{"id":654929,"date":"2026-10-23T16:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T16:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654929\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T16:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T16:08:08","slug":"george-furbank-on-life-at-harlequins-and-marcus-smith-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654929\/","title":{"rendered":"George Furbank on life at Harlequins and Marcus Smith partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 10 years he spent in the Franklin’s Gardens dressing rooms, George Furbank sang the line plenty of times.<\/p>\n

“Big city lights don’t bother me,” goes Northampton’s victory song,, external<\/a> a version of local anthem The Fields Are Green. “Northampton Saints I’d rather be.”<\/p>\n

Had Northampton offered him a longer contract at the end of last season, Furbank may still have been with the champions.<\/p>\n

They didn’t though, and Harlequins did. And suddenly those big city lights beckoned.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, the big city lights are a change, but a change I’m enjoying,” says Furbank.<\/p>\n

“There is just stuff on your doorstep which is unreal – great food spots, good coffee spots. I feel like within 10 minutes I can walk to get anything I need.”<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old, who grew up in Cambridgeshire, has opted to live nearer to central London, rather than right by Quins’ Guildford training base.<\/p>\n

After a decade up the line in Northampton, Furbank is now closer to his partner and old school friends.<\/p>\n

On the pitch, the move has brought him into tandem with Marcus Smith.<\/p>\n

A twin playmaker axis made up of two of England’s most extravagantly talented footballers was the concept.<\/p>\n

After a Smith-less Quins were thrashed 48-0 by Gloucester on Furbank’s debut, some questioned whether such notions were a luxury,<\/a> given the Londoners’ under-powered pack.<\/p>\n

But, once they got to play together, the duo’s attack has been their defence.<\/p>\n

After two minutes against Sale, Smith pulled the ball out the back to Furbank, whose long pass allowed hooker Sam Riley to trundle in.<\/p>\n

After eight minutes, Furbank’s blurringly fast hands set up a try for Smith. After 19 minutes, the pair were part of a blindside pod of runners that barged through for another score.<\/p>\n

Harlequins ultimately lost the game 28-24, but Furbank and Smith pulled strings effectively again the following week in a resounding Challenge Cup victory over French strugglers Vannes.<\/p>\n

“He’s a one-of-a-kind player,” said Furbank of Smith.<\/p>\n

“I think people take him for granted sometimes in terms of the player he can be. The things he can do on a rugby pitch – I don’t think many others many others can do<\/p>\n

“He’s obviously a massive threat with ball in hand and has a great passing game as well, so it’s just about trying to understand what he’s going to do in certain moments then making my move off that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 10 years he spent in the Franklin’s Gardens dressing rooms, George Furbank sang the line plenty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-654929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}