very heavily the attacking ruck,” said the Australian.
“The players made the decision to not put any more money on the table, to pick up and leave. I don’t have any qualms with the decision they made. Marcus was aggressive, decisive, he wanted to own the game,” Jones added. “I thought that was a big step forward for the young man.”
England’s great escape was one for the ages. Never before had New Zealand held a 14-point half-time lead and failed to get the win. Smith made that possible with his break, a show-and-go followed by that trademark goose-step of his, which led to the first of two Will Stuart tries, sandwiched either side of a beauty by Freddie Steward.
Combining smartly with supercharged subs Ben Youngs, Henry Slade and Mako Vunipola, Smith took full advantage of New Zealand being down a man in the dying moments.
When he converted Stuart’s second, a minute from time, Twickenham rose as one to salute him. That those cheers turned to jeers seconds later will only fire him up for another day.
