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#Post#: 55558--------------------------------------------------
Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: Blutakk
Date: December 26, 2020, 1:22 pm
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We had decisions go against us 10 years ago that spurred us on
rather than provide a lame excuse for capitulation. There used
to be a lot of anger when we lost, and it was shared among all
players and all coaches.
Compare that with Taps laughing and joking with the oppo after
his lack of go-forward today.
Brown looks angry because he remembers what it is to be angry,
Evans often looks angry, Care doesn't seem to care (sorry), and
it's hard to tell with Dombrandt.
Properly directed, unity in anger bonds a team.
But the only standout anger that 2012's squad would consistently
recognise is Marcus Smith's. And not just today.
From a career/skills perspective Smith could surround himself
with better players elsewhere if the opportunity arose. And if
he feels that Quins don't match his temperament, he may take
that opportunity as soon as it comes.
#Post#: 55559--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: honkytonk
Date: December 26, 2020, 1:24 pm
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Why do people seem so eager for Smith to leave??
#Post#: 55575--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: baggie
Date: December 26, 2020, 3:14 pm
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Quins biggest recruitment mistake of the last 3-4 years is the
failure to sign an experienced fly-half to work alongside Marcus
Smith ... someone like Jimmy Gopperth; Stephen Myler; Freddie
Burns; etc who could have have taken the pressure off him both
on and off the pitch ... Catrakillis could have been that person
but for his horrible injury
Apart from the occasional flash of individual brilliance like
the last minute try today when the game was gone ... Marcus is
still not ready to run a Premiership offence ... he plays too
deep ... takes too long to move the ball wide so the centres and
wingers can’t get into the game ... kicks the ball away too
often simply because he has run out of options ... changes
direction too often because the opposition close down his
passing lanes ... needs help from Nick Evans but doesn’t seem to
be getting it
#Post#: 55580--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: Quinston Churchill
Date: December 26, 2020, 4:34 pm
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I would definitely agree that we should have signed an
experienced 10 to work alongside Smith. However, there are very
few 10s willing to play second fiddle. You almost need the older
player to be already in place - for example, there’s no doubt
that Steenson made it a lot easier to bring Joe Simmonds
through. It was similar with Hodgson and Farrell at Saracens.
That said, to suggest that Smith is ‘still not ready to run a
Premiership offence’ is quite bizarre ... with the exception of
Exeter, I think pretty much any other Premiership team would
happily take him and give him the keys to their attack.
#Post#: 55581--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: JammyGit
Date: December 26, 2020, 5:13 pm
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Yeah, I'm not sure that "plays too deep" is really true. He
plays deep when we're looking to run certain set plays that
require a certain amount of space; he certainly plays flat
enough at other times to trouble defences, hence his insane
"defenders beaten" stats, his breaks, and his tries.
#Post#: 55585--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: claphamquin
Date: December 26, 2020, 5:34 pm
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I personally think we see him through rose tinted glasses. Right
now he’s England’s 5th choice fly half (Ford, Farrell, Umaga,
Simmonds) and with the likes of the current Welsh starting fly
half at Saints, I’m not sure he would walk into any other Prem
team other than Exeter.
For me this is a massive year for him. It’s time to start to
step up and stop making excuses if he’s as good as everyone says
he is. Yes the pack is average in front of him but plenty have
had to deal with that before (Wilkinson etc).
I’d agree that a experienced fly half for him to learn from
would have been ideal but that hasn’t seemed to have happened.
His biggest weakness for me right now is game management. He
often kicks at the wrong time for me and when he does kick it
seems to rarely find grass (unless he kicks it out on the full
which seems to happen a fair bit).
He’s hugely talented and is still young so there’s time but you
could see him being the next Cipriani who does lots of brilliant
things and then can throw an intercept to lose the game.
Obviously Cipriani had a good club career but never made it
really internationally and that could happen with Smith
especially with other young 10’s overtaking him now.
Ps I can only assume that he didn’t know the score when
celebrating his try today (and assumed we’d got the BP) as I
have no idea why you’d be celebrating getting no points at home
and an average performance at best.
#Post#: 55604--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: Quinston Churchill
Date: December 27, 2020, 3:05 am
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This all feels very harsh ... and a lot of opinions that have
little fa to to back them up.
For starters, I don’t think you can say he’s ‘England’s 5th
choice’. Simmonds deserves to have been in the reckoning, but so
far, Eddie Jones has shown no interest in him at all and has
never called him up.
I don’t really know who has ‘overtaken’ him. Ford and Farrell
were already there and clearly won’t be going anywhere. Umaga
has been called up but has never made a match day squad and
Simmonds has never made it that far. I don’t think that really
qualifies as overtaking ...
Clearly this is subjective, but as far as the Premiership is
concerned, I’d say Saints prefer Biggar, that’s fair enough.
Would I choose Biggar over Marcus? Definitely not.
Smith vs. Umaga is a closer call, but I’d argue that Umaga
benefits greatly from having Gopperth alongside him as a second
set of eyes and has no responsibility for kicking.
I genuinely think most, if not all of the other 9 clubs would
take him in a heartbeat.
I think it’s abundantly clear that we’re way too reliant on
Marcus and at times he can try too hard, but I can’t recall any
times where he ‘threw an intercept to lose the game’. That is
not at all rooted in fact. If anything he’s won us games we
could have lost or secured bonus points.
I definitely think he would benefit from another 10 pushing him,
but I find it outright bizarre that he’s getting so much
criticism when he’s pretty much carrying the team.
#Post#: 55605--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: honkytonk
Date: December 27, 2020, 3:07 am
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I think he knew full well what the score was yesterday, his
celebration was about scoring a try and I liked to see. Even
though the game was up, it still meant something to him to get
over the line. Maybe if some of his mates had the same passion
#Post#: 55615--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: RodneyRegis
Date: December 27, 2020, 4:36 am
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I honestly don't see why anyone things umaga is fit to tie
marcus' boot laces.
#Post#: 55628--------------------------------------------------
Re: Smiths skills aren't the only thing that sets him apart....
DIR By: never sleep
Date: December 27, 2020, 5:55 am
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--- Quote from: XL5 link ---
>
> Why would Marcus Smith want to continue to associate himself
with a club full of ageing, failing players and management.
Somebody posted on here yesterday about PG inheriting just that!
>
--- End Quote ---
Yesterdays team was generally full of newer players - so I don't
think this is accurate at all.
There will always need to be a few "old heads" in a team. In
this case, it was Brown and Care. I think that Ross Chis was
only on the wing as there was no-one else.
for ref, here was the lineup. a lot of these guys have been in
the team for less than 2 years
Els, Baldwin, Louw
Lamb, Young
Chisholm, Evans, Dombrandt
Care, Smith
Tapuai, Lang
Chisholm snr, Lynagh, Brown
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