It’s taken Marcus Smith five years to become an overnight success at international level, to negotiate a transition from swashbuckling teenager to the 23-year-old that Eddie Jones currently entrusts with the England number 10 jersey, having first been called into the squad as an 18-year-old ‘apprentice’ to borrow the Australian’s term.
The primary challenge during the maturation process was to establish whether Smith was capable of marrying style with the substance that would survive the rigorous demands of the Test arena, where he would need to be physically and mentally robust.
He had already demonstrated that capacity successfully at club level with Harleq …
- March 12, 2022
