NICK BUOY, DIRECTOR of Rugby at Brighton College, stops short when detailing Marcus Smith’s development as a young rugby player. We’ve already covered the teenage Smith’s skills and impressive rugby brain, but the conversation has now moved on to the dirtier, less flash sides of the game.
“You’ve got to talk to Kieron Dawson,” Buoy says. “Those defensive qualities, tackling technique, breakdown work, robustness, resilience, all the things Kieron was good at.”
A couple of hours later, former Ireland flanker Dawson steps away from a lunch for The Irish Youth Foundation and answers the phone. Brighton is home now, the latest stop on a journey that saw him play 200 times for London Irish, before a three-year stint with his home province, Ulster.
“One of the best places to live in the UK, I reckon,” Dawson says.
“It’s a little bit like Bangor. It’s got the seaside, it’s got the marina, but a lot more sunshine.”
Dawson, capped 21 times for Ireland between 1997 and 2003, hung up his boots in 2009 and has been coaching at Brighton College since. Plenty of talented players have passed through the doors under his watch. Few created as much excitement as a young Marcus Smith.
“I came across Marcus when he was around U15 level,” Dawson explains.
Dawson won 21 caps for Ireland. INPHO
INPHO
“He stood out as just having that little bit extra. He wanted to get better, he wanted to be the best, and he had the skillset to execute on that at the same time.”
Together with Buoy, Dawson played a key role in Smith’s development, the pair quickly discovering they had a special talent on their hands. The story has been told plenty of times in the English newspapers over the past 12 months. Smith was in Brighton attending a rugby camp, his family soon due to move to the city from Singapore.
“A friend of mine was running the camp and said you need to come down and look at this kid,” Buoy explains. “I went down and watched one of the players run onto the pitch, and said to my friend ‘That’s him, isn’t it?’ He just had an aura about him, the way he moved.”
Smith duly signed up at Brighton College, and Buoy and Dawson began working out a plan to best nurture a young talent destined for big things.
“We were aware from a young age that he was pretty special and very talented,” Buoy says.
We made a conscious decision to undercoach him and let him work things out, let him problem solve, let him get an understanding (of the game) from working things out himself. We designed an environment around him that challenged him and pushed him. He just had to kept solving those problems and adapting, dealing with different styles of defence and formats of games.”
The raw materials were there, but other areas required closer attention.
“He’ll be the first to admit, he wasn’t the greatest athlete,” Dawson says.
“He’s become a better athlete. My argument is that every single great footballer will become great athletes if they go professional, but the amount of players who get overlooked because they’re not big and strong is frightening in our system in England.
Advertisement
“We thought this kid could be a superstar, but you go into with a bit of trepidation and you have your fingers crossed, and you hope someone just lets him do it.”
“There was a big drive with his S&C,” Buoy adds.
Physically, he actually couldn’t perhaps move as quickly as he wanted to, because his brain was always exceptionally quick and a real strength of his. The S&C, and the speed and agility, he had to work hard on that.
“He worked hard on his kicking technique. His kicking out of hand, he had to work really hard on that, because as a schoolboy he didn’t need to kick that often, he could just run around people all the time.”
Smith soon attracted plenty of attention, England boss Eddie Jones famously dropping in to watch one of the school’s teams play during his time working with Japan at the 2015 World Cup. With little more than 15 minutes played, Jones turned to Buoy: ‘This kid can play.” Smith was running the show in an U18s game, despite being an U16 player. Jones would visit Brighton again in his early days as England boss, calling up the schoolboy and telling him to bring his boots down to training.
“He stood out,’ Buoy remembers. “He was great. Obviously physically he wasn’t quite there, but his brain was working quick enough in that session. He was up to speed pretty quickly.”
Smith training with England in Brighton in 2018. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
It wasn’t just Smith’s raw talent that set him apart. It was evident he had the right mindset to make it at the highest level.
“The England U18s were really good on this,” Buoy continues.
“They used to do what they called ‘agitate’ him in training, consciously getting players to agitate him and wind him up, which is what a 10 will experience throughout their career. The better they get, they more they’ll be wound up by players.
We’d consciously go out of way to do that and design different games. We had one where the opposition would have a player who was allowed to be offside all the time, so he’d just stand next to Marcus and Marcus would have to work it out and problem solve. Then matchday became easy, because that guy would be behind the offside line.”
Despite being the rising superstar, Smith also displayed an admirable appetite for self-improvement.
“We sat down with him at an early stage, and we knew he was going to be a professional rugby player,” Dawson adds.
“With my experience of playing in the game, I said, ‘Listen Marcus, don’t be OK at everything. Be exceptional at one thing and you’ll get picked for that reason, but don’t ever give a coach a reason to drop you.
“A lot of fly-halves will be dropped because they’re not great defenders, which is ludicrous, that fly-half might make you four tries! But he worked on that in school and he’s a competitive little bugger. I think that comes from having multiple brothers, having competition all the way through your life. He wanted to work at that, and you certainly wouldn’t flag him as having a weakness in defence.
“It’s kudos to him, that self-improvement, that ‘You’ve got no reason to drop me, only reasons to pick me’, which is how he lives his life I think.”
Soon bigger things came into view, with Harlequins landing his signature. Not long out of Brighton College, Smith made his Premiership debut at the age of just 18.
“As a former player myself, it’s always tinged with a little bit of fear,” Dawson says.
“You’re kind of thinking, ‘Oh christ, I hope they just see what he has and don’t try shackle him when he moves away from us.
Your fear is that at the time, he didn’t really fit the English mould. My fear for him was he was too much of a maverick, liked to express himself too much, liked to do his own thing, so coaches were going to clip his wings, he’s going to get frustrated and he’s not going to make it or fulfil his potential.
“Now, if you come across a coach that will embrace that, he really could be the next superstar of rugby. Luckily, I think at Harlequins he’s fallen into a regime that have allowed him to do that.”
Smith had played over 100 times for Harlequins and was a Premiership title winner by the time he made his England debut last July, the young 10 already heralded as the next superstar of English rugby. So far, Smith’s temperament on the pitch has been matched in how he’s handled the hype.
“The thing with Marcus, he sort of enjoys that challenge,” Buoy says.
“It drives him. What we call pressure, I think he perceives it as an exciting opportunity. His mindset has always been like that. If there was 100,000 people in the crowd, he’d want 10 more.
“More importantly Marcus is a good person. Grounded, polite and respectful. As a school we are very proud of the way he is behaving on and off the field.”
“Ah, he’s a great bloke,” Dawson says. “He comes from a really grounded family.
“I think it goes back to the way he was treated at the school too. Do what you think is right and play what you think is right. His parents obviously were great people who also believed in that ethos, that if something doesn’t happen or goes wrong, what’s the worst that can happen? We can rectify it or make it better.
Smith has been England's starting 10 in the Six Nations. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
“Obviously when he’s gone on to Harlequins that seems to have been their ethos. You can’t score tries unless you try things, you can’t make things happen unless you take risks, and on the flipside of that, things are going to wrong, something might happen in your personal life, there is a lot of attention on you, you might miss a kick to lose a big game, but no-one is going to die, the sun is going to come up in the morning and there’s a lot more important things going on in the world. That’s been instilled into him and the boys at Brighton College from a very young age.”
The 23-year-old lines out against Ireland today for his fourth consecutive start in his first Six Nations championship, and just the eighth Test cap of his young career. So far, he’s shown glimpses of the quality Harlequins supporters have become accustomed to, without fully hitting his stride.
“I think he’s got more to give,” Dawson continues.
“I think there’s a lot more pressure involved. He’s maybe not benefited from not having the full (squad) selection, I think if he had a bigger 12 to just take some pressure off him – which he has at Harlequins, so if you try something and it goes wrong, you can just dump it off and someone can get him out of trouble.
“If (Manu) Tuilagi is fit and there’s a bigger 12, I think he’ll blossom (as an England player). What might be a mistake is if Farrell comes back in eventually and England move away from playing that exciting brand of rugby, because I think Eddie does offer to the players to play how they want to play. He’s got a similar philosophy to the (Brighton) school in that it’s the players’ team at the end of the day.
“Get a big 12 in there, and he’ll just fly. He’ll be the next superstar come the World Cup.”
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella look ahead to Twickenham and two big URC games involving three of the provinces
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
The making of Marcus Smith, featuring a former Ireland flanker
NICK BUOY, DIRECTOR of Rugby at Brighton College, stops short when detailing Marcus Smith’s development as a young rugby player. We’ve already covered the teenage Smith’s skills and impressive rugby brain, but the conversation has now moved on to the dirtier, less flash sides of the game.
“You’ve got to talk to Kieron Dawson,” Buoy says. “Those defensive qualities, tackling technique, breakdown work, robustness, resilience, all the things Kieron was good at.”
A couple of hours later, former Ireland flanker Dawson steps away from a lunch for The Irish Youth Foundation and answers the phone. Brighton is home now, the latest stop on a journey that saw him play 200 times for London Irish, before a three-year stint with his home province, Ulster.
“One of the best places to live in the UK, I reckon,” Dawson says.
“It’s a little bit like Bangor. It’s got the seaside, it’s got the marina, but a lot more sunshine.”
Dawson, capped 21 times for Ireland between 1997 and 2003, hung up his boots in 2009 and has been coaching at Brighton College since. Plenty of talented players have passed through the doors under his watch. Few created as much excitement as a young Marcus Smith.
“I came across Marcus when he was around U15 level,” Dawson explains.
“He stood out as just having that little bit extra. He wanted to get better, he wanted to be the best, and he had the skillset to execute on that at the same time.”
Together with Buoy, Dawson played a key role in Smith’s development, the pair quickly discovering they had a special talent on their hands. The story has been told plenty of times in the English newspapers over the past 12 months. Smith was in Brighton attending a rugby camp, his family soon due to move to the city from Singapore.
“A friend of mine was running the camp and said you need to come down and look at this kid,” Buoy explains. “I went down and watched one of the players run onto the pitch, and said to my friend ‘That’s him, isn’t it?’ He just had an aura about him, the way he moved.”
Smith duly signed up at Brighton College, and Buoy and Dawson began working out a plan to best nurture a young talent destined for big things.
“We were aware from a young age that he was pretty special and very talented,” Buoy says.
The raw materials were there, but other areas required closer attention.
“He’ll be the first to admit, he wasn’t the greatest athlete,” Dawson says.
“He’s become a better athlete. My argument is that every single great footballer will become great athletes if they go professional, but the amount of players who get overlooked because they’re not big and strong is frightening in our system in England.
“We thought this kid could be a superstar, but you go into with a bit of trepidation and you have your fingers crossed, and you hope someone just lets him do it.”
“There was a big drive with his S&C,” Buoy adds.
“He worked hard on his kicking technique. His kicking out of hand, he had to work really hard on that, because as a schoolboy he didn’t need to kick that often, he could just run around people all the time.”
Smith soon attracted plenty of attention, England boss Eddie Jones famously dropping in to watch one of the school’s teams play during his time working with Japan at the 2015 World Cup. With little more than 15 minutes played, Jones turned to Buoy: ‘This kid can play.” Smith was running the show in an U18s game, despite being an U16 player. Jones would visit Brighton again in his early days as England boss, calling up the schoolboy and telling him to bring his boots down to training.
“He stood out,’ Buoy remembers. “He was great. Obviously physically he wasn’t quite there, but his brain was working quick enough in that session. He was up to speed pretty quickly.”
It wasn’t just Smith’s raw talent that set him apart. It was evident he had the right mindset to make it at the highest level.
“The England U18s were really good on this,” Buoy continues.
“They used to do what they called ‘agitate’ him in training, consciously getting players to agitate him and wind him up, which is what a 10 will experience throughout their career. The better they get, they more they’ll be wound up by players.
Despite being the rising superstar, Smith also displayed an admirable appetite for self-improvement.
“We sat down with him at an early stage, and we knew he was going to be a professional rugby player,” Dawson adds.
“With my experience of playing in the game, I said, ‘Listen Marcus, don’t be OK at everything. Be exceptional at one thing and you’ll get picked for that reason, but don’t ever give a coach a reason to drop you.
“A lot of fly-halves will be dropped because they’re not great defenders, which is ludicrous, that fly-half might make you four tries! But he worked on that in school and he’s a competitive little bugger. I think that comes from having multiple brothers, having competition all the way through your life. He wanted to work at that, and you certainly wouldn’t flag him as having a weakness in defence.
“It’s kudos to him, that self-improvement, that ‘You’ve got no reason to drop me, only reasons to pick me’, which is how he lives his life I think.”
Soon bigger things came into view, with Harlequins landing his signature. Not long out of Brighton College, Smith made his Premiership debut at the age of just 18.
“As a former player myself, it’s always tinged with a little bit of fear,” Dawson says.
“You’re kind of thinking, ‘Oh christ, I hope they just see what he has and don’t try shackle him when he moves away from us.
“Now, if you come across a coach that will embrace that, he really could be the next superstar of rugby. Luckily, I think at Harlequins he’s fallen into a regime that have allowed him to do that.”
Smith had played over 100 times for Harlequins and was a Premiership title winner by the time he made his England debut last July, the young 10 already heralded as the next superstar of English rugby. So far, Smith’s temperament on the pitch has been matched in how he’s handled the hype.
“The thing with Marcus, he sort of enjoys that challenge,” Buoy says.
“It drives him. What we call pressure, I think he perceives it as an exciting opportunity. His mindset has always been like that. If there was 100,000 people in the crowd, he’d want 10 more.
“More importantly Marcus is a good person. Grounded, polite and respectful. As a school we are very proud of the way he is behaving on and off the field.”
“Ah, he’s a great bloke,” Dawson says. “He comes from a really grounded family.
“I think it goes back to the way he was treated at the school too. Do what you think is right and play what you think is right. His parents obviously were great people who also believed in that ethos, that if something doesn’t happen or goes wrong, what’s the worst that can happen? We can rectify it or make it better.
“Obviously when he’s gone on to Harlequins that seems to have been their ethos. You can’t score tries unless you try things, you can’t make things happen unless you take risks, and on the flipside of that, things are going to wrong, something might happen in your personal life, there is a lot of attention on you, you might miss a kick to lose a big game, but no-one is going to die, the sun is going to come up in the morning and there’s a lot more important things going on in the world. That’s been instilled into him and the boys at Brighton College from a very young age.”
The 23-year-old lines out against Ireland today for his fourth consecutive start in his first Six Nations championship, and just the eighth Test cap of his young career. So far, he’s shown glimpses of the quality Harlequins supporters have become accustomed to, without fully hitting his stride.
“I think he’s got more to give,” Dawson continues.
“I think there’s a lot more pressure involved. He’s maybe not benefited from not having the full (squad) selection, I think if he had a bigger 12 to just take some pressure off him – which he has at Harlequins, so if you try something and it goes wrong, you can just dump it off and someone can get him out of trouble.
“If (Manu) Tuilagi is fit and there’s a bigger 12, I think he’ll blossom (as an England player). What might be a mistake is if Farrell comes back in eventually and England move away from playing that exciting brand of rugby, because I think Eddie does offer to the players to play how they want to play. He’s got a similar philosophy to the (Brighton) school in that it’s the players’ team at the end of the day.
“Get a big 12 in there, and he’ll just fly. He’ll be the next superstar come the World Cup.”
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella look ahead to Twickenham and two big URC games involving three of the provinces
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Boy Wonder brighton college Eddie Jones kieron dawson Marcus Smith England