the times | Thursday February 3 2022 65
Sport
Murrayfield holds no fear for Freddie
Steward, despite this weekend’s
Calcutta Cup match being his first away
Test for England. The Leicester Tigers
full back, 21, has played all five of his in-
ternationals at Twickenham and has
looked incredibly assured. But he is
aware that everything changes now —
travelling up to a hostile reception in
Scotland with a target on his back.
“It’s definitely something I’m looking
forward to,” he said. “I’m nervous, but
it’s not something I’m scared of. The
boys have talked a lot about the atmos-
phere, especially at Murrayfield. It
sounds incredible, so I’m really excited.
“It’s something that’s very hard to
replicate, that hostility. It’s definitely
going to be a new experience. We’re
working really hard in the week trying
to prepare ourselves mentally for that
hostility and trying to make sure it
doesn’t affect our performance.”
Steward’s only away trip with
England to date was as a fan. He went to
watch Eddie Jones’s England beat
Wales in Cardiff in 2017, when he was 16.
“When Elliot Daly scored [the win-
ning try] in the corner, I was in the cor-
ner there,” he added. “I wasn’t old
enough to drink but I remember being
drenched in beer from everyone else
throwing their pints around. We were
very fortunate to be in that corner
where England scored, I think it was in
the last two minutes, to win the game.
“Watching that and now having the
opportunity to step out on the field and
do it is crazy. But it’s an incredible
opportunity.”
England have been dunking balls in
water, making them slippery for high-
ball catching drills, to prepare for a wet
Murrayfield. And Steward has been
working out how to communicate in a
din. “The noise is a massive factor,”
Steward, who has been learning more
about the positional side of playing full
back from Daly this week, added.
“When you’re far away from your
team-mates, trying to organise a back
three, and they can’t hear you, it’s diffi-
cult. When the ball is in the air you tend
to zone away from everything else.
“It’s been quite breezy here so we’ve
been able to replicate that without even
trying. The boys have been brilliant
practising as a back three. We’ve been
working on those high balls.
“The nines have been brilliant, test-
ing us with all sorts of kicks and George
[Ford] has been putting up his spiral
bombs, so there are a lot of boys here we
can use to help us practise.”
Psychology plays a big part for
Steward, who knows he must stay calm
amid the raining kicks. “There have
been a couple of times this season
where I have dropped balls,” he said.
“We come into training the next day
and we don’t talk about the skill reason
why the ball was dropped, we talk about
[it] mentally — what was the thinking
at the time and how do I respond to it.
“I’ve been working really hard on
that psych aspect and try not to get
caught up in the moments when things
don’t go so well and beat myself up. I
just focus on the next job and that’s a big
mentality we have here: next job.”to lead team at Murrayfield
England train
with wet balls
to cope with
Scottish rain
Will Kelleherhours before Smith had been back on
his old stomping ground — this time
as England’s No 10.
This was the pitch that Smith first
secretly trained with England on.
That day in 2018 he had completed
his maths A-level wearing rugby
socks, then ran out to kick goals with
George Ford, who will be his team-
mate this weekend at Murrayfield.
With seagulls chattering above,
Nick Buoy, Smith’s old rugby coach
and still the director of rugby at the
college, gives me an unprecedented
insight into how Marcus was made.
Buoy has concocted three games
for me. They are not “drills”, as I
mistakenly keep calling them. “It’s a
more fluid, smooth and fun way of
doing it, especially with youngsters,”
he says of that terminology.
The three were all played by Smith
from the age of 11. All are similar,
with evolving rules that challenge
players to make quick decisions in
differing scenarios, work on their
“scanning” — identifying space by
looking left and right before receiving
the ball — and tactical understanding
to try and outwit their opponents.
I thought it would be fairly static,
focusing on a closed skill with lots of
coaching input, but the reality is a
learn-as-you-play, high-speed, match-
like scenario, where us players — me
and the first XV — need to work out
how to beat the games ourselves.
“Mistakes are just learning
opportunities,” Buoy says, as he kicks
off game one. Lucky that, as plenty of
mine are coming.
Playing an eight-a-side game on
the full width of the pitch, between
the 22-metre and halfway lines, we’re
suddenly into “two offside”. Two
players are in bibs with the attacking
side and lurk in front of the ball. The
aim is to find them in space, passing
in any direction you like, so they can
score tries.
“It focuses on information
processing,” Buoy says. “There will be
a picture in front of you that will be
moving. Can you work out who is
free? And then find them?”
Initially, no. In the rush it becomes
apparent my fitness is a problem —
and my “scanning”. I need to identify
space earlier, before I have the ball,
not while I do, to give myself more
time to find these bibbed crusaders.
Eventually we find a groove before
morphing into game two, “turn and
kick”. When you score, the directionof play flips 180 degrees and you
attack back in the opposite direction.
Also, you can now kick to those
bibbed men. It is clear to see where
Smith gets his famous kick-pass
assisting ability from. Attempts one
and two go horribly wrong for me.
All rushed and limbs everywhere.
But in a player-led huddle we come
up with a call — “tred” — where you
allow the ball-carrier to go beyond
you, creating more time for you to
take his pass and execute one of
these chipped kicks.
“Transitions in rugby are a massive
thing,” Buoy says. “It’s where a lot of
points are scored or conceded. It’s
getting used to how we adapt to
those — whether it’s realignment or
refocusing our energy on defence or
attack — and also trying to
anticipate, see it coming and get in
position. Then you’ve got a head start
on your opponents.”
Smith certainly seems to have that.
I need some more time.
It was here they once challenged
him to put their Russian tight-head
prop Igor in with a kick-pass. “Igor
spent most of the time in the middle
of the pitch — so Marcus had to
instigate getting him into an area ofspace, for him to hold his depth and
get his timing right and execute the
kick,” Buoy remembers.
“A good pass is one that can be
caught and Igor’s hands weren’t the
best! So the kick had to be
immaculate, just in front of him so he
could run on to it and catch it.
“It took a bit of time, but it was a
great challenge, pushed him, and
when Igor scored in the corner there
were huge celebrations.”
But before I can catch my breath,
game three arrives, “Clermont
Auvergne”. It was designed by the
Brighton old boy Alex King, the
former Wasps fly half who is now
attack coach at Gloucester, when he
was with the French club. He came
back to the college and coached
Smith in school sessions.
Here the attacking team always has
two extra players. It is about
identifying and exploiting overlaps.
Using the “tred” call, we fix
defenders’ hips, drawing them with
pin-point passes to put our wings
away. Smith would be proud.
Buoy found it an exciting challenge
trying to create games to puzzle
Smith. “He would love to beat the
game, bend and break the rules — all
good sportsmen would do that,” Buoy
says. “You’ve also got to work out
how to change the rules, which will
make him have to regress and play
within them, or maybe you instigate a
rule they can break to beat the game.
“If they’re thinking on that level,
and there’s a battle between coachand player where you’re trying to
stay ahead, that’s when exciting stuff
happens.”
They play these games with all the
Brighton kids from the age of 11, the
rules progressing throughout the
school.
Jonny Smith is the first XV No 8
who has played for England under-
18s. He won the prestigious St
Joseph’s school festival player of the
tournament award last year, joining
the likes of Zach Mercer, Lewis
Ludlam and Smith on the list of
former winners.
“These games have made my game
awareness a lot better,” he says. “It’s
constant game awareness, focus, and
thinking for other people, not just
myself. It’s cool to say we’re doing
what Marcus did.
“Not too long ago he was running
around in our first-team kit, tearing
up against schools like Cranleigh,
now he’s slotting match-winning
kicks against South Africa at
Twickenham. It’s unreal.
“You think, ‘Could I get there?’ It’s
not out of reach, as he’s done it.”
After Buoy asks me to analyse my
minimal improvements, we end on a
note of gratification.
“It’s great to see these things come
off for Marcus in games now, having
worked on them over the years,” he
says. “There is a sense of pride
watching him execute them, but you
can’t help be a teacher and think,
‘You could have done that better, that
differently.’ ”
Buoy will be analysing Smith closer
than most on Saturday. The boy who
made himself into England’s magic
man.DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGESonline today
Now watch Will Kelleher try
the games which helped
Smith sharpen his skills
Visit thetimes.co.ukSmith passes the
ball during an
England training
session at
Pennyhill Park in
Bagshot, Surrey