All Blacks legend heaps praise on ‘confident’ Marcus Smith after ‘difficult times’
England fly-half Marcus Smith and All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan.
Although England suffered a 2-0 series defeat against the All Blacks in New Zealand, the Red Rose are moving in the right direction under the guidance of head coach Steve Borthwick.
That was the word from All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan who said he was impressed by Borthwick and his charges after they ran the All Blacks close in their recent Tests in Dunedin and Auckland.
Kirwan also singled out England fly-half Marcus Smith for special praise after the Harlequins playmaker impressed with his general play in both Tests.
In the series opener in Dunedin, Smith’s goal-kicking proved costly, however, as he missed three shots at goal with one of them from right in front of the posts and the All Blacks eventually sealed a narrow 16-15 victory.
Improved performance
Despite his problems off the kicking tee, Borthwick retained the 25-year-old as his starting number 10 for the second Test at Eden Park and Smith was arguably England’s best player on the day as he set up Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Tommy Freeman with well executed crossfield kicks.
Smith also started at fly-half in England’s other mid-year international against Japan – where he also gave a good account of himself – and Kirwan believes his superb form is just reward after he experienced several ups and downs in the Test arena since his debut for his country against the USA at Twickenham in 2021.
“I’ll make this comparison quickly, because we should talk about England, because they deserve to be talked about, because they’re very, very good. Marcus Smith has been through a whole lot of difficult times. He’s been dropped, he’s been back in, but he is really in charge of this team,” he said on The Breakdown.
“He’s really playing with confidence. But if you had spoken to him 12 months ago, or 18 months ago, you know who he was in and out.
“And this guy’s been through a lot of adversity, but now he looks like a confident young man, who knows his game, he’s confident in his own game, and he ran their team.”
Kirwan also hailed the influence of Borthwick, who has made England a competitive unit since he replaced Eddie Jones as their head coach at the end of 2022.
“The thing I like about Borthwick is, he was unashamedly last year saying, we’re getting back to our DNA. And that DNA, at times, was boring, if you watched it. But now they’re starting to build on that,” he added.
“They know what they can go to. They put pressure on you at scrum. Well, their scrum probably wasn’t as good as they’d want.
“Pressure on you at lineout. They’re physical, they are playing a DNA, but they’re building on that. They’re playing expansive.
“They played some really good rugby last night (after the second Test against the All Blacks).”
Tough opposition
Fellow All Blacks great Mils Muliaina echoed Kirwan’s sentiments and said England have added some strings to their bow which make them difficult opponents.
“And they got criticised a lot, building into this earlier on, just before the Rugby World Cup, having not quite nailed their DNA, they still made the semi-finals. And then you come out this year, now they’re building on an expansive game, through the likes of (Alex) Mitchell, and also Smith.
“They’re hard, and they’re tough up front as well.”
