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'Marcus, please man, get off the pitch. Save something for the weekend'

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Jacques Feeney/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Rejuvenated Harlequins have expressed delight with how Marcus Smith has been performing in recent weeks since signing his new contract, assistant coach Jerry Flannery adding that he is glad the youngster has been with them this spring rather than away on Six Nations duty with England. 

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With the 2021 Guinness Six Nations turning out poorly for Eddie Jones, there have been questions as to why he won’t shake-up his squad and make use of the likes of the 22-year-old Smith who is uncapped at Test level but has played for England against the Barbarians in 2019 and was involved in training camps last year. 

England’s loss has been the gain of Harlequins in recent times, the clinical form of Smith to the fore in helping them overcome the loss of director of rugby Paul Gustard. The London club won their first four games post-Gustard and were only beaten last weekend by Newcastle by a late kick at Kingston Park.

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All the while, Smith has been showing off his array of talents, an ability that Harlequins were chuffed to retain when the out-half inked his new deal at the club on February 10 after he had been linked with moves elsewhere in the Premiership and to the Top 14 in France.

“He is very, very ambitious,” said assistant Flannery, who arrived at Harlequins last summer before the restart of the 2019/20 Premiership campaign after taking a year out from coaching following his exit from Munster. “That is the thing when you meet him, he is not just talented but he is very, very ambitious. 

“He is very driven. He is pretty much the last guy off the training pitch every single time in terms of the S&C lads having to manage Marcus. They say, ‘Marcus, please man, get off the pitch. Save something for the weekend’. So he is a hard worker. 

“He is very, very talented and I suppose the fact that England haven’t gone well, everyone starts looking at him and saying he should be in with England. But he is playing well for us and I’m glad he is with is. I’m glad he isn’t with England at the moment because he is a really good player. 

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“He is still so young, he’s just 22, but he epitomises a lot of what it is to be a Harlequin with the way he plays. When Marcus is firing he is very difficult to mark because he can create something from nothing.”

Flannery added that Smith’s decision to remain at Harlequins was a massive boost internally for the club following the January departure of Gustard, who will coach next season at Benetton in the revamped Guinness PRO16.   

“With Gussy leaving, if we were to lose Marcus and he was to move on, the game goes on always and we would have kept going but it would probably have seen as quite a negative thing from the club’s point of view.

“It’s well done to Laurie (Dalrymple, CEO) and (general manager) Billy Millard in securing Marcus. It is great that Marcus sees that the club has real ambition and a real plan on what it is looking to do over the next three, four years and he wants to be part of that.”

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J
Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

39 Go to comments
A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

39 Go to comments
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