Can Farrell kick the Lions to victory?
OWEN FARRELL against Beauden Barrett. As if there wasn’t enough to look forward to in this match, the clash of the world’s two best fly-halves is going to be fascinating.
Just to spice things up further, it’s been absolutely sluicing it in Auckland and the weather could be a big factor in this game, which makes their contribution even more significant to the outcome.
Conditions are going to be tricky, and if the rain continues until the match, treacherous.
All of which will bring the kicking games of both sides into sharp focus, particularly those of Farrell and Barrett.
Farrell is well acquainted with such conditions but so is Barrett, who plays for the aptly-named Hurricanes in Wellington.
I would judge Farrell to have the longer kicking game, while Barrett nudges it forward nicely and is, of course, famed for his kick pass. He drives the ball low across the park, which invites your wing to run on to it at pace. The tactic is especially effective with a defence coming at you at great speed — something the Lions do.
Both players will be under huge pressure, so having a second option can be vital and this is where I believe the Lions could have an advantage.
There is no better box-kicker than Conor Murray and on the bench they have Johnny Sexton, who could also have a big role to play.
In contrast, although Aaron Smith’s kicking game is perfectly proficient, I don’t rate him in Murray’s class in that department.
And while Sonny Bill Williams has many amazing qualities at 12, I don’t have many mental images of him doing much kicking.
They do, of course, have Israel Dagg on the wing and they might drag him in as a second kicker, while the Lions back three of Elliot Daly, Liam Williams and Anthony Watson are all excellent kickers.
Whatever the conditions, it will be great to watch Farrell and Barrett go head-to-head. They both played in the Junior World Cup final in 2011 — a match which spawned a huge number of today’s household names — and on that occasion Barrett played full-back and Farrell was at inside centre with George Ford at No 10.
There seems to be a perception that a player is born to play at No 10 but I’m not sure that’s entirely correct. Some of the very best No10s in the world started out wider and gained an understanding of how the back division works before moving in.
The great Dan Carter started his international career at 12, as did Jonny Wilkinson, who played a season next to Jeremy Guscott.
Farrell started his England career at centre, was moved to fly-half and then switched back to centre, where he’s played in 17 of the past 18 England games. Like Barrett, he gets the bigger picture.
Barrett’s greatest asset is his pace and the superb lines he runs. I can’t think of any fly-half who has his pace and hits the line at such angles, making defending against him so difficult. He owes a lot of that to the years spent at full-back, where you quickly learn the best running angles.
Farrell’s game was founded on his kicking, his strength in the tackle and on the ball, but in the past two years he has massively added to his skillset.
Some of his passing is exquisite and, more recently, he has learned to run at space and make a clean break rather than look for contact.
But enough talking, it’s time for the rugby.