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Claims Owen Farrell on end of cheap-shot punch to face

Was Owen Farrell decked?

The Saracens Harelquins Gallagher Premiership semi-final didn’t fail to deliver in terms of intensity at the Stone X Stadium and England star Owen Farrell was very much in the wars.

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Saracens  claimed a place in the final with a 34-17 victory over London rivals Harlequins and rivalry lived up to expectation, with emotions boilover on occasion.

Some online are claiming that Saracens flyhalf  was on the end of a cheap shot. Farrell was involved in a tussle in the 57th minute and some believe that Quins forward Matt Symons was lucked not to be red carded for what looked like a right hook to Saracens playmaker delivered from behind.

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After a frenetic final weekend in the Top 14 regular season, we catch up with one of the key men from surprise table-toppers Castres and the top tackler in the Top 14 this season. Australian second row Tom Staniforth fills us in on his journey from Canberra to Castres, the family environment at the club, how a bunch of battlers go about beating off competition from a host of teams with much bigger budgets over 26 rounds and gives us an insight into what makes a club that often goes under the radar so special. There’s also a look into everything that happened on the final day, a look ahead to the Barrages and we pick our MEATER Moment of the Week…
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The video evidence isn’t particular clear, although it does seem that Symons arms does swing around violently in the direction of Farrell’s face.

When camera panned back to Farrell after the incident, he was clearly bleeding from his face, suggesting that whatever happened in the melee, some sort of shot had hit the target. Farrell laughed off the incident and could be seen exchanging what looked like a light hearted exchange with a remorseful Symons – who is set to retire this week – immediately after.

Saracens on This Day wrote on Twitter, a post that was echoed by a number of people on the platform: “Remarkable to me that Quins 4 Symons’ two punches on Farrell were neither investigated or commented on for the dual scuffles 56 minutes in.”

It wasn’t the only knock he received.

A bandaged Farrell left the field after shipping some heavy collisions as he lead the Saracens to what was in the end a dominant victory, a result that cements their return to the top table after spending last season sin-binned in the RFU Championship.

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Other than a few miss cues from the boot, it was a vintage Farrell display playing against positional rival Marcus Smith and one that will reignite the debate over who starts at 10 for England. Against that, George Ford’s all-court display against Northampton in the other semi-final means Eddie Jones will have a welcome headache in Australia.

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Comments

2 Comments
H
HENRY 1098 days ago

To even the score...Owen Farrell has many more to absorb.

OF, enjoy your journey into obsolescence...you deserve every shot you receive. legitimate or otherwise. Eure Hore!!!

p
pele 1100 days ago

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

-One who has given plenty of cheap shot no arm tackles .

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f
fl 1 hour ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

I ultimately don’t care who the best club team in the world is, so yeah, lets agree to disagree on that.


I would appreciate clarity on a couple of things though:

Where did I contradict myself?

Saying “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” is entirely compatible with ranking a team as the best - over an extended period - when they have won more games and made more finals than other comparable teams. It would be contradictory for me to say “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” and then completely ignore Leinster record of winning games and making finals.


“You can get frustrated and say I am not reading what you write, but when you quote me, then your first line is to say thats true (what I wrote), but by the end of the paragraph have stated something different, thats where you contradict yourself.”

What you said (that I think trophies matter) is true, in that I said “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.”. Do you understand that Leinster won more games and made more finals than any other (URC-based) team did under the period under consideration?


“Pointless comparison on Blackburn and Tottenham to this discussion as no-one includes them on a list of the best club. I would say that Blackburns title season was better than anything Tottenham have done in the Premier League. My reference to the league was that the team who finished second over two seasons are not better than the two other teams who did win the league each time. One of the best - of course, but not the best, which is relevant to my point here about Leinster, not comparing teams who won 30 years ago against a team that never won.”

I really don’t understand why you would think that this is irrelevant. You seem to be saying that winning trophies is the only thing that matters when assessing who is the best, but doesn’t matter at all when assessing who is 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.


“What I referred to in my Leinster wouldn’t say the were the best is your post earlier where you said Leinster were the best overall. You said that in two separate posts. Seasons dont work like that, they are individual. Unless the same team keeps winning then you can say they were the best over a period of time and group them, but thats not the case here.”

Well then we’ve just been talking at cross purposes. In that my position (that Leinster were the best team overall in 2022-2024) was pretty clear, and you just decided to respond to a different point (whether Leinster were the best team individually in particular years) essentially making the entire discussion completely pointless. I guess if you think that trophies are the only thing that matters then it makes sense to see the season as an individual event that culminates in a trophy (or not), whereas because I believe that trophies matter a lot, but that so does winning matches and making finals, it makes it easier for me to consider quality over an extended period.

24 Go to comments
M
MT 1 hour ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

As I said in one of my first replies to you - we can agree to disagree. If you want to leave it no problem. I completely disagree with your ranking of Leinster as the best team in the world. Now you have said you will change it if Bordeaux win the Top 14. Well as Leinster themselves prioritise the CC over the URC and Bordeaux won the CC, how are they not ranked higher by you? Are Leinster one of the best teams, yeah - never said they weren’t. But not the very best team, as the very best team have trophies to show for their seasons. They matter when you discuss the very best.


You can get frustrated and say I am not reading what you write, but when you quote me, then your first line is to say thats true (what I wrote), but by the end of the paragraph have stated something different, thats where you contradict yourself. Just so we are clear, you said you would too on my statement that I would rather be a fan of a team that won a trophy over the three seasons, but end the paragraph saying you would rather be a fan of the team that won the most matches but didn’t win a trophy. Both cant be true. Thats one example of where you contradict yourself.


Pointless comparison on Blackburn and Tottenham to this discussion as no-one includes them on a list of the best club. I would say that Blackburns title season was better than anything Tottenham have done in the Premier League. My reference to the league was that the team who finished second over two seasons are not better than the two other teams who did win the league each time. One of the best - of course, but not the best, which is relevant to my point here about Leinster, not comparing teams who won 30 years ago against a team that never won.


What I referred to in my Leinster wouldn’t say the were the best is your post earlier where you said Leinster were the best overall. You said that in two separate posts. Seasons dont work like that, they are individual. Unless the same team keeps winning then you can say they were the best over a period of time and group them, but thats not the case here.

24 Go to comments
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