I’ve moved on, insists Farrell

OWEN Farrell has moved on from the toughest period of his captaincy as he looks to spearhead an England resurgence in the final two rounds of the Guinness Six Nations.

A theme of the Championship has been Farrell’s place in the team coming under scrutiny for the first time and despite an improved performance against Wales, he is still facing calls to be dropped.

The Saracens playmaker’s leadership is also in question due to his spiky communication with referee Pascal Gauzere at the Principality Stadium, where England lacked direction during the closing stages.

And as a final indignity, he was criticised for his manner during a post-match TV interview.

But Farrell enters today’s clash with France at Twickenham intent on looking ahead only.

“I don’t think I dwell on it. You soon come to realise what’s important and how you learn from things, take them going forward and put everything into the next thing,” he said.

“If you hold on to things for too long you take your eye off what’s actually going on now and what you can do to be in this week and be in the preparation for this game.

“A lot of people have their say and that’s fair enough. Whether it matters to us or not is another thing.

“The thing that does matter to us is the things that go on in here, the conversations that go on, the way we see and feel it. We obviously have the biggest insight.

“I understand people have opinions. That’s fine. We are obviously going through a process of how to get the best out of ourselves and that’s more what we are focused on.”

Farrell’s Saracens team-mate Elliot Daly has been unable to retain his place following an afternoon of costly errors in Cardiff and the Lion is ousted at full-back by Max Malins.

In the weekend’s other game, Ireland travel to Murrayfield tomorrow to face Scotland, who will have WP Nel making his first Scotland start since the 2019 World Cup after being called on to replace the banned Zander Fagerson. Ireland prefer Jamison Gibson-Park to the fit-again Conor Murray at No.9.

MICHAEL Flynn is hoping to evoke the spirit of 2017, and Newport County’s ‘Great Escape,’ as his side tries to stay on track for promotion for League Two.

Back-to-back wins for the first time since the beginning of December have put them right back in the thick of the promotion race and the outcome of today’s trip to Morecambe could be crucial in the final account.

Morecambe are one place above County in fifth, have won their last three at home and snuck a 2-2 draw with a 94th minute goal at high flying Forest Green Rovers in midweek. Two minutes later Newport earned a penalty that got them over the line with a 2-1 win at Cardiff City Stadium against Bradford City.

It means both teams will go into the game on a high and the visitors will have the added incentive of knowing that a win would move them above their hosts. When Flynn first took over in 2017 he had 12 games left to perform the miracle of bridging an 11 point gap to safety.

He picked up seven wins and a draw and just managed to keep County in the Football League on the final day of the season. Now he finds himself five points off the top, four points off the automatic promotion places with 13 games to go.

The ‘Great Escape’ began with an away win at Crewe and then another at Morecambe. Can the ‘Great Promotion Push’ get kick-started at Morecambe?

“It’s going to be a long eight weeks with all of the games to come. We almost need a finish like the Great Escape,” said Flynn.

“Staying up at that point was obviously the most important thing because we could have gone out of business if we’d been relegated. It’s strange, but promotion seems a lot more important because we have moved on so much since then.

“If we can get 22 points again in 12 games it would take us to 76 and that would surely put us close to it. That season was bizarre in many ways and this is a crazy season for a number of reasons.

“Anybody from 12th or even 13th upwards is in with a shout. Even top three is not beyond most of them and it only takes a good run of form like Harrogate, Bolton or Bradford have had to be right in the mix.”

Flynn is the first to admit his side will need to be on top of their game to make it a hat-trick of wins. It took an 84th minute Mat Dolan penalty to win the game at home against Morecambe and they won’t want to lose any of their current momentum.

County will be hoping Ryan Haynes is over the groin strain that kept him out of the 2-1 win over Bradford at Cardiff City Stadium, while Kevin Ellison will be bursting to get some game time at his old stamping ground.