EVEN BETTER THAN JONNY
Clamour is growing for Owen Farrell to lead the Lions this summer as Eddie Jones claims England hero will be...
OWEN FARRELL will run out ahead of his team-mates at Twickenham today. To mark his 50th cap, the 25-year-old England centre will go out to receive the acclaim of a Twickenham crowd who now trust Farrell in precisely the same way they trusted Jonny Wilkinson.
In so many ways, Farrell is pulling ahead of the competition.
His inch-perfect 76th-minute pass that put Elliot Daly away for the match-winning try against Wales a fortnight ago came barely 20 minutes after he had shrugged off one of the biggest hits in Millennium Stadium history with little more than a wry grin.
Just like Wilkinson, Farrell is as tough as boots. Just like Wilkinson, he relishes the hit. Just like Wilkinson, his goal-kicking appears nerveless and technically immaculate.
Standing 6ft 2in and weighing 15st 2lb, Farrell, who will play at centre today but is equally comfortable at fly-half, has developed into England’s talisman through the relentless excellence of his performances. It is almost impossible to recall him having a bad game.
‘He’s very humble off the field but then when he crosses the whitewash he turns into some kind of Tasmanian devil,’ says Matt Dawson, England’s 2003 World Cup winning scrum-half and BBC pundit.
‘He becomes this whirling dervish who hits rucks, makes smashing tackles and then floats beautiful passes. Then in the cool calm moments you see him gesticulating on where and how they’re going to play. He’s very organised.
‘There are a lot of parts of Owen’s game that I think are better than Jonny Wilkinson’s and there’s every chance he could turn into a world superstar, if he’s not one already.’
High praise indeed from the man who provided the pass from which Wilkinson dropped the most iconic goal in English rugby history.
One of the few England players who is already surely pencilled into Warren Gatland’s starting Lions XV to face New Zealand in Auckland on June 24, the calls for Farrell to be named captain are growing, as is the praise from around the world.
‘Defensively he has absolutely no faults,’ says former South Africa coach Nick Mallett. ‘He is a magnificent defender who puts his body on the line. He reminds me of Henry Honniball who I had at No10 for the Springboks.
‘His kicking out of hand and kicking for posts is immaculate. Playing at 12 for the past couple of seasons outside Ford will have done him tremendous good if he does move back to 10. His distribution is now superb and his pass to Daly to set up the try against Wales was out of the very top drawer.’
Former All Black captain Richie McCaw believes Farrell’s battle with New Zealand fly-half Beauden Barrett could decide the series. He says: ‘The English have benefited from getting some good front-foot ball and using a guy like Owen.
‘His confidence has grown like Beauden Barrett’s has and he is starting to believe in what he can do and directing things pretty damn well. He just looks a lot more comfortable directing things and he has been given that better service.’
Former Scotland and Lions coach Jim Telfer says the England vicecaptain’s performances could see him edge past Alun Wyn Jones to captain the Lions. ‘Alun Wyn Jones is the favourite, but Farrell is one player who may come into the reckoning,’ he says.
‘He’s already been on one Lions tour and he’s a certainty to go on this one. Martin Johnson was in a similar position when we went to South Africa 20 years ago. When he took a heavy knock from Ross Moriarty in the Welsh game, he didn’t writhe about in agony like some soccer players. He got up, smiled wryly and got on with it. I think players respect him.’
With 562 points in 49 England Tests, Farrell is second only behind Wilkinson in the list of the country’s all-time points scorers.
England coach Eddie Jones, who first encountered Farrell as a 16-year-old at Saracens’ academy, says there’s plenty more to come.
‘You could tell when he was young that he would always be a driven player, driven to be his best,’ says Jones. ‘It was almost inevitable he would be a first-team player at Saracens. If you’ve got that amount of desire and a reasonable amount of natural ability, you are going to be a good player.
‘I don’t think he’s as good a player as he can be yet, and that’s the great thing because his next 50 caps will be better than his first 50 — much better.
‘I don’t think he should be compared to other players. He is Owen Farrell and he is a different player. His first 50 Tests I think he will be disappointed that his winning record is less than Jonny