Farrell has not been at his best, admits Jones
Hmatches against South Africa may be held in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth with fan-filled stadiums
Eddie Jones has admitted England captain Owen Farrell underperformed in the opening rounds of the Guinness Six Nations.
Farrell came in for heavy criticism for his performance in England’s defeat by Scotland. And he was still a long way off his best when moved from fly-half to inside centre in the 41-18 victory against Italy.
Typically, head coach Jones is ferociously protective of his captain. However, yesterday he conceded Farrell had not been living up to his own high standards. “That’s probably a fair comment,” Jones said. “There have been very few players in our team who have been at their best. I think Owen is one of those, he’s working very hard to get his game back to the standard he wants and we want and there’s no doubt he’ll get back there.”
Farrell is one of a number of Saracens players who have failed to hit their straps having been starved of game time since the club’s relegation from the Premiership.
“It [Saracens] could be a factor,” Jones said. “There could be something going on at home, there could be something going on at his club that’s affecting him, we don’t know. He’s not at his best at the moment.”
Jones is confident England will rediscover their best form when they travel to face Wales on Feb 27.
Amid the grimness and uncertainty of the current lockdowns, it seems impossible to imagine a Lions series against South Africa going ahead this summer with matches played at packed stadiums against the backdrop of the vibrancy and colour of a traditional tour.
And yet, 10,500 miles away in the offices of Rugby Australia in Sydney, planning is already at an advanced stage to enable such a scenario to become a reality.
Despite a lukewarm reception to its initial offer of hosting the tour last month, RA has added detail to its plans, which are due to be discussed at length for the first time at a Lions board meeting tomorrow.
The revelation of the blueprint of the plan to host the tour in the country which has almost zero cases of community transmission makes for compelling reading.
As postponement of the tour – which is South Africa’s preferred option – has effectively been ruled out, the board has been agonising over two options. The first is to proceed with the tour as planned, which has the safety net of financial commitments already in place, but with the knowledge that the matches are likely to be behind closed doors and with the added complication of touring South Africa given the prevalence of a Covid-19 variant there.
Yet the other contingency plan – to host the “tour” in the UK and Ireland – is also laced with risk. Despite the success of the vaccine roll-out there still is no guarantee that capacity crowds will be permitted at stadiums by July and question marks remain about whether South Africa teams would be permitted to travel here, given the variant risk.
Given the cost of hosting the series in the UK, without significant crowds the business plan alone becomes untenable, while Sky Sports, the biggest commercial partner, would be within its rights to demand a reduction in its fee, given it purchased a “tour” of South Africa.
The biggest drawback is the detrimental impact it would have on the touring heritage of the Lions. Willie John Mcbride, the most famous Lion of all, is among those who has warned the touring ethos would be “damaged for ever” if the games were played at home. Enough said. That is why the Australia option, after a muted response, appears to be gaining traction within the board, with the clock ticking on a decision.
Hamish Mclennan, who was appointed RA’S chairman last year, told The Daily Telegraph that the offer was a “genuine and unconditional” one to ensure that an “important rugby tradition” is preserved. Any suggestion that its offer was merely a PR move to garner support for its bid to host the 2027 World Cup is misplaced. Mclennan is serious.
Significantly, there appears to be Australian state government support, too. “The New South Wales government is committed to hosting and running sports of all types and are probably the best at doing it in the world,” Mclennan said. “I think the players would really enjoy it and I am confident we could also deliver a really decent cheque back to South Africa and the Lions. We will get it sorted if we are told by April.”
The plan would be to operate the tour from a “hub” with the Lions and South Africa based in Sydney or Perth. Potential Test venues would be Perth (the 65,000-capacity Optus Stadium), Brisbane (the 52,500-capacity Suncorp Stadium) and Sydney (the 83,500-capacity Stadium Australia and 48,000-capacity Sydney Cricket Ground).
The RA modelling for a tour in Australia is based on a conservative project that stadiums will be allowed to be at 50 per cent capacity, but there is optimism the matches could be played in front of full houses. With significant UK and South African communities in the country, there has already been a huge interest in the Australian rugby community to host the tour.
The experiences of playing Tri-nations matches last year and other major sporting events give RA the confidence to predict a tour could go ahead as normally as possible while also meeting the financial demands of the Lions and the South Africa Rugby Union.
Mclennan is adamant that the hurdles to staging the tour, including adapting the two-week quarantine to enter the country, can be overcome and, critically, RA can offer the players the closest experience to a traditional Lions tour.
“It is an evolving situation, but if you look at what we did with New Zealand and Argentina last year, we created ‘bubbles’ where they were
‘I think the players would really enjoy it – we will get it sorted if we are told by April’
able to train and quarantine and we would do the same for the Lions and South Africa,” Mclennan said.
“There was no diminishment in their training capabilities. Take Argentina, they knocked off the All Blacks for the first time ever and everyone had a great time. We just need a commitment and then we can get it organised.”
RA is flexible on the fixture schedule, with Super Rugby sides and potentially even Australia being lined up as opponents for the Lions. The revenue from ticket sales would more than make up for any potential hit from the loss of any sponsors. And if the Australian government underwrote liabilities in the event of a short-notice lockdown that prevented crowds from attending Test matches, a Lions tour Down Under this summer could become a reality.
With the players having an input into the decision, the prospect of a tour in almost normal conditions once they had gone through the training quarantine is understood to be proving attractive.
“If we sold out Sydney or Perth, which is achievable if we are allowed to have full crowds, it would just be mind-blowing for the players and there would be South African and Lions fans there, too,” Mclennan said. “I know lockdown in the UK has been tough, but in Sydney life is relatively normal. We can successfully host this.”