Fin Smith improved England’s attack – he is a threat to Marcus

Fin Smith passing the ball against Japan
Fin Smith’s form for Northampton should have earned him more than the 24 minutes he got with England this autumn - Getty Images/Patrick Khachfe

You have to look at England’s victory over Japan through two different lenses. I brought six lads to Allianz Stadium who had the best day ever; sitting near Joe Marler in the stands getting a great selfie, and when Hey Jude rang out it was magic. They are all desperate to come back, having thought it was the best sporting occasion they have ever been to – which is a win on every level. England have won, we’re going home for a Chinese. There were 81,634 people in attendance and England put on a bit of a show. So that fluffy side of it all, getting people to want to come back for more, is all great.

The point I want to make is that this was one of those weird rugby days. Supporters have a great time but for the team, you only have to look at Steve Borthwick’s body language. When England scored and went ahead against Australia, there were smiles. You watch Borthwick against Japan and there is just no reaction, because England know what the game was all about. It was correcting and improving on the last few weeks in a game which they were always going to win. It became a slightly joyless execution of a Japan side who are nowhere near where they were previously.

With the tries England scored, recycling moves from earlier in the autumn, it was almost like they were saying to everybody ‘This is what we wanted to do against the better teams, these are the tries we wanted to score.’ But the pressure just was not there against Japan. Winning by 45 points almost felt like the minimum requirement. The players will know that and will be chomping at the bit for Ireland away and France home in the Six Nations.

Which leads you to ask what England could have done better. There was a moment in the first half when England had quick ball coming round the corner, and the stats all week have shown how few passes Marcus Smith has been giving to people in the outside channel. England had quick ball and Smith did not get it out in time to Ollie Lawrence, which meant George Furbank was clearing out a ruck when he should have been receiving the ball in space.

Later on, England moved the ball quicker and it was Furbank’s pass that put Henry Slade into space for the Ollie Sleightholme try. You saw what they can do with early passes.

England were far better at that when Fin Smith came on. Right from the first passage of play when he arrived on the field, we saw enough from the Northampton No 10 to realise that this fly-half debate is not over. There is a pace to Fin’s passing, that catch-and-give, shifting the ball, creating space. He makes it seem effortless, as was the case with his pass to Tom Roebuck for one of Luke Cowan-Dickie’s tries. Even though Roebuck did not score himself, that might be England’s pass of the autumn by Fin. He looked in complete control, manipulating the defence.

Marcus and Fin are just such different No 10s. For the Ireland game, I expect England will go with Marcus at 10 and Furbank at 15, with Fin on the bench. But I think it’s a really close call.

With the incredible individual athletes we have, the truth is we have been unable to unlock the big three teams. Fin is more orthodox than Marcus, but once he came on at fly-half it felt as though the back line was purring. So, it becomes a really interesting selection. With hindsight Fin should have been involved all autumn, because he has been simply brilliant for Northampton and he only had 26 minutes over the four Tests.

I still have questions over the defence. With Japan attacking from 60 metres out, I do not understand what the mindset is defensively. By pressing in, they once again created an overlap for Japan when we had more defenders than they had attackers, which led to the break for Naoto Saito’s try.

England will say that they need to keep pressing that way to get better at it, but Slade and Lawrence are not people who are going to fly up and incinerate opponents; they’re not ‘The Chiropractor’ Brian Lima. I would love to listen to England’s reasoning, to hear them say that by blitzing that way they are trying to force Japan back onto the inside or to make them kick, because they are good enough defenders to sit, tackle and force a turnover. How have you given Japan a seven-pointer which makes them feel like a million dollars? The way of playing makes Slade and Lawrence look daft.

In an ideal world this game would have been an opportunity for more England A players to get a cap and then apply pressure to the starters, building competition within the squad after that side had won two out of the three previous Tests.

Instead, part of the whole ‘niceness’ feeling on Sunday was that everybody had a chance to play well against an average team, and therefore to get picked again.

It was a great day out, no question. And on a day where England learned very little, the discussion about who to pick at fly-half between Marcus and Fin is very much alive.