CAPTAIN FIERY
England coach tells stand-in Farrell to get in French faces
EDDIE JONES wants Owen Farrell to retain his aggressive streak as England captain in Paris tomorrow, after backing him over the tunnel fracas at Murrayfield. The Saracens playmaker has been leading the national team in the closing stages of recent Tests and will take on the role from the start for the first time against France, due to the enforced withdrawal of Dylan Hartley.
Jones had no hesitation in promoting Farrell and he does not want him to tone down his ‘inyourinstincts — aside from showing due composure when dealing with the referee and kicking at goal.
‘We want him to be in their face,’ said the head coach, naming a side featuring a revamped back line with Mike Brown and Jonathan Joseph dropped, Ben Te’o and Elliot Daly returning to the starting XV and Anthony Watson shifting to full back.
‘ That is one of the best attributes of his play. He is an aggressive, in- your- face type player. We want him to be like that. We don’t want him to be aggressive and in the face of Jaco Peyper the referee.
‘That is when he is going to have to have that ability to change, but he does that with his goal-kicking. Every time he goal kicks, he slows himself down, gets his heart rate down and kicks superbly and that is the role he will have to do when he is captain and needs to speak to the referee.’
Asked if he considered Farrell’s tunnel clash with Ryan Wilson unacceptable prior to the shock defeat at Murrayfield — when Farrell stepped in to support England team-mate George Ford who was being verbally targeted — Jones added: ‘Not at all. He did what was right for the team. I expect our players to do what is right for the team.’
The Australian has recognised a rapid development in Farrell’s leadership over the past year. That has alleviated the loss of Hartley due to a calf injury.
‘Owen is no-nonsense and just gets on with it,’ said Jones. ‘He knows what he wants to do, he knows what the team need to do and he is quite direct in communicating that. He expects high standards. He has been superloyal to Dylan and to the team, so when Dylan was unavailable it was an easy option for me.
‘Every good player just wants clear messages and you are going to get that from Owen. He’s a man of few words. He’s a Northerner and gets to the point. What he says, they will understand.’
In fact, Farrell is studying online for a degree in business management and leadership at Northumbria University. He has a 12,000word dissertation due in the summer and is yet to start it. So what happens tomorrow may provide valuable material.
Farrell said: ‘The main thing for me, as a leader anyway, is that you perform well. That’s most of the battle, that you do the things you’re talking about. You see what type of player I am. Hopefully, you lead from the front and, first and foremost, play well.’
Farrell will also think before speaking to referee Peyper.
‘I’ve done it before,’ said Farrell. ‘Dylan does it very well. He is very calm. You’ve got to be very clear and I’ve worked with him so I’ll be trying to take a bit of that on.’ INJURIES have forced Ireland coach Joe Schmidt to pick Garry Ringrose at centre for tomorrow’s clash with Scotland, even though he has had only an hour’s rugby with Leinster since an ankle problem in January. IRELAND: Kearney; Earls, Ringrose, Aki, Stockdale; Sexton, Murray; Healy, Best, Furlong; Ryan, Toner; O’Mahony, Stander, Leavy. Subs: Cronin, McGrath, Porter, Henderson, Murphy, Marmion, Carbery, Larmour.