England Rugby Head Coach Eddie Jones has warned fly-half, Marcus Smith, not to let fame get too much into the head. Marcus Smith has been compared to US Open winner Emma Raducanu for his tremendous play. Jones also said that Emma Raducanu has struggled since her title after shooting to fame and that the fly-half can suffer the same fate if he gets blown away by the “flood of distractions”.
The big thing for young players is distractions. Distractions can be the exposure they get in the media, the praise and criticism they get, groups of agents who see this guy as the next big thing. There's a reason why the girl who won the US Open hasn't done so well afterwards. What have you seen her on? The front page of Vogue, the front page of Harper's Bazaar, whatever it is, wearing Christian Dior clothes. He is grounded, but they all start off grounded. No-one starts with their feet off the ground or they don't get in the team, or they don't win a US Open. But there's this flood of distractions that comes in that makes you ungrounded.
Eddie Jones, Head Coach, English Rugby