the times | Wednesday November 10 2021 2GM 63
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to Igor, the Russian prop.’ But he’d
find a way.”
As part of his development with the
RFU, Smith was given the chance to
spend a kicking session with George
Ford at Brighton in 2016. The two fly
halves indulged in a game of crossbar
challenge and Ford was impressed by
what he had seen. “Great to meet you,
Marcus, hell of a talent,” Ford tweeted
afterwards. “Keep working hard mate!”
A year later Smith would come out
of his A-level exam and stand toe to
toe with Ford in that training session.
He has now taken Ford’s place in the
squad and is poised to become the
poster boy of English rugby.
Will he keep his feet on the ground,
as Jones so fervently wishes? As the
head coach said at the weekend,
Smith has good people around him,
including his parents, whom Jones
has come to know personally. Smith is
a committed Christian who wears a
crucifix around his neck and prays
with his family on match days. “I pray
every day with my mum,” he said this
year. “I do believe in God, I try to
keep God on my side so he looks after
me during a game.”
Around the England camp in recent
weeks those encountering Smith for
the first time have been struck by his
politeness.
“It’s great to hear when people say
he’s such a good kid, because he’s
always been that way,” Earnshaw says.
“Good family, good upbringing, really
grounded. If anyone’s got a chance of
becoming a rock-star rugby player
and keeping his feet on the ground,
Marcus is that person.”autumn matches, against Australia and
South Africa.
The England flanker Sam Underhill,
who confirmed his own status as being
double vaccinated, admitted the pan-
demic was having a big impact on the
sport. He said: “It’s an ongoing public
debate which gets into the realms of
bodily autonomy and respecting indi-
vidual decisions. The way it is, there are
obviously consequences in terms of iso-
lation lengths, contact tracing and all
those sorts of things. It’s obviously
having a big impact on the game, isn’t it?
“Personally, I think the more infor-
mation there is, the more informed you
are. I am double vaccinated, so can
speak for myself, not anyone else. My
sister is a doctor and my dad got Covid
and was hospitalised with it. I don’tMarler will spend ten days in isolation
and miss the match against AustraliaAnxious wait as Marler
tests positive for Covid
fancy getting it or giving it to any family
members. It [having two doses of the
vaccine] seems to have a very negligible
effect on my wellbeing. In my opinion
it’s a good thing. It’s not for me to dictate
what people do, but I think it’s a very
positive thing and a lot of very intelli-
gent people work very hard to get it out
there so we can keep living the lives we
live. I think it’s a benefit to have it, but I
can’t speak for everyone.
“Whenever there is a positive or a
threat everything does get a bit tighter
and we’ve also got a job to do training-
wise. We’re confident we can crack on
and that’s what we’ve got to do.
“It’s part of the game now. It’s part of
life, as a squad we’ve got to be adapta-
ble. Obviously Joe is a big character
and we’ll miss him and I hope he’s all
right.
“Obviously lads are being careful and
there’s a good level of protocol around
the place to make sure we’re not losing
players unnecessarily.”
Meanwhile, England’s defence coach,
Anthony Seibold, has said he was con-
vinced Farrell was a born leader when
he heard the England captain address
players at the Saracens training ground
three years ago. Working with him now,
he said, he saw his “appetite to be a
leader”.
The Gloucester centre Mark Atkin-
son, 31, who made his international
debut against Tonga thanks to Farrell’s
absence, reflected on what the cap
meant after the recent death of his
mother. “I know it would have meant a
lot, particularly after... the less glorious
days, when she had heard people talk-
ing about how badly I was playing when
I had got Esher relegated,” he said.Chris Jonesstar’ fly half
Main, Smith aged 18 during a
training session with England,
where he met Ford and Jones,
below; Smith took up rugby as
a child in Singapore, above left;
above, with the former All
Black Jonah Lomu; bottom,
scoring his try against TongaChMain Smith ageM d18 during aThe England rugby squad and manage-
ment are waiting for the results of an
additional round of PCR tests after the
Harlequins prop Joe Marler tested posi-
tive and was ruled out of Saturday’s
Autumn Nations match against Austra-
lia at Twickenham.
The RFU has dismissed reports of
other positive lateral flow tests and
insists that Marler was the only one
identified by the regular testing. Owen
Farrell, the England captain, missed the
69-3 win over Tonga after a positive
test, which subsequently turned out to
be a false positive.
Marler, 31, who played 14 minutes
against Tonga last weekend, has started
a ten-day isolation period after positive
lateral flow and PCR tests.
Since Marler returned the result, all
lateral flow tests taken by the England
players and staff have, according to the
RFU, been negative and England are
waiting for the outcome of the new
round of PCR testing.
Australia are also facing problems in
the front row and Ollie Hoskins, the 28-
year-old tight-head prop who plays for
London Irish, has been called into the
Wallabies squad for the games against
England and Wales.
The uncapped Sale prop Bevan Rodd,
21, is expected to join up with the
England squad after the departure of
Marler, with Eddie Jones, the head
coach, opting for youth rather than the
experience of Mako Vunipola, the Sara-
cens prop, 30, who has 67 England caps.
Marler came on for Ellis Genge
against Tonga and would have featured
prominently in England’s remainingN
ic White and his
trademark moustache will
be at the heart of
everything Australia
throw at England in his
personal revenge mission at
Twickenham on Saturday.
If the Wallabies are to bounce back
from their 15-13 loss to Scotland it will
centre on the ultra-competitive
White, who was part of the squad that
lost to England in the 2019 World
Cup quarter-finals after his Australia
career was revived thanks to three
seasons with Exeter Chiefs.
Having missed out on selection for
the 2015 Rugby World Cup in
England, White left Australia for
Montpellier and then arrived at
Sandy Park in 2017, where he suffered
the agony of two Premiership final
defeats by Saracens.
His livewire play did not go
unnoticed and an Australian rugby
contract allowed him to return to the
Test arena in 2019 and play in the
World Cup in Japan, where he battled
for the No 9 jersey with Will Genia.
White was on the bench as England
defeated the Wallabies 40-16 in the
World Cup quarter-finals in Oita in
what was their seventh successive loss
to England. The teams have not met
since and the result still rankles with‘Exeter really embraced the weirdness’
White, who has regained the Test
jersey from Tate McDermott.
“Revenge? Probably, having been
part of it,” White, 31, says. “Getting
knocked out of the World Cup, I was
pretty annoyed and it was hard that
day when you lose convincingly. You
cop those ones because you weren’t
good enough. But, this is a new group
and a completely new coaching staff.
It’s a new start for us — from scratch.”
While White’s persona on the pitch
is “in your face”, off it the scrum half
is an engaging character with a ready
smile and sense of fun. He revelled in
the fact Exeter welcomed difference
rather than demanded conformity,
saying at the time: “They really
embrace the weirdness. They really
encourage you to be yourself; if that’s
being loud and cheeky, quiet and
mysterious, Harry Williams growing
long hair, Luke Cowan-Dickie one
tooth and all. The weirder the better.”
White happily acknowledges the
continuing excellence of Ben
Youngs, the England scrum half
with 110 caps, who will be the
main focus of his attention on
Saturday, and has been impressed
with the development of
Marcus Smith, the
Harlequins outside half.
“Ben is super consistent
and if he is having a bad
day it is still a good one
and if he has a good
day, it is a great one,”
White, who has won 45
caps, says. “I played
against Marcus Smith uphere and he is phenomenal. There
were a couple of questions about his
defence when he was a kid, but he has
really come of age. When he has the
ball in two hands he is dangerous.”
With Dave Rennie having taken
over as the Wallabies head coach
from Michael Cheika, there will be
less verbal sparring this week with
Eddie Jones, the England head coach.
Jones and Cheika were former team-
mates at Randwick and regularly
traded barbs in the media.
“It will be a little less personal for
sure,” White says. “As a playing group
I didn’t feel it, but there was a lot in
the media between Eddie and Cheik
and it will be a little different. It will
be a good chance to focus on what we
want to do and how we want to play.”
White is intrigued by Jones’s
character and would relish the chance
to “have a beer” with the England
head coach, but takes recent praise
from him with a knowing smile.
“It is nice for Eddie to give us
praise but he is the king of mind
games and I am not reading too
much into it,” he says. “He is the
type of guy you would love to
have a beer and talk rugby
with. One day, hopefully, I
will get that chance.
“England is a side we
are desperate to beat
and they will always
be big brother in
whatever sport it is —
the gloves are on.
Twickenham is a pretty
special place to play, an
amazing stadium and they
[England] probably feel they
grow a leg in confidence.”Australia’s Nic White
tells Chris Jones about
life in Devon, facing up
to Marcus Smith and
beers with Eddie Jones
White is renowned for his
livewire performances