By Fin Smith’s own admission, this was not his finest performance and this was far from the hardest kick that the Northampton fly-half has faced in his career, but context matters. In his previous three penalty attempts, he had shanked one, missed one from inside his own half and made one off the post. Now with the clock into the red and Bath winning 34-32, not only the game but Northampton’s whole season was on his shoulders with the champions a full 13 points back from the top four at the start of play.
FIN SMITH WITH THE LAST KICK 🤯. Northampton Saints 35 - 34 Bath Rugby 😮💨#NORvBAT | #GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/kSsB8KADoU. So he tried to recall the advice given to him by Jonny Wilkinson in England camps and picture himself as a kid back at Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire. And through the kick went to spark the type of celebrations usually associated with the end of season play-offs.
“I was genuinely thinking this had better go over because I had felt I had let the boys down with the prior two,” Smith said. “I wasn’t super confident over it but I have kicked hundreds of thousands of balls in the last 5-10 years so I went back to that. I tried to picture myself at the local rugby club kicking a ball and really relax, to block out everything and thank God it went over.
“It is actually something that Jonny speaks a lot about, that it is the importance of when you step up, to take a kick. It is not ‘don’t do this or don’t do that’, it is like, what do I really want to do here. For me it is making sure my head is down and my bodyweight goes through it.
