{"id":657909,"date":"2026-10-26T20:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/657909\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T20:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:58:11","slug":"england-fret-over-fin-smiths-fitness-for-looming-australia-match-england-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/657909\/","title":{"rendered":"England fret over Fin Smith\u2019s fitness for looming Australia match | England rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

England are fretting over the fitness of the fly-half Fin Smith in the lead-up to the Nations Championship home opener against Australia on 8 November. The Northampton player \u00addamaged a calf in the second half against Leicester on Saturday<\/a> and will be unable to join the national squad who have a three-day training camp in Bagshot this week.<\/p>\n

Losing Smith so close to the \u00adWallabies game would be a significant blow given the 24-year-old started at 10 in all three of England\u2019s Tests in July and was instrumental in Saints\u2019 domestic title triumph last season.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s management say they remain hopeful he will be back in time to face Australia but, with limited preparation time available, there will inevitably be some disruption to Steve \u00adBorthwick\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

Borthwick has responded by \u00adcalling up \u00adGloucester\u2019s Charlie \u00adAtkinson as cover, with Marcus Smith and George Ford the other \u00adspecialist 10s in the squad. Since deposing Ford after England\u2019s defeat against Ireland in the Six Nations<\/a>, Fin Smith has staked a firm claim and is very much the man in possession of the 10 jersey. Marcus Smith\u2019s last start at fly-half for England was against Ireland in \u00adDublin in the opening round of the 2025 Six Nations.<\/p>\n

There will be an official update on Smith\u2019s condition on Tuesday with injury doubts hanging over several other players. Bath\u2019s Guy Pepper appeared to be in pain as he limped off against Gloucester on Friday, while Benhard Janse van\u00a0\u00adRensburg has not featured since sufferingsustaining a heavy concussion in Bristol\u2019s second Prem game of the season.<\/p>\n

The inside centre Seb Atkinson is also unable to train this week but has not ruled out playing for Gloucester at Northampton on Saturday. It leaves Borthwick and the squad\u2019s other specialist centres \u2013 Henry Slade, Joe Marchant, Max Ojomoh and Fraser Dingwall \u2013 waiting to see what will unfold before the formal squad announcement next Monday.<\/p>\n

Marchant, for one, is delighted to be back in the frame for the first time since the 2023 World Cup. He then moved to Paris to play for Stade Fran\u00e7ais, \u00adhaving previously been told his England career was over, but is now back and eligible again after joining Sale Sharks.<\/p>\n

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The 30-year-old Marchant, who married Alan Shearer\u2019s daughter Hollie this year, said he would love to feature at the World Cup in Australia next year. \u201cWhen I was a kid I wanted to play for England and that\u2019s not changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England are fretting over the fitness of the fly-half Fin Smith in the lead-up to the Nations Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-657909","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\/657909","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=657909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}