Farrell’s Lions dreams looking bleak if Gatland sticks to form
EIGHTEEN months ago Owen Farrell was being talked about as a potential Lions captain for this summer’s tour to South Africa after leading England to aworld Cup final. Four days out from the squad announcement it is more a question of whether he should even make it as a foot soldier.
Farrell’s Six Nations was so underwhelming that ifwarren Gatland is doing his job right, the Lions coach should be weighing up whether to take him on tour at all. And if he selects on merit rather than reputation, Farrell should miss out.
It would be a seismic decision if he was jettisoned but Gatland has shown in the past he is capable of making the big calls on the big names.
Dropping Brian O’driscoll for the deciding Test on the 2013 Lions tour caused the sort of consternation in Ireland that would ordinarily be reserved for the Pope being caught smoking but he did it anyway.
The office of England captain will certainly not stop Gatland.
He omitted Chris Robshaw for that Australia tour and four years later left Dylan Hartley out of his squad for New Zealand. Indeed, with Steve Borthwick also overlooked the last time the Lions toured South Africa, you have to go back 16 years to Martin Corry for the last occasion an incumbent England captain was picked for a Lions squad – and that was by an English coach in Clivewoodward.
Gatland could not countenance such a call if he had no back-up but the alternatives are strong, both at stand-off, where Farrell plays his club rugby, and at inside centre, where he predominantly plays for England outside
George Ford.
Johnny Sexton is in the autumn of his career but expertly directed a comprehensive win for
Ireland over Farrell’s
England on the final day of the Six Nations;
Scotland’s Finn Russell, in a completely different way, did the same on the opening day of the championship. Meanwhile,
Dan Biggar pilotedwales to the title.they beat England too.
If Gatland was looking at English stand-offs tearing it up at the moment, his gaze would be drawn to the uncapped Marcus Smith at Harlequins rather than Farrell.
There are also attractive options at No.12, where Robbie Henshaw was outstanding for Ireland in the Six Nations and Jonathan Davies – the player of the series on the last Lions tour – was solid as a rock forwales. Manu Tuilagi is also pencilled in for his comeback for Sale on Friday night after a torn Achilles. If the Lions are after defensive giants who
can stop the
Springboks before they get started, then any of those three could do the job.
If the Six Nations taught us anything, it is that a selector cannot simply rely on historical form to predict future form. Bridging the gap from two months of training into Test rugby proved impossible for Farrell and his fellow Saracens. He, and they, have all played since but the leap from the second-tier Championship to the Lions is almost as great as that from no rugby at all.
Three games against Doncaster, Ealing and Nottingham is almost a different sport to a series against the world champions.
What plays in Farrell’s favour is the desire of Gatland (above) to slim down his squad to 36 rather than the 41 he named four years ago.
That places an emphasis on versatility with fewer bodies on the ground and Farrell was a Test starter at 10 and 12 in the series in New Zealand.
There is also his goalkicking to take into consideration.the penalty he landed to share the series at Eden Park four years ago was seriously ballsy and, for all his struggles, he still operated at 82 per cent in the Six Nations. But that was only third in the kickers’ table with Sexton up at 96 per cent.
If Gatland could flick a switch and call up the 2017 version of Farrell he would do so in a heartbeat. He was superb on that trip, a warrior and a leader in true Lions tradition.
But the most recent incarnation Gatland will have studied in what was a wretched campaign for England offered a mere shadow.
It may be that at 29, Farrell can rediscover his best for England with a proper pre-season under his belt and, with promotion an inevitability for Saracens, the weekly staple of Premiership rugby restored.
Let us hope so. But a Lions tour is a snapshot in time – and this does not feel like Farrell’s.