Marcus Smith is England’s only world-class player – but he cannot win games alone
There are many takeaways from this latest defeat for England. It launched Joseph Sua’ali’i onto the international stage as a global superstar and confirmed England’s blitz defensive system requires an overhaul. Yet the most pertinent issue if England are to salvage anything from this autumn campaign is that they must build their game around Marcus Smith. With key men such as Ben Earl, George Martin, George Furbank and Tommy Freeman struggling to make the impact expected of them, it seems that in order to salvage the autumn, they are going to have to adapt their game plan around Smith, on current evidence England’s sole world-class player. Against South Africa next Saturday, a game that will now define England’s year, he must be given the reins for the entire contest, because on this evidence his has established himself as the attacking heartbeat of a side, the player whose innate footballing ability and vision is one of the few bright points of what is turning out to be an autumn of squandered opportunities.
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