England debutant Smith savours ‘dream come true’

Marcus Smith admitted he was on cloud nine after making his England Test debut in Sunday’s 43-29 victory over the USA at Twickenham.

The Harlequins fly-half turned in an assured performance and if there were any nerves ahead of his first cap, they did not show. He helped himself to a try and four conversions.

“It was a dream come true to represent England,” said the 22-year-old, who has enjoyed a memorable end to the season, having also helped his club to a first Premiership title since 2012.

“I’ve always said it was a dream of mine and it was a massive honour to step on the field today with 11 other new caps.

“To perform like that [as we did], especially in the first half, was a massive honour and hopefully we can build on that, going into next week.”

Smith added: “The last couple of weeks was unbelievable, but the minute I stepped into camp, my focus suddenly switched on to helping England perform this week and I threw myself into that. I tried to park the previous weeks to the back of my mind.

“Now, I’ve got a big week in the bank with England and hopefully next week I can improve as a player and a person and as a team we can push the level again [against Canada].

“The forwards were brilliant. They put us on the front foot and for me and Harry [Randall] at nine and 10 it made it very easy. And we had electric backs outside me. It was an absolute pleasure to play with all of them today.”