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Sometimes players like to pretend they barely contemplate their direct opponent. That way they can neatly sidestep all external comparisons and inner doubts and concentrate on their own jobs. It is a team game, after all, and it never pays to waste time fretting about things over which you have limited control.
Every now and again, though, the “game within a game” duel narrative is unavoidable. Even if Leinster’s pack give a well-stuffed armchair ride to their young fly-half Sam Prendergast on Saturday his Harlequins opposite number, Marcus Smith, will still be expected to make some sort of impact. If not, his chances of being among the chosen few to tour with the British & Irish Lions this summer will recede and Prendergast’s will be suitably enhanced.
Should one single game shape selectorial opinion? Not usually. But this one is taking place in the cauldron of Croke Park where Irish sides have become mighty hard to overcome. Leinster have yet to be beaten there and no English national rugby side or club has ever prevailed at the towering citadel of Gaelic sport. If Smith can weave some magic there, he can weave it anywhere.
There is pressure on Prendergast, too. Anyone with eyes can see the 22-year-old has huge potential. But Lions tours are not developmental expeditions. As Andy Farrell made clear last week, winning the series in Australia is the be-all and end-all. Particularly as the Lions, for all the prestige and history attached to the shirt, have managed one solitary series victory since 1997.
So it’s game on. With the caveat that, conceivably, Smith and Prendergast could both miss out. There is Finn Russell to consider, obviously, plus Fin Smith at Northampton. Then there is Jack Crowley, also facing a daunting Champions Cup outing for Munster at La Rochelle. And still lurking across the Channel is Owen Farrell, back fit at Racing 92 and eager to make up for lost time.
No one who saw the social media clip of Farrell Jr roaring “Allez! Come on!” during his side’s narrow win over Bordeaux-Bègles on Sunday would subscribe to the idea that he is losing his competitive edge. The question is whether that outweighs his injury-disrupted season and the credentials of others still operating at Test rugby’s sharp end.
Farrell will also turn 34 in September, not old by the standards of, say, a latter-day Johnny Sexton but senior enough to ask whether potential involvement in two games inside a week remains practicable. The Lions have had some mature first-choice fly-halves – Dan Biggar in 2021, Sexton in 2017 and Stephen Jones in 2009 were all 31 – but guess the ages of the starting No 10s who have guided the Lions to series victories since 1971? Barry John was 26, Phil Bennett 25, Ollie Campbell 26, Rob Andrew 26, Gregor Townsend 24 and Sexton 27 in Australia in 2013.
You might say there’s a pattern there. Mature enough to know the game, swift enough to still be a running threat, young enough to be hungry for more. Which is interesting when you overlay that historical trend on to the current wannabe list. Unless you insist that age is just a number, only the 26-year-old Marcus Smith and the 25-year-old Crowley fit that template.
This really should be Marcus Smith’s moment. The Harlequin was called up as injury cover on the last Lions tour to South Africa in 2021 where he impressed plenty of knowledgable observers. Townsend described him as “one of the best attacking 10s in the world” and hailed Russell and Smith as rugby’s future. “I believe the game has already moved to an era when 10s have to be attackers,” he said. “I do believe their way of playing can win games.”
He has been proven right insofar as the sport grows ever quicker and the best fly-halves need to be a triple threat in their running, passing and kicking ability. What few envisaged, though, is the extra bench power of the top sides and its effect on big matches. It seems almost quaint now to look back at that final 2021 Test in Cape Town and see the Springboks opted for a bog-standard 5-3 forward split.
So, more than ever, Lions fly-halves have to be capable tacklers. Which is why Russell, a craggier opponent than his insouciant grin suggests, and Fin Smith will be in the forefront of Farrell Sr’s thinking and why Farrell Jr’s appetite for the physical fray will keep him in the frame.
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It’s also why this weekend’s game in Dublin matters. Remember Bundee Aki skittling English defenders, Marcus Smith included, in the Six Nations game at the Aviva Stadium in February? It proved to be Smith M’s last start at fly-half for England in the championship, Smith F seizing the baton with aplomb against France in round two.
Two months on, Saturday’s fixture is a priceless last opportunity for the elder Smith and Prendergast to win over hearts and minds. The latter was outstanding against an outgunned Bristol in this same competition before Christmas and will be hoping RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett are similarly influential again.
Nor have we yet mentioned goal-kicking, without which no Lions series triumph can be nailed down. But first Leinster have to cough up the tries and penalties to give Smith the chance to showcase his sharpshooting credentials. If they can also suffocate him with ball in hand, what then? The Harlequins fly-half might theoretically be the right age but this weekend remains definitive for his Lions prospects.
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