Category: Premiership

England head coach Steve Borthwick is “in such a great position” with Marcus Smith and Fin Smith at his disposal to replace Owen Farrell at fly-half, reckons TNT Sports expert Lawrence Dallaglio.

The two Smiths have performed exceptionally well at club level for their respective sides – Harlequins and Northampton Saints – with both flying high as the Gallagher Premiership season nears its resolution.

Saints sit atop the tree on 54 points, while Quins are in the play-off hunt in fifth, one point adrift of fourth-placed Bristol Bears.

The two teams face off at Twickenham live on TNT Sports and discovery+ on Saturday afternoon, with Dallaglio labelling the encounter as a potential “precursor to a semi-final or a final”.

“It is an amazing game; two teams playing incredibly well at the moment,” Dallaglio told TNT Sports.

“It’s two of the most entertaining teams in terms of the brand of rugby and it’s being played at HQ [Twickenham], so it promises to be a really exciting match with so many key players.

“I think there’ll be a few changes to the line-ups because they’ve got some big games ahead of them, both in Europe and domestically, and that’s the challenge for these teams.

“They want to keep the momentum, but they’ve also got one eye on the fact that they’re both in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup with tough games – Quins have got to go to Toulouse and Northampton have got to go to Leinster, so it’s not going to be easy for either of them.”

The game will see both Smiths face off in a battle of the English stand-off prodigies, with Harlequins’ Marcus ranking in the top 10 points scorers in the Premiership this term, racking up 63.

Both men made Borthwick’s most recent Six Nations squad, with Marcus Smith scoring the dramatic game-winning drop goal in the 23-22 win over Ireland, as well as a try in the final defeat to France in Lyon.

“Both have incredible skill and game awareness for such young men,” Dallaglio said of the pair. “They will be looking to pull the strings. I saw the average Premiership salaries were released this week, and it’s no surprise that the number 10s are deemed to be the best paid and the most important players on the field.

“Both want to win honours domestically and in Europe, and both will, I’m sure, be involved in the England tour of New Zealand. They’re both incredibly gifted and hopefully we get to see them both at their very best.

“Everyone seems to focus on both of these players, and Fin would tell you that he’s learning all the time from George Ford and Marcus, but both of them have got an incredible range of skills. It’s such a great position for Steve Borthwick to be in, to have Ford and the two Smiths when someone like Owen Farrell is moving away and is not eligible for the next two years.

“If we were as blessed in every position as we were at fly-half, then we’d certainly have a team that would be amongst the best in the world.”

The 1500km bike ride began in Rome and ended in Nice, with Dallaglio joined by some famous faces, including Wham! musician Andrew Ridgeley and former cricketer Alan Lamb.

Martin Johnson, the former England head coach, got on his bike for the opening five days of the event, and John Hall, the president of Bath Rugby, also took part.

“When I retired, I wanted to carry on doing something, and I had set up my charity, RugbyWorks,” Dallaglio explained. “I liked the idea of getting people together for a common cause. Rugby’s not too dissimilar; it’s about teamwork and coming together.

“I was inspired by Ian Botham’s Leukaemia walks having participated in them with him. I thought that I wasn’t very good at running anymore, so why not have a go at cycling, and I’d never really been on a road bike before. I’m not designed for road cycling at a mere 115 kilos – especially not up hills.”

The 30 riders that joined Dallaglio on the tour rode parts of the Giro D’Italia and Tour de France courses on their route, averaging 150km and 2km worth of ascent every day.

“[I didn’t do] enough [training],” Dallaglio joked. “It’s about five or six hours in the saddle each day and we encountered all types of weather from 20-30 degrees of sunshine to being caught in torrential storms. Thankfully we managed to get everyone over the finish line safely.

“I had about four or five punctures on day one, so that slowed the group somewhat. I’ve become slightly better at fixing punctures than when I first started.”

Dallaglio’s charity, RugbyWorks, has a special rugby programme that sends coaches into schools to help troubled young people.

“None of these kids are born bad; they’re just born into chaos,” Dallaglio said.

“They’re often primary carers in their own home and they don’t get much support. Once they’re excluded from school, they’re excluded from society, and I don’t think that’s fair or right. 65% of everyone in the prison system in the UK has been expelled from school. What’s currently happening is that once you’re excluded, there is no [safety] net to pick you up, and seven out of ten people end up in prison.

“What we do is a three-year programme, working in the schools, giving them employability days and building up their confidence and self-esteem. They have mentors that they can trust and build up a relationship with, and success for us is getting these people into full-time employment and education and currently, we’re delivering that at about an 85% success rate.

“We work with about 2,000 young kids around the country, but we could be working with so many more if we had the opportunity because if 160 are being excluded every week, then this is a problem that is only getting bigger. It’s incredibly rewarding, working with a small group of young people, but having a real impact on their lives.”