Mirror Sport – Captain Fantastic

England book place in Rugby World Cup semi-final with narrow win over Fiji

MIRROR SPORT SAYS To the list of England’s bloodied sporting heroes, add Marcus Smith.

Yes, yes, ‘hero’ is really, really pushing it, considering his performance was nowhere near faultless. This was only his second start at full-back – for club or country – and you could tell.

On more than one occasion, Smith was caught in two minds and put his own team in a spot of trouble. But the young man so often accused of being unable to tackle never took a backward step, never flinched in the face of the Fijian challenge.

Actually, Smith did flinch once… but only because Vinaya Habosi landed a flying headbutt on the 24-year-old Harlequin, for which the Fijian could count himself extremely fortunate to only serve a yellow card timeout. It really should have been upgraded to red on review.

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