DROP IDOLS
Legend Jonny gives skipper Farrell a masterclass on how to give the Boks a kicking and become a World Cup winning legend
ENGLAND’S players stand on the brink of sporting immortality this morning.
Is today the day when 23 more heroes are made, legends created, reputations sealed for life?
Could Owen Farrell make history repeat itself, 5,824 days after Jonny Wilkinson dropped THAT goal in Sydney, and a nation held its breath for what seemed like an age?
If the 2003 match-winner himself has anything to do with it, the answer to those questions is a resounding YES!
Wilkinson gave Farrell a drop-goal masterclass, as coach Eddie Jones put the finishing touches to England’s World Cup final preparations.
The Red Rose have not landed a drop goal in this entire tournament but, all too mindful of its value 16
OWEN FARRELL will today call his team into a huddle and tell them the strength to achieve a lifelong goal lies within the circle.
He will look into the eyes of team-mates and assure them that, together, they have everything required to leave Japan as champions of the world.
“We give off to each other all the confidence and belief that we need,” said the captain, just one win away from joining Bobby Moore, Martin Johnson and Eoin Morgan in English sport’s most exclusive club.
“We’re not bothered about things that don’t really matter. We’ve got a good feel for how the group is and where the group is – and we’ll be open enough to feel what’s needed.”
Farrell’s stock-in-trade is not soundbites. Rugby is his language. But even he could not quite mask his excitement.
“Everybody grows up wanting to be involved in this game,” he said. “You think as a kid, ‘How good would it be to be in a World Cup final?’ Now this opportunity has come around, you want to enjoy it, you want to go for it.
“You don’t want to dip your toe in and see what happens, you want to throw all of yourself into it. That’s the way we’ll look to go about it.”
Farrell is first among equals, the leader of a team stronger than the sum of its individual parts. There is star quality, yet this is a side even now relatively unknown.
Consider this. Tom Curry and Sam Underhill each has a claim to be player of the tournament. They even have a catchy nickname, courtesy of Eddie Jones. But his “kamikaze kids” have a combined Twitter following which comes up short of 15,000. Raheem Sterling alone has 2.1million.
That is remarkable given the size of this achievement. Across Jones’ entire squad only three players – Farrell, Manu Tuilagi and Maro Itoje – have hit six figures.
It highlights the extent to which this is truly a team effort and why the unassuming Farrell, contrary to the expectation of many, has proved the perfect front man. Ask him the secret of his captaincy success, and this reluctant hero instinctively deflects praise to his squad.
“Everything that has gone into us being able to enjoy this tournament and love every minute of it, as we have, has been a form of leadership,” he said.
“That could be someone who is quiet, someone who is loud, someone who is funny, someone who is not funny. Everybody is different, everybody leads in their own way.
“The most important thing with this group is it is authentic, it is genuine.” Farrell’s presence makes South Africans wary ahead of a game so important to both countries.
“Owen is very intense, very rugby orientated,” said Schalk Burger, who helped the Boks beat England to the title in 2007 before joining Farrell at Saracens.
“But he’s improved massively on a social and also an emotional intelligence level, where he understands the feeling and what’s needed for the team.
“That comes with experience and maybe different life changes. He’s become a husband and a father. All those things improve you as a leader in understanding that there’s more than one way to go
about getting the best out of your team.” Ben Stokes is favourite to win Sports Personality. Don’t expect any of these players to match his individual heroics, that is simply not their style.
But, if all goes to plan, Team of the Year will surely be theirs. For this unassuming group of men, there could be no more fitting accolade.