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'Don't panic' - Farrell comes out fighting in wake of criticism

By Nathaniel Cope
Owen Farrell

England have lost their last four Test matches but there’s no reason to panic according to captain Owen Farrell.

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Eddie Jones’ side face South Africa in the second Test of their three-match series in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

“I don’t think anybody doesn’t believe that we’re able to win the Test match at the weekend. The last thing we should do now is panic or worry, it is about us practising how we get it right.

“We’ve had a productive week so far but just because you’ve had a productive week you can’t expect it to carry on.

“We had a good training session on Wednesday which we felt there was more control in what we were doing and we’ve got to carry on building it towards this weekend.”

Their 42-39 defeat to the Springboks in Johannesburg saw a mid-match collapse from Eddie Jones’ side and the Saracens man admitted it’s something they’ve had to address.

“I thought we did get the emotion right (in the first Test), just when the pressure came on and they started getting momentum we probably didn’t cope with it as well as we should’ve done.

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“We’ve spoken a lot about that. A lot of honest conversations have gone on in a really productive way.

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Farrell has taken over the captain’s mantle from the injured Dylan Hartley, who has taken the summer off to recover fully from concussion. It’s a role that the 26-year-old is embracing.

“I don’t think being captain is probably as challenging as what people make out to be from the outside, but I’ve got a lot of players doing a lot of work here in camp.

“The main thing for me as a captain or one of those senior leaders in the team is to make sure we’re all pulling in the right direction and we’re doing that.”

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Nickers 7 hours ago
All Blacks sabbaticals ‘damage Super Rugby Pacific when it is fighting for survival’

Sabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.

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