Smith’s painful lesson and ‘hybrid’ England contracts
The great problem with a solo audition for a starring role on the London stage is when you are merely a part of a losing ensemble.
Marcus Smith harbours hopes of reclaiming the England No 10 jersey, now that the incumbent Owen Farrell has stepped away from international rugby, but the Harlequins fly-half was on the painful end of a 47-19 Champions Cup thrashing by Toulouse on Sunday.
Smith made a couple of glaring kicking errors – mishitting a penalty kick to send it dead, and overcooking another punt for territory – but the gap in class was team-wide as Quins were smashed by an awesome all-court display from the French club. Toulouse have started the Champions Cup with two bonus-point wins, scoring 99 points to 26 in the process.
The fly-half who had most fun at the Stoop was Toulouse’s Thomas Ramos, a career full-back for club and country who dabbles at No 10 when required – such as currently with Romain Ntamack out injured until the spring.
Ramos even outshone his scrum-half colleague, Antoine Dupont, which takes some doing, by finding gaps with the ball in hand, kicking his way out of tight corners, and converting six of his seven shots at the posts.
After the shattering disappointment of France’s quarter-final elimination at the Rugby World Cup, and even though Dupont will take an unusual break in February and March to play sevens in preparation for his participation in the Paris Olympics next summer, Les Bleus should be a force again in the Six Nations.
Ramos and Smith gave each other a running commentary during a second half in which Harlequins had brief hope when they trailed 28-19 but were ultimately pasted by seven tries to three. Quins can still make it into the last 16 of the Champions Cup, having won at Racing 92 in their first match. Toulouse, though, belong among the favourites for the competition, albeit after just two rounds.
“It is hard but I have to make choices,” Dupont said about juggling sevens and 15s this season. And on Toulouse’s bid for a record-extending sixth Champions Cup, he added: “We saw in the last two weeks that we are very motivated for this competition.”
Sale’s fringe XV sparks debate
The annual debate over clubs fielding so-called weaker teams in the Champions Cup was reignited by Sale Sharks’ line-up for Saturday’s away match in Leinster. The Irish province won 37-27 to stay top of their pool, and on the face of it a 10-point defeat for Sale was a decent effort, boosted by late tries from Tommy Taylor and Tom Curtis, and they remain able to make the last 16.
But what about any disappointment among the paying public at the RDS in Dublin or any venue where a load of unfamiliar names fill the away jerseys? And does it blow the integrity of the competition out of the water?
You will be unlikely to hear the clubs complaining about each other, as most if not all will rest players at some stage – including those like Sale who are obliged to give England players an occasional rest per the elite squad agreement. Plus, their fringe men gained great experience.
The in-vogue argument made by Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson since the season was reorganised to reduce the club-country fixture crossover is you can’t expect the likes of Manu Tuilagi to rock up every week between the end of the World Cup in late October and the last weekend of January, when the last match of the Premiership bloc is played before breaking for the Six Nations.
Other difficulties include recovery time when teams are flying up and down from South Africa – the Stormers’ head coach John Dobson is understood to have asked the Champions Cup to schedule two home games in a row for his side, but such a move is more complicated than many realise.
For instance, Stormers’ stadium was being used by the Cape Town Sevens on the weekend of the Champions Cup first round. Sale had a much shorter trip home from Dublin, but then they have a five-day prep before hosting Saracens in a big Premiership match this Friday night.
Ultimately, the organisers have no regulatory means of forcing a “strongest” line-up onto the field – and, anyway, who would be able to decide what that is?
The truth about ‘hybrid’ contracts for England players
Echoing the words of Bath’s boss Johann van Graan the previous weekend, Saracens’ Mark McCall confirmed to i after his side’s 55-36 win over Connacht that his contract negotiations with players are still just a two-way street between the club and the player, and not a triangular conversation also involving the RFU. So it seems any use of the term “hybrid” to describe the future deals signed by England players is not quite right.
With Maro Itoje reportedly ready to stay in England beyond the end of this season, he will be among the Test regulars facing a system that is slightly tweaked rather than radically changed.
Instead of match fees and image rights totalling an estimated £23,000 per Test, 20 to 25 England players will in future be guaranteed around £150,000 at the start of the season. i understands the mechanism for adding image rights payments has yet to be agreed. Nevertheless it appears the main contract will remain with the club.
“I’m personally just talking to the players directly,” McCall said. “I do think it’s an important thing to keep the best English talent in the Premiership, that’s crucial if you want to make the Premiership stronger than it currently is. There definitely will be conversations about that [the enhanced deals] but, no, I haven’t had any.”
