Fin Smith sheds light on what Dan Biggar said in 'cool' pep talk
Last weekend at Franklin’s Gardens was very much the case of master and apprentice as Northampton, orchestrated by seasoned 95-cap Wales and Lions out-half Dan Biggar, shredded Worcester, who had Fin Smith wearing their No10 jersey for just the fifth time in his short career. Their paths weren’t supposed to cross this term. The 19-year-old Smith had started the campaign on loan at Ampthill in the Championship.
However, a serious hamstring injury to Owen Williams led to a recall earlier this month, setting up the situation that unfolded last week where a team led by a vastly experienced 32-year-old toyed with an opposition depending on a rookie 19-year-old to offer solutions with his pack constantly on the back foot in a 10-66 mauling.
Post-game, the BT Sport cameras couldn’t get enough of the pictures of Biggar taking time out on the pitch to have some words for Smith, a player 13 years his junior. They had met previously, Smith coming off the Sixways bench last March when Northampton hammered Worcester 62-14 and this acquaintance was cordially renewed seven months later.
“I chatted to Dan last season because he is good mates with Ashley Beck from their time at Ospreys, so we were having a bit of stick about Beck and we were both having a good laugh about him and then just catching up. Last week he was saying that he thought I had done well and that you can’t let results like this bog you down too much.
“He said he has been in there that position at my age and he said that he saw a lot of the player he was when he was my age. I appreciated that a lot. The main thing was like all it is going to take is just one good performance and the confidence will just start building and building.
The man is a class act ? https://t.co/DlUm0EoAz7
— Northampton Saints ? (@SaintsRugby) October 22, 2021
“I thought it was great of him, someone with that much experience to take the chance to speak – he could see it was a young lad hurting after a pretty tough performance. It was great of him to do that but the main message was just head up, don’t put it all on yourself and just crack on next week. It was great, a really cool moment for me.”
In the days after, Smith, who will start again for Worcester this Saturday at home to Sale, made sure to zone in footage of precisely what Biggar got up in the ten tries to one contest. “I had a good look at some of the stuff he was doing after the game, the good parts of the Northampton game and how we maybe can put that into some of our attack. He is a really classy operator. I thought it was important for me to sit down and see some of the nice touches he had.
“Last weekend hit me harder than most of the games I have been involved in so far. I have been on the back end of a few quite tough losses but going to Northampton away we needed a really big result and the way we were it wasn’t necessarily a skill thing at times, it was just where we were mindset wise. That is what hurt the most.
“I have watched the game countless times to pick out things. It is definitely the one I have taken the most learning from. Hopefully, that is going to fuel me in the right way. A part of the challenge of being young is to not get too caught up in rugby, how I can be better moving away from that and being able to separate my life from the game and when I am out of this place [Sixways] and at home, it is a complete switch off. That is definitely one of the big work ons.”
Of great help in not thinking rugby 24/7 is his living arrangements. “I am living in the academy house at the moment with nine of the other boys so that is a pretty good getaway, there is always something going on. You can imagine we have some pretty good fun there. I have been trying to get into my golf recently and I am doing an Open Uni degree in economics and maths so that is over six years and keeps me ticking over on my days off.”
A grandson of the late Tom Elliot, the Scotland player who toured with the 1955 Lions in South Africa, Fin is a kid with a potentially very bright future ahead. Smith arrived into Worcester pre-season off the back of guiding the England U20s to Six Nations Grand Slam glory and he was enjoying his brief experience of earning his stripes in the Championship at Ampthill before the recall call came from Warriors boss Jonathan Thomas.
“Ampthill was great for me as a fly-half. You can kick for how many weeks in front of an empty stadium at some posts but just having the opportunity to do that in games, just tackling, taking restarts, kicking to touch, those are things you are not going to be able to practice unless you are under fatigue in a game so that was particularly important especially for me going into a group of men who were a pretty tight group, having to try and lead them.
“I thought that was a good challenge and something I have learned from and I was working with (Ampthill boss) Paul Turner, who is a really experienced fly-half himself so definitely some good learnings.
“I’d like to think I am quite assertive,” added Smith when asked what his style of play is as a No10. “I’d like you to think I can lead a group of boys, I quite enjoy defending. You would look at me and think he is not going to be a really good defender but I quite like getting stuck in there, and then I’d like to think how I am fairly knowledgeable around how I play.
“So decision making at a line, understanding when to kick, when to pass, when to run, things like that. I would say I am not the most flashy fly-half ever. I am not going to have an exciting highlight reel or anything like that but I think I can put a team in a decent position on the pitch and move the ball around.”
Jonathan Thomas has been weighing up how Dan Biggar as a teenager compares to Fin Smith, the 19-year-old Worcester rookie#Warriors #NORvWOR #GallagherPrem #England #Waleshttps://t.co/tMDwsnSFqO
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 28, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
We had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getitng to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
7 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
55 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
7 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
54 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
11 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
54 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
7 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
54 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
55 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
54 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
54 Go to comments