Marcus Smith’s devious training ground plot to get of Ben Youngs dropped is revealed
Marcus Smith looked on fire this week in England training, which will be a worrying sign for Wales today at Twickenham in the Six Nations.
England shared a video of the team in training recently, where the Harlequins fly-half looked untouchable, gliding through a gap left by Ollie Chessum and Alfie Barbeary. However, it is what he did after the break which could change the course of Eddie Jones’ tenure with England.
Smith proceeded to pull off the most audacious hop and step to leave scrum-half Ben Youngs* on the floor scrambling to lay a hand on him.
Now it may just be a coincidence, but Jones went on to drop Youngs for the match against Wales today in what would have been his 115th and record breaking England cap. The image of the Leicester Tigers scrum-half lying on the floor may have been impressed in Jones’ mind when he was making his team selection, and as a result he opted for Bristol Bears’ Harry Randall instead.
Maybe even Smith wanted to play alongside Randall against Wales, so devised this cunning plan to humiliate Youngs in order that Jones drops him. Who knows?
Take a look at the teams:
England
1. Ellis Genge, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Charlie Ewels, 5. Maro Itoje, 6. Courtney Lawes (c), 7. Tom Curry, 8. Alex Dombrandt, 9. Harry Randall, 10. Marcus Smith, 11. Jack Nowell, 12. (TBC), 13. Henry Slade, 14. Max Malins, 15. Freddie Steward.
Finishers
16. Jamie George, 17. Joe Marler, 18. Will Stuart, 19. Nick Isiekwe, 20. Sam Simmonds, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. George Ford, 23. Elliot Daly.
Wales
1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ryan Elias, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Will Rowlands, 5. Adam Beard, 6. Ross Moriarty, 7. Taine Basham, 8. Taulupe Faletau, 9. Tomos Williams, 10. Dan Biggar, 11. Josh Adams, 12. Nick Tompkins, 13. Owen Watkin, 14. Alex Cuthbert, 15. Liam Williams.
Replacements
16. Dewi Lake, 17. Gareth Thomas, 18. Leon Brown, 19. Seb Davies, 20. Jac Morgan, 21. Kieran Hardy, 22. Gareth Anscombe, 23. Jonathan Davies.
Take a look at Smith’s crazy footwork:
We’d love to see more @MarcuSmith10 magic like this on Saturday 😊@O2 | #WearTheRose pic.twitter.com/6iFJoGHDQz
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 24, 2022
*apologies if this was not Ben Youngs.
