Borthwick’s call on Smith an abject failure as England are drowned out

T here is something very English about fly-halves being hung out to dry in the rain. England did not lose this match because of Marcus Smith, rather they were thumped by a fabulous France team who ruthlessly exposed the limits of Steve Borthwick’s side and gave an exhibition in how to handle the heavens opening. Still, the cold hard facts are that Smith did not deliver the statement performance he was expected to and England’s fly-half debate rages on. The biggest call of Borthwick’s tenure to date can unequivocally be called the most damning of failures.

All the more so when you consider that the No10 most suited to this kind of match – George Ford – was sent back to his club five days previous and you have to question Borthwick’s decision to let Smith do the same a week earlier. Smith is not the first abundantly talented English fly-half to find himself in this position. Five years ago in Cape Town, Danny Cipriani was finally handed the No10 jersey and encouraged to run the show in a monsoon. That he battled through it, and through an obvious reluctance of his teammates to give him the ball, to produce the telling moment of his match was to his immense credit. Smith, for his part, could not follow suit but Cipriani’s showing that day came to mind when the former England centre Luther Burrell offered a word of warning beforehand on social media.”I hope Marcus Smith goes well today & plays his authentic game,” he wrote. “I can’t help but wonder has he been set up to fail.”

Food for thought, even if Borthwick does not seem the type and though hindsight is a wonderful thing, the beauty about weather forecasts is that they let you glimpse the future. Nick Evans has in these pages previously described England as the best