Fin Smith: ‘Both my parents are Scottish - but I always wanted to play for England’

Interview: On cloud nine after a dream first Test start, England’s new fly half star opens up on his Scottish links, that match-winning try against France and more. The London Scottish clubhouse may seem a peculiar place to embark on the life and times of England’s new fly half star, but the rickety Richmond hangout is where Fin Smith’s story really begins. It was at the locale a matter of two miles or so from Twickenham where Smith’s mother Judith first set eyes on his father, Andrew; two Scots not then knowing that they would one day produce a player who will spend much of next week plotting their nation’s sporting demise.

“I don’t actually want to know too much about that!” Smith says, understandably wishing not to dwell on his parents’ rugby union. But it serves to highlight that, in a different life and different circumstances, it would have been a thistle rather than a rose showing proudly on his chest. Indeed, there is a greater familial connection to the Scotland side, one which Smith is rather more happy to elaborate upon. “My granddad, Tom Elliot, was a loosehead for Scotland and he played for the British and Irish Lions as well,” the 22-year-old remembers. “He sadly passed away before I was born but growing up, me and my brother would put on his Lions cap and his Scotland cap, so to see all his old ties and blazers was pretty cool and something I want to replicate.

“They’re both Scottish, my parents. Mum’s mum lives in the Borders, Dad’s parents live in Dunfermline. I’ve told my dad he’s got to be neutral next weekend if I’m playing. He’s definitely going to be singing one of the two anthems – maybe both if I’m lucky.”. It feels inconceivable now after such a composed showing on his first England start, but the door to Scotland was not that long ago closed. It is only a year since Smith’s Test bow in the last Six Nations closed the book on his international future, having been the subject of discussions on both sides of the border since his formative days at Shipston-on-Stour Rugby Club and Warwick School.

In the summer of 2022, with Scotland bound for Argentina, coach Gregor Townsend engaged a then barely 20-year-old Smith in exploratory discussions over where his future lay. “I’d spoken to Gregor a few times about where he thought I was at with my game and stuff,” Smith explains, although a full call-up never quite materialised. “That option never came fully to the fore, but I definitely had a few conversations with him. He’s someone whose opinion I respect a lot and he helped me with a few things as I was developing as a player.

“I’m English, I’ve lived in England all my life. I wanted to do well, wanted to play for England ever since I’ve been alive so it was a pretty easy decision. I chatted to Mum and Dad about it and said, ‘look, I want to play for England’. And they were like, ‘right, OK, great. I’m sure we’ll be alright with that eventually’. It was all in good spirits and they’re really proud of me.”.

Proud they should be. Judith and Andrew were part of the celebratory throng at Allianz Stadium last Saturday as Smith steered England to a long-sought victory. Growing in stature throughout his first international start, the fly half implemented and executed the match-winning play that sent Elliot Daly over from his sharp pass. “First and foremost, we wanted to score from the maul,” he recalls. “I have seen a lot of people talking about Elliot's work, and the job he did for us was amazing. He basically stayed on the short side for as long as he could to hold their scrum half, holding the first defender on the open side slightly tighter because they were worried about him sweeping up that side. That then allowed Ollie Lawrence to catch the ball wider opposite a defender, which meant ultimately we had a seven on four when we were coming to the open side.

“That is a move pretty much every team in the world will run – that nine to 12, 13 short with 10 out the back. But the quality of the maul and Elliot's job allowed us to run at a defender wider, which meant for me when I had the ball it was a fairly simple decision in terms of who I was playing it to. We have practised that a lot of times in training, so I guess that's what made it a lot easier. Everyone knew what they were doing and the context of the game and the pressure didn't matter so much.”.

The vivid detail with which Smith can recall his thought process in those final, crunch moments show the calm, composure and considerable craft that have marked him out during his rise to national honours. But it was another quality that Steve Borthwick spotlighted in the immediacy of the win – his bouncebackability. Virtually the Northampton playmaker’s first touch on Saturday was an attempted kick charged down. Others may have panicked or grown conservative; Smith did not. “I said to Ollie [Sleightholme] and [Tommy Freeman]: ‘That was a pretty s*** start, wasn’t it?’ And then I got on with it.