My two big fears about England switching Marcus Smith to full-back ...Middle East

The biggest concerns if England move Marcus Smith to full-back to start Saturday’s huge Six Nations match at home to France is his defence, and his attitude to the switch.

Smith, who turns 26 this month, has never been picked as a starting full-back by his club, Harlequins, and he does not have anything like the experience of being the last line of defence as, say, Freddie Steward who wore the No 15 jersey in England’s 27-22 loss in Ireland last Saturday, or the injured George Furbank – who, if he was fit, might have started this match.

But Borthwick has been teeing up this tactic since mid-2023, when he was the first coach in Marcus Smith’s career to suggest the No 15 idea, and he started him there in the World Cup quarter-final against Fiji that year, as well as moving him there during several matches since, and routinely describing him as a “10 who can play 15”.

How 'brave' Fin Smith edged ahead of Marcus in England's battle for No 10

There were also the notably warm words Borthwick had for Northampton’s fly-half Fin Smith after his club’s Premiership final win last June, and now Fin looks set for his first Test start at No 10 – the position his namesake Marcus unapologetically loves and cherishes.

But the running suspicion among England watchers is Marcus Smith simply doesn’t like the full-back position, because he isn’t fully suited to it, while we wonder whether in his soul he may not relish deferring to a different primary playmaker at No 10.

It will need the team ethic in him to be strong, and maybe in adversity if France, who beat Wales 43-0 last Friday, are in the ascendancy at Twickenham.

Looking at one facet of playing full-back – dealing with the high ball – Marcus Smith was subjected to two of them in Ireland (a match in which Fin Smith came on as a second-half sub) and he flapped at one, and caught the other very capably, up in the air, to make a brilliant mark.

There again, Borthwick is expecting France to use a very different kicking game to the Irish – probably hammering cross-kicks and low punts downfield, rather than going high.

If the French do stick to type, Marcus Smith is nippier around the backfield than Steward, so it could make sense in that area of defence. Ireland’s Bundee Aki steamrollered through Marcus for a try wide out last Saturday, but Steward, Alex Mitchell and Tommy Freeman missed tackles too.

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A real plus point is that some of Marcus Smith’s best moments in attack for England come as a secondary playmaker, when he is kept out of the first wave of attack and then arrives with his foot speed and ability to break or put a teammate through a gap, either flat to the line or from a deeper position.

From full-back, he can use his vision and footwork to splinter an opposition defence that has become less structured.

As the England entre Henry Slade put it on Tuesday: “It does give you an extra ball player. When you talk about moving the ball to space, it’s always better to have three people trying to do that than two.”

And even committed fans of Marcus Smith, including this writer, would have to admit there are occasions when he loses connection with his backline while playing for England, and after 40-plus caps, that doesn’t seem to be fully resolving itself.

Fin Smith showed against Japan in November he can be a smoother ringmaster in this regard, although this week is a far greater test.

Borthwick will want to own this decision as part of a sensible overview.

He could have gone outside his 36-man squad for another full-time full-back such as Joe Carpenter, Josh Hodge or Tom de Glanville, all of whom are uncapped. Max Malins is injured, Mike Brown at the end of his career, and Elliot Daly apparently not rated as a better option, either.

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He might point to the likes of Beauden Barrett being used as a 10 and 15 by New Zealand, or Thomas Ramos by Toulouse, or Damien Willemse by South Africa and Stormers.

But, of course, for Borthwick to tell everyone this is under control, and all part of a masterplan of horses-for-courses selection for the French match is a lot less palatable when his England team has lost the last seven Tests against top opposition, and – including the end of Eddie Jones’s stint – 17 of the last 21 against the world’s current top six sides.

England’s other headline selection could be Tom Willis at No 8, which really should have been done in November against Japan to help bed the big Saracen in, although Borthwick will say he used that game to test the kind of back-row combination he used with the Curry brothers and Ben Earl in Ireland. And then Sam Underhill got injured.

Willis would now be going head to head with the magnificent France No 8 Gregory Alldritt, a defensive master and demon attacker.

It fits a pattern of a more physical, more orthodox England for this match, which could make or break Borthwick’s tenure, and also that Fin Smith has been the coming man for a while – it’s just a big doubt that the knock-on effect on the magical Marcus is the right way to go.

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