A Racing certainty this rule is crazy

YOU get the impression Owen Farrell would rather be anywhere else than in a press conference but the former England captain has recently spoken well about his impending move to Racing 92.

The 32-year-old (above) talked about the excitement involved in a new challenge and in a switch to a different environment.

Farrell did not mention the financial attraction of French rugby but he could have. After all, that is why Courtney Lawes is heading to Brive, why Lewis Ludlam will play for Toulon next season, and why Manu Tuilagi is on his way to Bayonne.

Lawes, 35, had already announced his international retirement but, like Farrell and Tuilagi, 32, and 28-year-old Ludlum, he would be ineligible for England duty while he was contracted to a French club.

Quite frankly, this particular RFU regulation has to be one of the most unfathomable in sport.

With the financial state of the Premiership precarious, players can earn a better livelihood across the channel and play a great standard of rugby. Why on earth should that debar them from proudly playing for their country?

Imagine the FA telling Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane they can’t play for England. Better still, imagine the public response.

It is almost 29 years since former England captain Will Carling was overheard saying the RFU was made up of ‘57 old farts.’

It might have been modernised since then...but this is surely the type of rule that Carling’s ‘old farts’ would have loved.

WITHIN the sport and the industry, horse racing has been in a self-critical mood after Cheltenham attendance figures were down and after trainer Willie Mullins predictably dominated proceedings at Prestbury Park.

But away from the course itself, the Festival still has enormous popularity in the pubs, clubs and living rooms of the land.

Which is why one of the biggest let-downs this year was that not all of the races were on terrestrial television, where Ed Chamberlin and the ITV team do such a great job.

If there is one thing that needs sorting out for next year – apart from the scandalous Guinness prices – that is it.