{"id":11854,"date":"2025-04-11T21:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T21:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/11854\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T21:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T21:16:16","slug":"mike-tindall-worried-steve-borthwick-killed-marcus-smiths-lions-hopes-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/11854\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Tindall worried Steve Borthwick ‘killed’ Marcus Smith’s Lions hopes : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby World Cup winner Mike Tindall admits that Marcus Smith could have harmed both his Lions and England hopes looking ahead to the Australia tour.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Harlequins star was one of the best fly-halves in the world in 2024 and looked nailed on to be in Andy Farrell\u2019s squad for the trip Down Under.<\/p>\n

However, after starting England\u2019s<\/a> opening match of the Six Nations against Ireland, Smith was shifted to full-back by Steve Borthwick<\/a> and played the rest of the tournament in that position.<\/p>\n

It yielded mixed results and there are concerns that the 26-year-old could now be overlooked by the Lions<\/a>, particularly in the 10 jersey.<\/p>\n

Equally, it may well not be doing his overall Test prospects any good post the Wallabies series with Borthwick not wholly trusting him in the key decision-making role.<\/p>\n

Smith has \u2018got to be careful\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cMarcus<\/a> is getting into that place where he\u2019s got to be careful,\u201d Tindall said on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d hate to be in this position as a player where you want to play 10 but they\u2019re offering you another spot somewhere else and you take it, but at the same time if [George] Furbank comes back, he\u2019s probably not going to be that option at full-back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve then killed yourself at 10 because you haven\u2019t cemented that spot there. It\u2019s a really tricky place. He\u2019s still the best player in attack we\u2019ve (England) got \u2013 he makes the most amount of yards, line breaks, everything else \u2013 so I feel he needs to be in the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if he\u2019s not going to be 10, he can\u2019t just bounce around the field. Fin Smith\u2019s proved he\u2019s going to go further in this competition (Investec Champions Cup), so that\u2019s only going to elevate him.\u201d<\/p>\n

British and Irish Lions Team of the Week: \u2018Dazzling\u2019 bolters \u2018upset\u2019 the pecking order as Farrell\u2019s main selection \u2018conundrum\u2019 intensifies<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Before the Champions Cup resumed, Fin Smith performed impressively at fly-half during the Six Nations and moved himself up the pecking order, while there are other options Farrell will consider.<\/p>\n

Finn Russell is an almost certainty to go while Sam Prendergast knows the attacking structures that will likely be in place after becoming Ireland\u2019s first choice.<\/p>\n

Prendergast also won the head-to-head duel against Marcus Smith when Leinster hammered Harlequins 62-0 in the Champions Cup round-of-16 last weekend.<\/p>\n

And although Tindall still believes that Farrell will pick the 26-year-old on the tour, his chances of being a Test starter, which many thought he could be, is potentially diminishing by the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Marcus is still going to be okay because he fits into that utility role, which I think could get him on the tour, but as a 10 he\u2019s probably going to slip down the rankings,\u201d the England great said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the bigger picture it then becomes very tricky if you don\u2019t say: \u2018I\u2019m a 10, I\u2019m not moving\u2019. Rugby\u2019s about team players who just want to play and be on the field and does what\u2019s right for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real tricky spot for him. We\u2019ve all known those players who have moved around just to make sure they were in that England team but then they sort of get lost in between where they want to play. It\u2019s difficult for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Ideal\u2019 Lions player<\/p>\n

Should Smith manage to sneak in, however, then Tindall sees him as someone who would thrive in that environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think Marcus fits into that Lions mould because of his attacking capability and just getting himself in games. I think he does fit into that Lions mould,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the time, it\u2019s just getting your hands on the ball and trying, and things will come off. He\u2019s that type of player which things do come off for.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would fit into that ideal blend for a Lions tourist. You still don\u2019t have enough time to bring everything together so you need people who want to get involved and don\u2019t need structure. I don\u2019t necessarily think he needs structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou compare that to a Prendergast where I think he needs a bit of structure around him and he needs to know what he\u2019s doing, and be able to organise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s food for thought for Mr Farrell.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Wallabies legend hits back at Ben Youngs and makes bold British and Irish Lions squad claim as Andy Farrell put in \u2018difficult\u2019 spot<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby World Cup winner Mike Tindall admits that Marcus Smith could have harmed both his Lions and England…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[5313,393,225,522,8128,8129,12,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-11854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-marcus-smith","13":"tag-mike-tindall","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-rugby","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114321410232819592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}