Latest Marcus Smith masterclass goes unnoticed
In any game where a side scores 35 points, including 15 from the fly-half alone, they are usually on the winning side.
So Harlequins’ Marcus Smith is probably looking at his performance against Bath on Saturday at Twickenham and wondering how he was not on the winning side.
One try, one try assist, five from five conversions, three offloads, one line break, three defenders beaten and the second most metres made during the match are all mightily impressive stats and some you would expect for a player on the winning side. Unfortunately, Quins also shippied 45 points themselves, as the visitors clawed their way up the Gallagher Premiership league table.
Scoring points has never really been Harlequins’ problem, but it is maybe their defence that lets them down. Nevertheless, Smith was on song at HQ, showing his wide passing range throughout the match.
Take a look at the highlights of his performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB1apbR8jhg
Quins director of rugby Tabai Matson was critical of his side’s defence after the match, saying: “I don’t want to take anything away from them. They scored six tries, that’s probably the big lesson for us, six tries and 45 points in your home game is a bit of a catastrophe.
“They took their opportunities, we gave them some opportunities and they took them quite convincingly. I think it hurts more because it was our last home game and it’s a bit of a marquee event, so it’s gutting.
“I think we hung in there enough [having 13 men for 10 minutes] and we got a bit of momentum in the second half, but things we said we’d try not to do, scrum penalty into a maul penalty into defending our try line, that’s their bread and butter and they took those opportunities and punished us for them.
“Although the game was entertaining, we wanted to take it to another level, and we couldn’t do that.”
