Few players have had a stranger journey to 50 caps than Marcus Smith, from “Next Big Thing” to incumbent No 10 to converted full-back and now utility man with a couple of spells in the wilderness thrown in for good measure.
This assumes Smith comes off the bench against France on Saturday night. These days it’s no sure thing. Against Italy, Smith was given the last six minutes after Leonardo Marin had scored a try.
Still, at least the 27-year-old is trusted by the Rugby Football Union’s marketing team, even if he is not by his head coach. It seemed significant that it was Smith – in conjunction with Henry Pollock – who was used to launch the RFU’s ticketing drive for the Nations Championship. There is no doubting his popularity among younger supporters nor his marketability, acting as the clothes horse for dressmaker Charles Tyrwhitt, who curiously describe him as an “England legend”.
Yet the only shirt he truly wants to wear is the England No 10 one, which he last had on his back against Ireland in the opening game of last year’s Six Nations as the Harlequins playmaker was first leapfrogged by Fin Smith and then George Ford. When he will have it back is anyone’s guess.
Interestingly, England head coach Steve Borthwick has already drawn a parallel between the current sticky period and the trough England experienced in 2018. With his job on the line, head coach Eddie Jones turned to Danny Cipriani, who engineered a 25-10 victory over South Africa in Cape Town, saving the Australian from the axe.
While their personalities are markedly different, there appears to be a similar level of distrust around Smith as there was with Cipriani. Whether rightly or wrongly, once a perception is formed, it will stick like the proverbial brown stuff. “Marcus is actually very astute in the way he plays,” Nick Evans, the Harlequins attack coach, said. “He has certainly shown in the Prem and big European games for us that he can manage a game really well.
“He is like a Damian McKenzie who has this ability to light up a game and see things that others don’t. Sometimes that can be pigeonholed as maverick and not being able to lead a game. He’s different. He is different to a Farrell, he is different to a Ford, he is different to a Fin Smith. Sometimes he does an unbelievable thing and sometimes it pigeonholes you as not being able to run or lead a game.
“I think your head coach and fly-half have to align. I felt that in my playing career and in my coaching career as well. You are relying them as a game leader to implement a plan. Some teams allow for improvisation and playing what you see and some teams and coaches don’t. He has found over the last couple of years that has been a real struggle. At times he has done really well and at times he has found it really hard. Unfortunately, you have a head coach who probably does not trust him to implement a plan or way of playing, which he is having to fight. Sometimes he does that well, sometimes he doesn’t.”
Evans was involved in Borthwick’s first Six Nations campaign on secondment from Harlequins and found the dynamic between Smith, Farrell and Ford fascinating. Coming out of the 2023 World Cup, Smith was finally given the keys at fly-half by Borthwick for the 2024 Six Nations.
This coincided with some of England’s best attacking performances, most notably in the home win over Ireland and the 33-31 defeat away to France.
Smith was undoubtedly England’s best player through 2024, but crucially, the team kept coming up short in big games for which Evans believes he was made a “scapegoat”. The 27-22 defeat to Ireland in the opening game of the 2025 Six Nations proved to be the final straw. Since then, Smith has been given the occasional cameo at full-back but is more commonly employed as a utility player.
Frequently, he finds himself caught between two stools: playing the game that England want him to implement and relying upon his natural instincts.
“He loves playing for England,” Evans said. “He is extremely passionate and extremely driven to be the best No 10 in the world. There’s no doubt in his desire to improve. he wants to be the starting 10 for England, so he will work on the things he is given by the England camp and implement that at Quins. Sometimes that can be hard.
“We want Marcus to manage the game but we certainly want to give him the opportunity to play what he sees. One thing he has learnt from England is that international rugby demands a certain skillset and the consequences of over playing or wrong decisions can cost points and cost tries. You can get caught between the two where you want to come back and impress for the club but also learn your lessons from Test rugby. He has been great in that respect.”
‘Marcus is so skilful and he is being wasted by England’
Another club coach bemoans Smith’s fate in even starker terms. “Marcus could be our (Mathieu) Jalibert but now he’s second-guessing himself,” a source said. “I hate watching him now because he is so skilful and he is being wasted.”
Whatever private frustrations Smith might be feeling, we do not know. He is seldom put up for media duty with England and Harlequins. Reaching a half-century of Test caps for your country is an impressive achievement that deserves to be celebrated, but for now, Smith has become England’s lost boy trapped in a Neverland.
“Where he is now, he has to wait for another opportunity,” Evans said. “With the results the way they are, I am hoping he gets one in the near future and when that happens the ball is in his court and he has to perform. That’s ultimately what every professional athlete does. When that opportunity comes, sometimes it cements you in your position and you stay there for a long term and sometimes you are in and out and have to wait for another opportunity to show what you can do and what you are really made of.
“I think Marcus has to be patient. He has got to be ready and waiting for that opportunity to come, whether it is half an hour at the end of a Test match to win the game or another start where he gets an opportunity to show his skillset that is needed from him. He is picked for England because he can change the game.
“Whether he has been used properly like that is for you guys to decide but he is picked for his ability to change a game, impact a game and see things other don’t. He needs to marry that with the ability to run a Test match from a tactical point of view.”