Marcus Smith was left a bloody mess after falling victim to a high tackle from Fiji’s Vinaya Habosi in Marseille. The England star was heavily involved in the first half of Sunday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final as Steve Borthwick’s side aimed to continue their tournament journey.
England were up 8-3 and probing with just over 20 minutes on the clock, when Joe Marchant scored the second try of the game. The centre got up off the turf to receive congratulations from his team-mates, but the referee immediately turned his attention to a reckless tackle in the build-up.
Habosi’s gruesome challenge on Smith went under the radar before the try halted play. But a closer look saw the England man caught painfully in the face via a head-first tackle that saw his Fiji counterpart sent to the sin bin.
Smith was then seen pleading with medical personnel to let him back on with blood around his nose, mouth and smeared all over his white England shirt.
The jet-heeled Harlequins star returned to the field before the end of the first half, complete with a changed kit. And fans were invariably pleased to see him thrown back into the action, with team-mate Joe Marler among those to praise his mentality in the lead-up to the Fiji showdown.
“He’s a big-match player,” he said. “He’s had that early on. Even to the point where I’ve had to turn round and say, ‘I’m going to have to say something to this guy.’
“[Smith] has been used for a while now as a late replacement at 15, we’ve seen him come on a few times for Freddie Steward, and he just brings that pace, that electricity, that unpredictability,” he explained. “It’s what everyone loves to watch. It’s a brilliant attacking game.
“We’ve seen him do it for years at Harlequins in his usual position of fly-half, but he has talked about how in the summer in the England camp Kevin Sinfield had come up with the suggestion of him trying and having a go at full-back, and it’s gone well so far.”
