Loose Pass: Scottish disquiet, Marcus Smith’s big moment and the Women’s Rugby World Cup’s business end

Lawrence Nolan
Loose Pass image 25 October 2022.jpg

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with Scottish disquiet, Marcus Smith’s big moment and the business end of the Women’s Rugby World Cup…

A Finn mess

For any reader who wishes to put a measure of form against Gregor Townsend’s assertion that Finn Russell has been omitted from Scotland’s November squad on the basis of form, a viewing of Racing 92’s 38-31 win over Montpellier last weekend is highly recommended.

Seven out of eight kicks at goal, three try assists, 80 minutes played in a cracking game of rugby are not the stats of someone struggling for form or rhythm. Nor, at first glance, is Russell struggling for shape – he looks as fit as he has ever been.

Scottish fans are in uproar, and understandably so. It’s easy to speculate there are many reasons for Russell’s omission, it’s also easy to think that Russell himself might have been the cause of them with a word or action out of place, but suggesting he is out of form is an insult to intelligence – especially given Ross Thompson’s lack of game-time at Glasgow.

Russell is enigmatic, unconventional, and at best, mischievous. He is also open about how he is feeling to a fault, as well as clearly needing a little more down-time and freedom than the regulation professional player. He cannot be easy to manage – France, and the relative freedom players have there, must be a dreamland for him. Nobody could claim not to understand had Townsend said that the two of them had fallen out again, nobody would be surprised were it to be revealed that Russell had breached a protocol. There is plenty of history between the two, as well as between Russell’s dad and the Scottish Rugby Union. But of all the reasons Russell could be omitted, form is probably the least possible.

Townsend has made a rod for his own back here. Scotland have visibly improved across the board since the last World Cup, evidenced by a good showing in Argentina in June – achieved, it should be noted without a resting Russell. The team has made progress in the set-up.

But we are one year out from a World Cup, and it seems suddenly the team needs to find out who its fly-half is. Adam Hastings is a good player, and by goodness he can nail a clutch drop goal if he likes, but to ask him to fire Scotland’s backline in the same way Russell does is a tall order. The same applies to Thompson, Blair Kinghorn seems happier at full-back.

The Scots face a daunting November schedule. Australia, New Zealand and Argentina are all in town, and Fiji are no easy match any more. Any of the above fly-halves could work out, but it’s just as feasible that Scotland could get a rough ride. Should the latter happen, some quite justified questions will be asked about exactly why the player who, on his day, is quite clearly Scotland’s most accomplished, was not on the pitch. If he continues to shine for Racing as he did last week, the questions will be unanswerable.

Shift change

If Owen Farrell’s shaky exit from Saracens’ win over Exeter created a headache for Eddie Jones in terms of playmaking, Marcus Smith’s showing on Sunday at Sale will have been a painkiller.

The Quins pivot will be England’s undisputed lead number 10 heading into the November Tests, in what will be the first of two critical series in which he has to show that he can not only spark a backline, but also control games.

On paper at least, England have the perfect pair of complementary 10s. One who can dictate physically and tactically, another who can tear up the fabric of opposition game-plans and defences. It would be madness not to let Smith do his thing.

But Smith must also meet his task half-way. No World Cup was won by a team playing with a fly-half who ran himself into blind corners in the way that Smith occasionally does, no international team has it written into its mission statement that they are there to provide entertainment as Harlequins do. International defences yield far, far less space than club defences; Smith’s weakness is that he tries so much that is high-risk, there is inevitably failure as well as reward. Quins can wear that. England can’t.

Without Farrell there to steady, Smith faces a crucial test of his own patience and discipline in the opening November fortnight.

The next three weeks

As impressive a display as it was, England’s World Cup win over South Africa was also at times, as one correspondent noted, like shooting fish in a barrel.

But the pool stages are over in the Women’s World Cup and an intriguing finale to the tournament awaits. The seeding system post-pool – which is a terrific innovation by the way – has kept New Zealand apart from England until the final but not from France, who have been good enough to give the favourites a black eye at least during the pool stage.

Canada, whom England should face in the semi-finals, are stronger than many might realise – England’s quarter-final opponents Australia are no mugs either.

Yet the stage is set for the anticipated New Zealand-England finale, where England would be shooting for their 32nd win in a row and the Black Ferns shooting to lift a World Cup in front of their own enthusiastic fans.

In between lie two weekends of double-headers, another of the tournament’s fine innovations and another great advertisement for the women’s game that has progressed at stellar pace over the past few years. Keep eyes on.

READ MORE: Who’s hot and who’s not: Match-winners, Wellington joy, England rocked by injuries and Finn Russell in the cold for Scotland