I back that completely and have been saying that England's best 10 is F Smith for nearly two years.
M Smith has achieved nothing as a 10 at international level. He doesn't control territory or possession as well as F Smith, Mackenzie, Prendergast, Pollard or Albornez. He doesn't have the passing range of Russell, N'tamack, Jalibert, F Smith, Prendergast, Albornez or Lolesio. He's not as good a tactical kicker as Prendergast, Mackenzie, Pollard, F Smith or Russell. That's at least 5 players in each area off the top of my head in an era with no real standout 10s yet. You could probably fit SFM into a few of those too but I just haven't seen enough of him and it's ignoring Mo'unga who's out in Japan.
He can he pass a ball well, yes but he doesn't select the best pass at anywhere near the required frequency, same with kicking.
He's Jack Crowley with an elite running game and better mental game. Got on the tour by the skin of his teeth because Prendergast can't defend. There's no hiding this at international level like you can in a domestic league and as good as F Smith is, a 40 cap international with some of the elite skills M Smith has doesn't lose his place to a 22 year old still learning the level. England literally haven't lost since he's been replaced like and despite a year of close calls where fans repeatedly said it was other aspects of England's game, that change was the difference that started to get them over the line.
There's qualities that every top class 10 in the pro era has had that he's lacking in currently.
This is a far fairer assessment than almost anything that has been written about Prendergast by opposition fans on these boards tbh.
He has a summer to pick the brains of a coach who was playing at 38 to a level that currently looks out of reach for him to me, quite a good opportunity for him to avoid a "what might have been" type career. Currently he's a fine international 10, probably above average of the current crop but not due to the skills that 10s have built successful careers on.
Im on board with this opinion, IMHO Smith is about as usefull as Sam Costelow at international level.
I feel for him at 15, but Argentina saw that back 3 and exploited it, as any coach in rugby would do. It was a rough day for Smith yesterday, but its not the first time he's looked like an u20s players stepping up to help out the 1st team. He's lost at FB, he's not quick enough, his positioning is poor, and its just not worth all that to utilise him as a 2nd playmaker because neither centre can distribute.
F Smith is easily England's best 10, he's not the complete package yet, but he has the potential, we know his namesake doesn't.
It was a decent hit out yesterday, some good stuff from Lions, albeit way too optimistic for the first game together, it looked exactly what it was, bunch of strangers vs a team.
Itojes taking a lot of flack but I don't think that's fair, Earl was very poor though. Tomos didnt half make a difference coming on, but his style lends itself to off the bench impact to be fair to Mitchell, I don't think he did too much wrong.
Not convinced by the centre partnership, or either wing TBH, but in that back 3 a world class player like VDM could struggle with the chaos that was caused.
Farrell will have learnt a lot, some of the stats were good, and the things that were big issues are easily fixable with time together.
Pollock makes it hard to like him lol, soft missed tackle for the try, and being rag dolled and turned over by a wing to lose the game is the kind of action noone wants to see on replay. He looked a little behind the pace of int rugby, but hell of a ceiling that boy has.
We all have to agree though, M Smith at 15 experiment has been a failure.
