‘Absolutely, why wouldn’t you back Fin Smith at 21?’
Sam Vesty has lauded the role played by young out-half Fin Smith in helping to get Northampton to the top of the Gallagher Premiership. Last weekend’s comeback win over Sale, which left the Saints sitting in a rare first place, was their fourth league success on the bounce and their seventh in 10 outings ahead of next Saturday’s trip to the second place Exeter.
Potential England pick Smith has been at the heart of this consistency, starting all nine Premiership games so far, and having trained with Steve Borthwick’s England during pre-season ahead of their Rugby World Cup bronze medal finish in France, there is speculation that the uncapped 21-year-old could now get on the field in the upcoming Guinness Six Nations.
With World Cup skipper Owen Farrell out of the running due to his Test rugby sabbatical, the initial expectation was that the No10 shirt would be a straight fight between Marcus Smith and George Ford but the recent form of Northampton’s Smith has since caught the eye.
England boss Borthwick enjoys a kick-heavy approach and Smith’s 2,091 kicked-metres tally in the Premiership is only marginally less than Ford, who is on 2,199.
Seventy-three of those kicks have been in play with Northampton retaining 11, while the youngster isn’t shy on the other side of the ball as he has so far been credited with 100 tackles – the ninth-highest by any player in the league.
Love this team ??Happy New Year ? https://t.co/TBvmEmIcRb
— Fin Smith (@finsmithh) December 31, 2023
Smith was already diligently making his way in the Premiership as a teenager at Worcester before their financial collapse resulted in him switching to Franklin’s Gardens in October 2022. The exit since then of Dan Biggar to Toulon only accelerated the fast-track learning that now potentially has him on the cusp of an England call.
Smith’s youthfulness was never an issue with Vesty when it came to quickly making him Northampton’s first-choice No10. “Absolutely, why wouldn’t you back Fin Smith at 21? He is mature, he has got his head screwed on,” reckoned the head coach during his virtual media briefing ahead of next weekend’s trip to Sandy Park.
“He is a good rugby player and ultimately that is what matters. I don’t really care how old someone is.
“If they are going to go and do a good job and if they have got potential, we will back them and we have shown we have got a history of doing that and we are reaping the benefits of that. We trust our youngsters. We work hard to get them there but then when they are there we let them fly.”
What is Smith like as the Saints out-half? “He is a sponge really and wants to be better; he wants to be better every day. That is the guy who walked through the door and he has applied himself, he has learned,” continued Vesty.
“He has had knockbacks, he has had good things and how quickly he has achieved what he has by playing as well as he has as consistently as he has done is testament to him as a human being. He has got a smart head on his shoulders.”
Giving youth its fling was originally the Northampton policy under Chris Boyd, an approach continued this last season-and-a-half by current director of rugby Phil Dowson with Vesty as head coach.
“Chris was very good at putting younger guys in… if they can do it in training, trust them, back them. It’s also a little bit if you can’t afford to go to the market and buy the biggest, most talented guys out there you have to work hard on nurturing your young guys and I see that as a real positive and certainly a joy in what I do.”
The Sam Vesty verdict on the form of George Furbank and Curtis Langdon for the table-topping Northampton Saints. #GallagherPrem #EXEvNOR pic.twitter.com/HnwbMJAioM
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 2, 2024
So influential has Smith become that he has played the full 80 minutes in nine of his 11 league and cup appearances this season, a dependency also now reflected in England World Cup bolter Alex Mitchell lasting the full duration in four of his club’s last five matches.
“They are playing really well and are a testament to being fit, robust as well as playing well. They are just playing well, so we just try and keep them on the pitch as much as possible.”
A curiosity about Northampton occupying pole position with eight rounds of matches left in the Premiership’s regular season is that they are in first place despite their tally of 239 points for being just seventh best in the league while their 31 tries is only joint-sixth best.
“I’d rather win games than score lots of points,” reckoned Vesty. “We have got lots more in us, I think we know we have.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Dad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
129 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
129 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
129 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
129 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
129 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
129 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
129 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
129 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
129 Go to commentsHo hum.
129 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
129 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
129 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
129 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
129 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
129 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
129 Go to comments