Fin Smith: Fly half recalls the moment he told his Scottish family he wanted to play for England

Despite passing away before he was born, the England fly-half shared some memories growing up related to the former loosehead prop:

“Growing up, me and my brother would put on his Lions cap and his Scotland cap and stuff like that. So, to see all his old ties and blazer and stuff was pretty cool. And you know, was it something that I wanted to replicate? Definitely.”

When asked about which side of the family Elliot was on, Smith spoke about the family links to Scotland in a wider context, including a related story about where his parents met.

He said: “Yeah, that's mum's mum. So, mum's mum lives in the borders. Dad's parents live in Dunfermline. They're both Scottish. My parents actually met in the London Scottish clubhouse in Richmond. I don't actually want to know too much about that.”

Having both parents being from another country could mean that there was potential pressure for Smith to choose Scotland over England, but he insisted that they instead allowed him to make his own way.

“It was always, ‘We're going to be proud of you, no matter what, it's your decision.’ But, that was definitely a conversation to have. When I chatted to mum and dad about it, and said, ‘Look, I want to play for England’. And they were like, ‘Yeah, okay, great. I'm sure we'll be alright with that eventually.’ But it was always all in good spirits and, like I said, they're really proud of me.”

He explained that the main reason for him choosing England was because it is where he was born and raised, meaning he simply feels more of a connection to the country.

This decision was made easier by the fact that Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend seemingly wasn't interested in him as a player. Talking about a time when he could have gone an alternative route and his relationship with Townsend, he said:

“I don't think I was ever fully picked in a Scotland squad or had the opportunity there. I've spoken to Gregor (Townsend) a few times about where he thought I was at with my game and stuff. But that option never sort of came fully to the forefront. But I've definitely had a few conversations with him, and he's someone who, just opinion I respect a lot, and sort of help, helped me with a few things as I was developing as a player.

“I can’t remember (what year it was). I think that might have been when they went on tour to Chile or something. But yeah, eventually he just said I wasn't in their plans anyway. So, it made my decision a lot easier.”

After his first kick was charged down against France, it would have been easy for Smith to fade away and keep it simple for a few minutes to build confidence. That did not happen and instead he appeared to have more desire to take more risks. Talking about why this was, he said:

“Yeah, probably the opposite, to be honest. Like I want to live every moment in the moment, and I never want to make a decision before I've seen what the defence are doing. I think for me, it was actually like, despite the charge down being a bit of a stressful moment, it was actually like, ‘Oh, well, at least I've gone out and live by the sword, die by the sword kind of thing.’ I'm backing myself and my next decisions. Whatever it is, the next one's what it is. And I think that's been the best thing for me.

“As soon as I think big picture, like, ‘Oh my God, I've done two bad things. Now let's just go safe.’ Then I'm ultimately just on a slippery slope down from there, to be honest. So now I was pretty relaxed about it. I said to Ollie (Sleightholme) and Freemo (Tommy Freeman) like ‘That was a pretty s**t start, wasn't it?’ And then, and then just, just got on with it after that. But yeah, it was not, not too much in terms of resetting or anything on the goal kicking.”

The decision to select Fin instead of Marcus Smith from the tee in the second half for the last couple of kicks raised a few eyebrows, but turned out to be a very good choice, with the Northampton Saints player nailing both attempted conversions in the last ten minutes.

When asked about whether he or Marcus knew that this was going to happen, Fin said:

“Kev Sinfield, who brings a tee on, just to my surprise, and I think Mark's surprise, just ran my tee on, and he sort of said, ‘Look, you're on these now.’ And then I just cracked on. But yeah, there was nothing, no conversation between me and Marcus.

“I think it's been funny to see the sort of reaction from that in the media a little bit, and from the fans, like he's think he's kicked at 97% this season the Premiership, which has been the best in the league by far, much higher than myself and the other kickers in the league. So yes, it's funny that, you know, you miss a couple of kicks and all of a sudden you're the worst kicker in the world. But yeah, he's an unbelievable goal kicker, and I back him all day.”