English rugby's new poster boy Marcus Smith has professed his admiration for Dan Biggar ahead of next week's Six Nations clash at Twickenham and revealed how he was welcomed into the Welsh players' fold during the Lions tour.
The hype around the Harlequins fly-half has exploded on the back of a run of starts in England's 10 jersey, first in the autumn and now in the first two rounds of this year's Six Nations.
That follows on from a late call-up to the Lions tour of South Africa, when Smith worked alongside Wales' new captain Biggar for the Cape Town stretch of the tour.
Read more: The latest Six Nations headlines are here
Ahead of a potential first meeting between the pair at Test level, Smith has now admitted he learned plenty from the man who last week notched up his 100th Test cap.
"He's a brilliant guy," Smith said of Biggar.
"He was very accommodating, very welcoming. He brought me up to speed very quickly on the playbook and the way the Lions wanted to play out there.
"He always greeted me with a smile on his face. We worked really closely together with our kicking.
"I learned a lot about the game through watching him."
For Smith, a first Lions tour meant the usual sort of initiations - with Biggar having previously revealed that the Quins playmaker, along with fellow youngsters Louis Rees-Zammit and Tom Curry, were made to serve drinks to the other players.
However, it was the Wales fly-half who did his part in integrating the late call-up into the squad.
"He invited me into my first game of cards out in South Africa," Smith said. "He didn't have to do that. All the Welsh boys invited me into that."
Not that Smith saw the immediate benefits of being invited into the Welsh card club.
"I lost a tenner," he added. "They were stealing my money!"
The feeling of respect between the two players is clearly mutual.
Just this week, Biggar told the Times that Smith was "probably the form player in the northern hemisphere barring Antoine Dupont".
"It’ll be a great challenge,” he added.
It's easy to forget how early in his career Smith actually is, such is the noise which already surrounds him and every performance.
He only made his country debut last summer, shortly before being whisked off to South Africa at the call of Warren Gatland. Next week's clash with Wales would be just his eighth cap, and his first against one of England's biggest rivals.
Despite his youth, there is no doubt he knows the significance of a clash between England and Wales.
"I'm grateful that I was brought up in a rugby-mad family," he said.
"My dad is an extremely proud Englishman and he always told me how big this game was.
"So for me, if I get the opportunity to play in that game, I know how much it'll mean - not just for my dad, but for every proud English fan in this country.
"For this team, it's our next game so it's our most important game as it's hopefully going to put us in a better position in the Six Nations table."
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