England can’t win World Cup with Farrell – Barkley

Olly Barkley has called for Marcus Smith’s immediate inclusion into the England team, saying he does not believe they can win a World Cup with skipper Owen Farrell at fly-half.

Barkley, who earned 23 England caps between 2001 and 2008 and is the eighth all-time points scorer in Premiership history, made his comments during a debate about who should wear the shirt on The Rugby Paper Podcast.

“England aren’t going to win a World Cup with Farrell at 10,” he said. “That’s said with the upmost of respect because I think he’s done some amazing stuff for the team over the years, but I think it’s time for a change.

“Farrell is very consistently strong, he plays as well for England against New Zealand as he would for Saracens against Sale on a Friday night.

“But I think Marcus Smith has that ability to play better at international level than he has in the Premiership, even than he did against Exeter at Twickenham. If he’s managed well, both at Quins and with England I think there’s a very good chance that’ll happen.

“I’d like to think that if Marcus Smith can consistently show he’s able to manage different kinds of games, he has to be in that ten shirt.”

Like Smith, Barkley similarly reached stardom at a young age, and his international debut aged 19 was his first professional game.

But with Smith having played 103 professional matches before his England debut, and as Barkley believes being “on a different level” to where he was as a professional player, he feels any pressure on the Harlequins talisman can be mitigated through further experience.

The challenge Barkley sees for Smith, however, is that to make the improvement to be a world class international player he has to emulate All Black legend Dan Carter’s ability to pick the right moments to use his “athletic ability”, and not overuse it, which he believes held back talented former England fly-half Danny Cipriani.

“Smith’s probably one of the most talented players I’ve seen in England,” he added. “In terms of what he can do, his understanding of space and his athletic ability to find holes and manipulate defenders is amazing to watch. I love watching him play.

“The thing you could question that if you include Smith is, is there enough calm in that 10-12-13 combination? But the only way you get calm is through experience.

“Having a very unique athletic ability at ten can sometimes be quite crippling for game management. The danger being that you want to use it all the time, you want to break, go after people, and run yourself out of trouble when it’s probably not the best idea to do it. Because you back yourself athletically, you’ll go for it.

“It got Danny Cipriani into trouble, it could get Smith into trouble. The guy who managed to harness both those things the best of anyone was Dan Carter.

“He had that ability to break from anywhere but always picked the right moment, and that’s why he’s the best there ever was. Marcus has to marry those two things up.”

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