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'Farrell has a leadership quality, a real conviction how he sees the game... he's pretty ruthless'
Former England out-half Jonny Wilkinson believes “ruthless” Owen Farrell has the “leadership quality” that England need in World Cup year.
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Second-half performances against Wales and Scotland, in which half-time leads were surrendered in both games, cost England the Six Nations title this year.
Coach Eddie Jones spoke about the mental fragility of his side after they shipped 38 points to Scotland last month and the common denominator to the two halves that cost England dearly was that captain Farrell played poorly in both.
Jones’ decision to take off Farrell with 10 minutes to go against Scotland felt significant in a World Cup year. But Wilkinson, who famously kicked the extra-time drop goal to win England the World Cup in 2003, supports the current England No10.
“He has a leadership quality, he has a real conviction about how he sees the game, he has openness outside of the game to learn but when he’s on the field he’s pretty ruthless,” said Wilkinson, speaking at a Land Rover event where he and former France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili were taking part in snow rugby in La Plagne.
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“That’s kind of what guys look for – a guy that listens – but, when it comes to decision-making time, he makes the decision and there’s no grey about it, ‘this is what we’re doing, this is how we’re going to do it’.”
England’s shortcomings against Wales in the second half in Cardiff, where they squandered a 10-3 lead to lose 21-13, opened the door for Warren Gatland’s team to win the Six Nations and complete the Grand Slam.
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Wilkinson sees parallels between the current Wales side and his World Cup-winning England of 2003. But with the World Cup in Japan just five months away, he insists Wales cannot afford to think the hard work is done.
“You look at this Wales team and our England team in 2003 and you know they’ve won how many games on the trot now and they’ve won a grand slam in World Cup year, which means they’ve gone unbeaten for what has to be a year and now they’re heading in to the World Cup. You’re kind of like there is a parallel,” he said.
“For me it’s important that they did it but it’s only as important as they make it. The problem is that you feel like you’ve somehow deep down, you’ve somehow done a lot of the work already – none of the work’s been done.
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“If you carry on willing to do the work then what’s happened before matters, if you stop and rest on what’s happened then what’s happened suddenly falls away very, very quickly.”
A great day with @LandRoverRugby enjoying some snow rugby with @DimitriYachvilli in beautiful @SeeLaPlagne #RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/a8xZJFkJd5
— Jonny Wilkinson (@JonnyWilkinson) April 9, 2019
Ireland had high hopes heading into the Six Nations but defeats to England and Wales saw them finish third. However, Wilkinson has warned against writing off the Irish at the World Cup.
“Ireland are dangerous as ever and we’ve seen that. One season or one group of games doesn’t change anything,” said Wilkinson, who trained a couple of times with England at Jones’ request during the Six Nations as well as working as a kicking consultant for them.
“What it does do is put Ireland back in that bracket of backs against the wall – everyone’s doubting you a little bit now and that’s the worst Irish team you ever want to play against.
“What they need to do is find a way to make sure it comes out at the right moments. They’re certainly not off the charts that’s for sure.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
28 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments