Smith and Smith have been among the main talking points in English rugby for the past 18 months. Fin and Marcus. Two young gifted outhalves who have dominated the conversation over who England coach Steve Borthwick should get behind. In England’s final match of this year’s Six Nations against Wales, Fin played at 10 (until he was replaced by George Ford in the second half), with Marcus moved from his favoured position to fullback, Borthwick’s selection designed to have both of his brightest creative talents on the pitch at the same time. England started with that same alignment against Scotland and France, Fin Smith’s first Test match start, although against Ireland he came into the game on 64 minutes, six minutes after Sam Prendergast had departed. Not to worry, Fin Smith should face Leinster in next weekend’s repeat of last year’s Champions Cup semi-final, setting up an interesting duel at the Aviva Stadium of youthful string pullers and place kickers. No better place than the Dublin Petri dish for a snapshot of the possible future of Irish and English playmakers. Last year it was Ross Byrne, not Prendergast, who faced Northampton in Leinster’s 20-17 win. But Fin Smith and Prendergast crossed swords before at under-20 level, at which stage Smith was playing with the now defunct Worcester, where he had become only the second 18-year-old in their history to have played for them in the top-flight Premiership. There are similarities and differences in the way the two play the position, with both finding common ground in the attention paid to their performances and the level of scrutiny they attract. Fin and Marcus Smith are compared, parsed, measured and rated against each other as much as Prendergast and Jack Crowley are. At the weekend either Fin Smith or Prendergast could be the game breaker. Neither is ever far from determining dramatic turnarounds and outcomes. Before this year’s Six Nations, the 22-year-old Fin Smith was asked by ITV Sport to run through how he plays the pivot role. In his answer, he showed driving ambition, while assuming a wide menu of responsibilities. “You’re the boss of the attack, you’re the quarterback,” he said. “Your job is to tell everyone else where they should be going, direct the play, feel momentum when to run, when to pass, when to kick and I guess, the better that flows ... that is your job. Obviously, there are loads of different things within that, your goal-kicking, how much X-factor you can bring to it. The main thing for me is running the attack and making sure things are orchestrating nicely.” Fin Smith shares another trait with Prendergast. Both he and the Leinster outhalf possess natural sangfroid. They can make dire mistakes and carry playing on as if nothing happened. That fire and ice ability to flare up and turn off, to immediately flip the page, is one of the survival mechanisms of playing the position, to stay mentally alert and wring out a performance, especially in adversity. In his debut Test start in February, Fin Smith’s first attempted kick from the hand was charged down by France. The image: a rabbit in the headlights. Afterwards, far from reverting to a more conservative mindset, Smith showed an attitude that spoke to self-possession and a bulletproof personality. “I said to Ollie [Sleightholme] and [Tommy Freeman]: ‘That was a pretty s*** start, wasn’t it?’” he explained later. “And then I got on with it. I want to live every moment in the moment, and I don’t want to make a decision before I’ve seen what the defence are doing. Despite the charge-down being a bit of a stressful moment, it was like, ‘ah well, at least I’ve gone out and will live by the sword, die by the sword’. “I back myself, and the next decision is whatever it is. Big picture, if it’s, ‘oh my god I’ve done two bad things now, let’s just go safe’, then I’m on a slippery slope down from there.” Just last month Andrew Goodman, who moved from coaching the Leinster attack into the Ireland set-up, described Prendergast in a similar vein, suggesting the modern sports psychology of how not to let the course of a game pull you down had been worthwhile. “I think we’ve seen through the Six Nations, he’s [Prendergast] someone that can move past mistakes pretty quickly and move on to the next task,” said Goodman. “It’s one of the great things about him.” For Fin Smith, it was never hard and set that he would emerge to become one of England’s outstanding players. Both parents, mother Judith and father Andrew, are from Scotland and the conversations around their son’s rugby when he was younger were about how well the old caps of his grandfather Tom Elliot fitted. The Scottish and Lions caps and the old blazer of the former loosehead prop triggered imaginations. But Fin Smith is English. His grandparents might continue to live in Scotland’s Borders and Dunfermline, but he grew up in England, playing English underage rugby, joined an English club and bonded with England players. He had the conversations with Scotland coach Gregor Townsend about Scottish eligibility and as a former Scotland and Lions outhalf Townsend’s persona carried significant weight. But Fin Smith’s cake was baked as a red rose, and it was just last year the issue was settled when he came off the England bench against Italy in the 2024 Six Nations. He has been central to how Northampton perform, which this season has been inconsistently, but they’ve shown an ability to hit peaks. A week ago, last season’s English champions finally broke their Premiership away losing streak under lights at Newcastle. Fin Smith, who came off the bench and was pivotal in turning the match, injured his leg scoring the third try but continued playing. With the one-point win (35-34), Northampton snapped a nine-match, 15-month losing streak on the road in the league. Yes, from a team that has reached two consecutive Champions Cup semi-finals. This week assistant Leinster coach Tyler Bleyendaal spoke about Northampton as one of the sides he enjoys watching, with Fin Smith often at the centre of their have-a-go attitude. “They don’t die wondering,” said Bleyendaal. “Even from very early in the preseason, you see stuff that they do, which they still do. Which is a testament to them. They do stuff well. Whether it’s their strikes off the lineouts or if it’s their second or third phase. They’ve got a lot of sometimes simple plays, sometimes intricate, but the way they do them is quite deliberate and it’s challenging to defend. “I love how they kind of build on that and then they also have good athletes. I think they enjoy playing that way. They challenge you in the nine, 10 channel, they’ve got wingers that can work. Play with the ball or just play the power game. It’s nice to watch, their back line. Sometimes you enjoy watching other teams play and I enjoy watching them play.” Style-wise Fin Smith is self-contained and tactical and for such a young player has a knack for making key decisions. He is a strong link, a catalyst within the Northampton structure. In contrast Marcus Smith is lightning fast in broken play, and a mercurial presence for Harlequins, although Leinster’s 62 points was a withering commentary on that a few weeks ago. But the Northampton pivot has shown that expertly facilitating play on the pitch brings team rewards. That and having little aversion to melting bigger players in defensive tackles, a doff of the cap to England World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson. Like Prendergast, Fin Smith has rough edges in some kicking areas, but like the Irishman there is much more to admire than belittle. Either way, next weekend for both players becomes yet another trial for hearts and minds off the pitch and a measure of how far along the journey the two have come.