'Huge impact': Owen Farrell's 'stern' talk with 'moping' Noah Caluori

Saracens coach Alex Goode has shed light on a training ground conversation Owen Farrell had with Noah Caluori shortly after his Saracens debut, which he believes had a “huge impact” on the 19-year-old.

The former England captain returned to Saracens over the summer after a year with Racing 92 in the Top 14, and returned to a club where “a lot of the team hadn’t been around him,” Goode said on the Stick to Rugby podcast recently. One of those players was surely Noah Caluori, who would have been 17 when the fly-half left for Paris.

Goode, who became an assistant coach at the club after retiring at the end of last season, explained how players were curious about how the former England captain conducted himself at training. While there were stories of him “shouting” in training, the former Saracens full-back explained that Farrell “always wants the best for the club.”

Goode went on to single out an interaction between Farrell and Caluori shortly after his try-scoring debut in the Gallagher PREM against the Newcastle Red Bulls. Caluori, who had just turned 19 at that point, was “moping around” in training before being confronted by Farrell.

The winger went on to score five tries in his starting Saracens debut a few weeks later against Sale Sharks, before being selected in Steve Borthwick’s England squad for the Quilter Nations Series.

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“It’s probably an example he doesn’t want, but Noah Caluori comes in week one, he’s on the bench, and he scores up in Newcastle with a big swan dive. Brilliant,” Goode said.

“The week after, some of the senior players come back, he’s not involved and he’s about to go on loan at Ampthill.

“He’s a young kid, all over TikTok, this young star on social media with loads of followers. He’s in training, moping around a bit like an 18-year-old probably does. He’s in a first-team session but he’s only been a professional player for a couple of months at that point, so he doesn’t really know what it’s like.

“Owen just goes to him and says, ‘Are you injured?’ He says he’s got a bit of a sore calf. Owen asks again, ‘Are you injured?’ He says he’s got a bit of a cold. Owen just says, ‘Train properly. Just train properly. That’s all we ask.’ Just stern.

“He trained the house down that day. He went to Ampthill that week, got man of the match, then gets picked for Sarries again and scored five tries on his first start. I’m not saying he wouldn’t have done that without the conversation, but I’m pretty sure it had a huge impact. Otherwise, he would have cruised through training, no one would have had the confidence to say it to him. The coaches probably would have said he’s young and needs time, but Owen got in front of it and he didn’t say ‘this would be best for you’ — he just said, ‘train well.’

“I think it’s a skill that very few have, and it comes from a place of wanting the best for the individual and for the whole team. He knew Noah wasn’t playing that week, but if he trains well it lifts the bibs, and then the team gets a better knock-out and you’re in a better place.

“I think it’s stuff like that where his value is probably underestimated, but it’s so important. You look at the Lions tour, they were scratchy in the first couple of weeks. Lots of errors. From my perception, there were so many talented people on that tour, but they weren’t the sort who were going to grab hold of things, not like a Sexton or a Farrell. Very talented, but different.

“Owen Farrell gets called up and people say he’s not the right player, he’s not in the right position, he’s not Elliot Daly’s replacement. But you see Wigglesworth, Sexton, Andy Farrell — all competitors — saying we need someone who can drag the bib standards up for everyone, for the whole group.

“Because if you’re on the training field and you don’t kick-chase well enough, or you don’t put the effort in, Owen will tell you. And that’s more powerful coming from a player than from any of the coaches. Sure enough, the standards just seemed to lift on that tour.”