England ready for anything against France, says Farrell

Ashton eyes 6N to remember after long wait

BAGSHOT, England, Feb 9, (RTRS): Owen Farrell sets high standards for himself and those around him and though he said there were the usual “work-ons” from last week’s fantastic victory over Ireland, the England captain – almost – admitted to having enjoyed it.

Farrell stressed that England’s players and coaches wasted little time in turning their attention to Sunday’s second Six Nations match against France at Twickenham, but that part of the process was enjoying what had clicked in Dublin.

“We’ve got to understand what we did well and why we did it well, that’s part of being able to get better and to grow for this week,” the flyhalf told reporters on Friday.

“You review a game. You don’t brush over anything you did well and look at anything you could improve. There’s stuff to get better at, it’s not hard to find. There will be a lot that we want to take to another level.

“What we know is our feet firmly on the ground. It was never going to be a case of thinking too much of ourselves.”

To most viewers there was little to fault in England’s 32-20 bonus-point victory at the home of the defending Grand Slam champions. But Farrell, overcoming his usual disdain for what he considers pointless questions, tried his hardest to dig below the obvious.

“It’s hard to pick one thing because all important,” he said. “It’s the engagement of being in it enough to cope with anything. You can be doing one thing well and something completely different is thrown at you and the big thing for us is not to be shocked by it, but to be ready.” One thing that has undoubtedly gone well for England in recent games is the start and they have scored tries inside the first three minutes in their last four matches.

“The start of the game is a bit of a tone-setter for what’s to come – but that’s not always the case,” Farrell said.

“There were a lot of times last year when we started really well and were unable to keep it up or not been able to withstand the pressure that got put back on us, but the most pleasing thing from the last few games is that we’ve kept engaged and stayed in the fight throughout the game.”

With co-captain and hooker Dylan Hartley out of the picture through injury and likely to remain so after impressive displays by Jamie George, Farrell has emerged as the main man but he says others are stepping in to fill the “leadership void” that coach Eddie Jones has consistently bemoaned.

“The leadership group is brilliant,” said Farrell. “A lot of players want to be involved, want to feel it’s theirs. If you just sit there being told all week, you can agree as much as you want, but if you don’t own it yourself, it’s probably

Farrell

not as exciting come the weekend.”

Having unsettled the well-drilled Irish last week Farrell says this week’s preparation has changed tack to deal with the far-less predictable French, who blew a 16-0 halftime lead to lose at home to Wales a week ago.

“We have got to make sure in any sort of unstructured or offload or turnover or kick return or ball going on the floor, we are ready all together, not just individually,” he said.

“What we’ve got to make sure is that we build up to get it emotionally right on Sunday and, so far, it’s felt like we have been.”

Meanwhile, England winger Chris Ashton can’t remember his last Six Nations start and a psychoanalyst might suggest he has subconsciously blocked it out given that it was one of the low points of his career and came all of six years ago.

As he trooped off the field in Cardiff having seen England’s Grand Slam hopes obliterated in 30-3 demolition by Wales in 2013, nobody could have predicted the free-scoring winger would not start another Six Nations game for six years. Yet that is how things panned out as a combination of injury, suspension and the arrival of Eddie Jones to replace Stuart Lancaster left him in the international wilderness despite helping Saracens to regular domestic and European glory.

He appeared to call time on his England career when he joined French club Toulon in 2017 – ruling him out of selection.

However, after setting more try-scoring records in France Ashton cut short his contract, returned to the Premiership at Sale and got himself back on Jones’s radar. He won his first cap for four years off the bench against South Africa last November and started against New Zealand, making a spectacular impact with a try after two minutes in England’s agonising one-point defeat by the world champions.

Now, after coming off the bench in last week’s victory over Ireland, he is set to start against France at Twickenham on Sunday.

Saying he could “barely remember last week” Ashton took a punt at “five years?” when asked on Friday when he last started in the championship and smiled when reminded it was six, and of the occasion.

“One to forget then,” he told reporters with his usual laugh. “But it’s such a great tournament, I’ve had to sit and watch for a while so I’m just happy to be part of it again.”

Only last year Ashton was working as a TV pundit in France and said he never thought he would back on the right side of the white line.

“When you’re younger and you’re in the team you never think it’s going to be your last game,” he said. “You think you’re going to have long years at it, but that wasn’t the case for me. I definitely understand what it’s like to not be involved and not have the shirt, so it’s a big privilege for me to be back in.”