In the early hours of Sunday morning, long after the lights had gone out at Twickenham, Fin Smith and his England team-mates were toasting their winning score in a boutique nightclub in South Kensington.
Ben Earl, one of the team’s social secretaries, was in charge of organising the celebrations at B London, which has seen the likes of Prince Harry, Cameron Diaz and Will Smith stumble out its doors.
‘We were on cloud nine,’ said Smith, whose phone was buzzing with messages from everyone from old school teachers to England goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
‘I was feeling pretty dusty on Sunday morning! It was a real high, a special memory, but then it’s being aware that I need to bring myself back down so I can fly into this week’s training.’
By the time Smith and his colleagues made it down for breakfast, feeling sore from the night before, footage of Elliot Daly’s last-minute try against France was already clipped-up, shared and analysed across the internet.
After months of disappointment, fortune finally favoured England’s rugby team. Daly lurked down the short-side of the maul, turning the eyes of French defenders, before looping around at the last second to collect a short ball from Smith and burst over the line.
Fin Smith celebrates with his best friend and Northampton team-mate Tommy Freeman after kicking the winning conversion against France
England’s match-winning try had its four Northampton players’ fingerprints all over it
Freeman and Smith have played together for three years and built a key relationship
A moment of conviction, cohesion and precision; leaving the great Antoine Dupont face down in the turf.
‘It was a move that pretty much every team in the world will run,’ said Smith, the modest fly-half, who had waved Daly into position for his assist. ‘First and foremost, we wanted to score from the maul.
‘Elliot did an amazing job. He basically stayed on the short-side for as long as he could to hold their scrum-half, holding the first defender because they were worried about him sweeping up that side.
‘That allowed us to run a defender wider, which ultimately meant we had a seven on four. When I had the ball, it was a fairly simple decision in terms of who I was playing it to. We’ve practised it a lot of times in training. It was good. Everyone knew what they were doing.’
Northampton fingerprints were all over the play. Alex Mitchell launched the move from the back of the maul, Tommy Freeman ran a dummy line in midfield and Ollie Sleightholme held the width on his wing.
A Saints special. Even Ollie Lawrence, who stood at first receiver and scored England’s first try, also has a relationship with Smith from their early days at Worcester, who the fly-half left for Northampton in October 2022 when the Warriors went to the wall.
Cohesion was key and it is a metric that Smith and Co have dialled in on at their club.
‘There’s huge amounts of cohesion data around,’ said Northampton coach Phil Dowson, who has watched the youngsters graduate to the national team. ‘Our analysts at Northampton track it.
Cohesion is a key metric for Northampton, who have built their club around it
Smith’s bravery paid off when he kicked for Freeman to collect and crash over against France
Smith was charged down in the first minute of his first England start but fought back
‘You measure time spent together in games, time spent together in the training environment. That data can impact on who you select, or how many people you change at a particular time.
‘You see it in football all the time. Look at Manchester City; up until this year they’ve been outstanding because they’ve been very cohesive.
‘They haven’t had a huge churn of players and the coaching group hasn’t changed but, on the flip side, that can become a downside if you don’t get enough change.
‘Fin and Freemo have been together for three seasons so their game time together, roughly 60 games, is considerable.
‘If you’re close with somebody, you tend to communicate better with them. You also understand body language, weaknesses, lines of running. There’s value in that.’
Smith was charged down in the first minute at Twickenham but he turned to some familiar faces who helped flush any anxiety out of his system. Bonds created on summer holidays to Bali and trips to watch the darts at Ally Pally suddenly transferred to the rugby pitch.
‘I said to Ollie and Freemo, “That was a pretty shit start wasn’t it?” And then I got on with it,’ said Smith. ‘I back myself – and the next decision, whatever it is.’
‘Big picture, if it’s, “Oh my God, I’ve done two bad things now, let’s just go safe,” then I’m on a slippery slope from there.’
It would pay off in the second half with England trailing 13-7. After Freeman had won a high ball from England’s kick-off, they built through the middle and looked to be wandering left before Smith collected possession and darted a high kick to the blind side. Freeman was ready and waiting, won the ball over Louis Bielle-Biarrey and crashed over to put England back in it.
Smith told his Northampton team-mates that he had to back himself again after a poor start
Mitchell and Smith’s combination at Northampton has been key to their rise up the league
Mitchell, Freeman and Sleightholme celebrate in the Premiership final last year, which Northampton won for the first time in 10 years
England’s goal is to find the cohesive sweetspot. Maro Itoje has tried to fast-track the process by nominating players to stand up in front of the squad and talk about the highs and lows of their rugby lives. An effort to bring players from eight different clubs into one collective.
England do not have the same one-club core as the likes of Ireland (Leinster), France (mostly Toulouse, with some Bordeaux thrown in) or even Italy (Benetton). But there are other ways to build a winning team.
Steve Borthwick has ready-made backline combinations that he is trying to blend with the extra spice of Marcus Smith. Henry Slade and Lawrence have played together more in the centres than any other English midfield pairing and Saturday’s performance offered a glimpse of their potential.
‘It’s not just, “Ah the Northampton boys are doing this, the Quins boys are doing that”,’ said Smith. ‘We bring some of our own plays, bits of small talk on the run. I know Tommy’s strength is largely off my shoulder, or on the touchline.
‘I know which areas he and Sleightholme are going to pop up in. When you’ve not played with someone so much it’s, “Is he going to come on my inside, deep behind me, or flat on my shoulder?” Little cues like that.
‘The challenge we’ve got as a backline is to get everyone thinking like that. We’ve brought some of our ideas. Wiggy (Richard Wigglesworth) the attack coach has got some of his ideas.
‘And some of the experienced leaders who’ve been around the Test game for a long time have brought their ideas. We’ve all tried to mould them into one to get the best final product for the team.’
The next step is to prove that Saturday’s victory was no fluke; not due to an uncharacteristically sloppy French performance. Should Borthwick stick with the same combinations for the Calcutta Cup, it is not yet known which of the Smiths will be responsible for goal-kicking duties.
Smith stepped up after his namesake Marcus missed two kicks at goal early on
There is no Smith v Smith rivalry and instead the pair are working on bringing the best out of each other for England
Marcus was responsible at the start of the victory over France but, after missing two shots, Fin took over to kick the winning conversion.
‘Kev Sinfield, who brings the tee on, to my surprise, and Marcus’ surprise, ran my tee on,’ said Smith. ‘He said, “You’re on these now”. I was just like, “Alright” and cracked on.
‘There was no conversation between me and Marcus. It’s been funny to see the reaction to him from the media and the fans. I think he’s kicked at 97 per cent in the Premiership this season, which is the best in the league by far, and much higher than myself and the other kickers in the league.
‘It’s funny that you miss a couple of kicks and you’re the worst kicker in the world. He’s an unbelievable goal-kicker and I back him all day to kick the ball over from wherever. I love playing with him and I think the more we can do that together, it’s only going to be a good thing for me. Hopefully he feels the same way as well.’
There is no Smith v Smith scrap here. Instead, a mutual appreciation of the other’s talent and a quest to find long-term combinations between No 10 and No 15.
As far as Fin is concerned, the past seven days have vindicated his decision to represent England. His Scottish grandfather, Tom Elliot of Galashiels in the Borders, was a prop for the British and Irish Lions but the young playmaker, born and schooled in Warwick, is now carving his own path.
‘My parents are both Scottish,’ said Smith, who was bombarded with requests for tickets for his first England start last week and will be even more under the pump when Scotland come to Twickenham next Saturday. ‘They actually met in the London Scottish clubhouse in Richmond. Bizarre, I don’t actually want to know too much about that! That’s a funny link I guess.
‘Unfortunately I never got to meet my granddad because he sadly passed away before I was born. But growing up me and my brother would put on his Lions cap and his Scotland cap, so to see all his old ties and blazers was pretty cool and something I want to replicate.
Smith with his parents, both of whom are Scottish, after his man of the match display v France
Smith and Mitchell are part of a formidable Northampton side that provided the core of England’s backline in the seismic win over France
‘I’m English, I’ve lived in England all my life. It was always, “We’re going to be proud of you no matter what, it’s your decision”, but there was definitely a conversation to have.
‘There was a time when both were options. I chatted to Mum and Dad about it and said, “Look, I want to play for England”. And they were like, “Right, OK, great. I’m sure we’ll be alright with that eventually”.
‘It was all in good spirits and they’re really proud of me. I’ve told my dad he’s got to be neutral next weekend if I’m playing. He’s definitely going to be singing one of the two anthems, maybe both if I’m lucky.’
They best get used to the English anthem, because Smith is here to stay.
