England captain Owen Farrell has revealed he’s excited to play alongside Marcus Smith during the Autumn Nations Series.
The 29-year-old was full of praise for Smith, who joined him on the 2021 Lions tour of South Africa this summer having won his first two international caps against Canada and the USA.
“He’s obviously a massive talent and a very exciting player,” said Farrell. “We have worked together before, he has been in camps before, when he was a bit younger.
“I shared a room with him in the past and it was good to get to know him a bit better over the summer.
“He is a brilliant lad and he’s not just a very talented player, but a proper student of the game. That sounds a bit cliche, but he is really bothered about getting better and understanding the game a bit more and he loves chatting about rugby. So that made it easy for me to get on with him!
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“He seems like he is confident, because for me, he’s done the work. He understands the game and knows exactly what he wants to get out of it.
“He speaks sense and that helps your confidence and helps when it comes to playing in the position that he does.”
“Yeah, it’s his passion for the game, it oozes out of him,
“When he scores at the weekend, he loves scoring, he loves doing well for his team, he’s obviously really enjoying playing at the minute.
“He wears his heart on his sleeve, that’s a massive asset, the immense passion he’s got for the game.”
England’s autumn fixtures
- England vs Tonga, 3.15pm on Sat 6 Nov
- England vs Australia, 5.30pm on Sat 13 Nov
- England vs South Africa, 3.15pm on Sat 20 Nov
Where to watch the Autumn Nations Series:
Prime members can watch the Autumn Nations Series live from 30th October with the Prime Video app on TVs, mobile devices, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablets, games consoles, on Virgin’s V6 TV Box, the Talk Talk TV set top box, Apple TV, Chromecast, BT TV or online.
For a list of all compatible devices visit amazon.co.uk/watchanywhere.
Fans pick their England XV for the Autumn Nations Series
BACK-THREE:
- 15. Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 2 caps)
- 14. Anthony Watson (Bath, 55 caps)
- 11. Adam Radwan (Newcastle Falcons, 1 cap)
CENTRES:
- 13. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 38 caps)
- 12. Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 44 caps)
