Saints star Smith reflects on match-winning kick against Scotland

Smith smashed over a penalty from close to halfway, and those three points ultimately proved decisive as England won 16-15 to end a run of four successive defeats against Scotland.

Reflecting on how he approached the kick, which came with 10 minutes to go, fly-half Smith said: "It was a bit of everything: thinking about my process, thinking about what I wanted to do and then ultimately I gave it a whack.

"I don't think it was the best strike ever but it stayed fairly straight and just about had the legs.

"I was buzzing with that.

"I just took half a step further away so I got a bit of a longer strike.

"As soon as I kicked it I knew it was going over."

It wasn't just Smith's kick that caught the eye as he made a huge hit on Scotland centre Tom Jordan during the second half.

"He ran over me in the first half so I knew I had to get him," Smith said.

"He was on his own and I tried to give him a whack.

"It's always better when you get a penalty afterwards as well because then you can have a celebration and give it the big one.

"I was happy with that.

"Boys gave me a bit of love, which was key, so it's good."

England have now won back-to-back Guinness Six Nations matches by a single point as the victory against Scotland followed on from a 26-25 success against France.

"It's a weird one because obviously the overriding feeling was absolutely buzzing," said Smith when asked how he felt after the Calcutta Cup triumph.

"You've got to win in games like that when the stakes are high, and the past four or so years it's gone against us.

"It obviously wasn't a classic, far from how we wanted to play, but in a couple of weeks' time we'll look back on it and think 'who cares, it was a W on the scoresheet and we got the cup back' so that's the main thing.

"Personally I'm less excited than I was after the game against France because I wasn't as pleased with how I played and how the team played, but it is what it is.

"We'll debrief, take the boring bits out of that and celebrate."

England were booed at times at Allianz Stadium as they often to engage in a kicking contest with Scotland.

"We couldn't get out of the kick battle in the first half for whatever reason: discipline, quality of kick, getting a bit tight in defence and giving them life to move the ball, which is what they're very good at," Smith said.

"We felt we had to be a bit gritty, wait for the momentum to turn and then take our chances, which we did.

"It's not always easy because Scotland are trying to play their plan and we're trying to do ours."

Smith has now earned two starts at 10 in as many matches for England.

And he said: "Last week was a class week, building on the win against France.

"I'm loving being in the 10 shirt.

"We were really focused in camp, we knew what we had to do and I don't really get caught up in the talk before games, I just want to play rugby and enjoy myself - that's what I'm doing."