'Pretty cool for a first start' - Saints ace Smith kicks England to victory against France

The fly-half came to the fore late in the game, providing try assists for Saints team-mate Tommy Freeman and Saracens back Elliot Daly while also landing two nerveless conversions, the second of which came inside the final 10 seconds to hand England a hugely welcome win.

All of Smith's previous seven caps had come from the bench, but he was handed the 10 shirt against France.

And, at full-time, he was given the player of the match award after a typically mature showing for his country.

"I felt like a bit of a rabbit in the headlights in the first half but I sort of found my feet a bit towards the end," Smith said.

"I'm delighted we got the win more than anything but it's pretty cool for a first start."

England, who named Smith, Freeman, Alex Mitchell and Ollie Sleightholme in their starting line-up, kept fighting as they bounced back from their opening-day defeat in Ireland with a dramatic bonus-point victory against a star-studded France side.

And Smith said: "It was back and forth, wasn't it?

"We've lost plenty of games that have been like that in the past, and luckily this one went our way today.

"It was far from perfect but that group fought hard today.

"We kept giving ourselves another shot and luckily it got us over the line in the end.

"It was an unbelievable atmosphere and we're delighted with that.

"We just really backed ourselves, we knew we couldn't go into our shells and we had to keep playing, keep moving the ball - and I felt like we did that.

"The French are an awesome outfit and they probably let us off the hook a lot in the first half.

"We felt like momentum had to come our way eventually, and it did, so we're really happy."