Fin Smith is not expected to be an injury problem when Steve Borthwick sits down on Sunday to select the squad for the tour of England, which will be confirmed publicly on Monday.
The 22-year-old missed the final 10 minutes of Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership final through injury and left the field after 70 minutes against Northampton, but his side won the title by a 25-21 scoreline against Bath. The converted attempt failed.
The second half was in the three-day squad for England in February, earning his second cap for Scotland after coming off the bench in Italy and being left as an unused substitute at home to Wales.
He is now expected to be selected as one of three out-halves alongside George Ford and Marcus Smith for the tour, which will feature a match against Japan in Tokyo on June 22 and a two-Test series in July in New Zealand.
When asked for an injury update on Smith, Northampton manager Phil Dowson reported: .”
kick 
1:10.7
Kick-to-pass ratio
1:5.4
Smith, who arrived at Franklin’s Gardens in November 2022 after the collapse of Worcester, has been outstanding this season, playing in 18 of Northampton’s 20 league games (16 as a starter) as one half of Dan Biggar’s trip to Toulon. . He started all seven matches leading up to the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals.
Despite doing so well, rugby manager Dowson insisted after winning the league title that Smith’s frequent frustrations with his level of performance would push him to greater things. “You probably forgot he’s 22,” he said. He is mature for his age and incredibly ambitious and driven,” he explained.
“He feels frustrated. He’s always his harshest critic, so he’s always frustrated with elements of his game that haven’t gone as well as he would have liked. That’s growth.
“A little bit like Courtney (Lawes). He always pushes and always wants to be better. This is never right and it bodes well for the future and allows us to provide as much guidance as possible on how his game can grow.
“Having the game on his back and being the playmaker and fulcrum of our offense is huge. we love him I have loved him ever since I saw him in Worcester. Sam Vesty and I know what he can do and he’s going to get better.”
Dowson paid tribute to outgoing skipper Lawes’ role in developing young talent like Smith during the 2023/24 campaign. “He was quite humble in his response about how much he has added to the group because we have a young group.
“His presence and confidence cannot be hidden. A game like today, a game like last week, a game in Croke Park where Courtney was there and on the biggest stage, his presence and his confidence was really, really evident throughout the group. Him.
“It’s something intangible. You can’t really put it into numbers, but this has had a huge impact on the players around the group and they’ve grown. He allowed them to grow and showed them how to play these games.”
