‘MASTERFUL’ AND MISSING
40 22
OWEN FARRELL showed England what a massive hole they have to fill in the Six Nations, as Saracens jumped up to fourth by crushing Exeter.
Farrell landed 15 points, including a 40m drop goal, and ran the show with his kicking from hand and distribution.
And boss Mark Mccall reckons the fly-half will be back better than ever after the Premiership has a seven-week break.
Farrell is expected to complete his move to Racing 92 this week.
Mccall would not discuss the details, but it is understood Farrell will have a medical in Paris and if he passes that, and Racing pay the transfer fee, he will head there next season.
Farrell took a step back from international rugby for mental health reasons so he can hit the beach now, and Mccall insists he deserves it.
The Sarries chief said: “It is important. He came back from the World Cup and wanted to play for the club but there were clearly a lot of things going on.
“He has really not had the chance to decompress properly but he will get that chance now. Owen had a masterful last half an hour. He took control of things.”
The killer blow for Chiefs came just after the break when scrum-half Stu Townsend dropped the ball, Sarries flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez hacked it through, fullback Josh Hodge made a hash of it on the line and Gonzalez scored.
That made it 22-15 to the hosts and Exeter were kept at arm’s length for the rest of the game.
Boss Rob Baxter said: “Straight after half-time it was a comedy of errors to concede a try like we did.
“The way that try got scored started to repeat itself. There was a big chunk of the game where we were a try away from two bonus points and that would have been a really good return.”