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Will the real Owen Farrell please stand up

By Ben Smith
Will 'Cardiff Owen' turn up in Japan later this year? (Photos/Getty Images)

England’s kick-pressure game failed to yield anywhere near the same level of results as it did against Ireland’s makeshift back three or the fallible France, putting the premise of England’s whole attacking game under the spotlight.

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With the aerial prowess of Liam Williams and extra backfield reinforcements in Gareth Anscombe, Wales throttled up England’s main points pipeline by limiting mistakes and leaving them dry.

It wasn’t just that England’s out-of-hand kicking didn’t earn points, England’s execution of their own kick game imploded with Owen Farrell’s shrinking act in Cardiff. It was, upon review, one of the most disappointing performances seen by a flyhalf in a high-stakes game in recent memory.

After Elliot Daly’s missed opening long-range penalty attempt in the opening minutes, Gareth Anscombe hammers a long 22-restart which ends up in Farrell’s hands.

Without looking to set up a platform, he skies a bomb that makes all of 6-metres with most of his side still retreating. With offside teammates crowding the contest, Wales recover possession and take the ball in England’s half and take control for the next 10 minutes.

England’s resolute defence keeps Wales at bay despite two 22-entries, but England struggles to get out of their own half. After creeping back into position to put another contestable kick up, Farrell is charged down on his 40-metre line and England are forced to scramble back.

Only once Ben Youngs takes over all of the kicking duties do England start to win the arm wrestle.

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Youngs finally pins Wales down deep into their 22 with smart two-phase kicking nearly a quarter of the match in. After Courtney Lawes pressures the lineout, Youngs takes a quick tap to restart play with England’s first real attacking possession only for Farrell to throw a forward pass and kill the opportunity a few phases later.

Farrell is bailed out when Kyle Sinckler wins a penalty from the ensuing scrum and England take the first three points of the match.

It took 25 minutes for Farrell to settle into this match and deliver his first tactical kick with any precision after Wales leveled proceedings with a penalty goal of their own.

Tom Curry’s try came on the back of Wales failing to exit and Farrell finally executing the kick-pressure game plan. Ken Owens has the ball punched out at back the maul following the Farrell touch-finder and England gain an easy entry into Wales 22, which leads to the opening try.

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In a game where neither side is going to give an itch, one error can give away control and it can be 10-15 minutes before your side wins it back again, which seemed to happen to England a lot with Farrell the key culprit.

It was telling that England’s first attacking lineout didn’t come until the 30th minute, again on the back of a smart double-kick by Youngs that forced Liam Williams to clear from his own line.

Their second attacking lineout came on the stroke of halftime, after an excellent kick and chase from Jonny May, who was able to tackle Josh Adams over the sideline 10-metres out from the try line.

This could have been a definitive blow to potentially put England up 17-3 at the break, but again it’s Farrell who comes up with a poor decision.

England starts with their ‘all-in’ maul that uses the backs to power up the pack but it breaks down. After two phases, Youngs’ pass, which is intended for a runner, hits the deck and bounces out the back to Farrell.

Without any advantage being played to England and time up on the clock, Farrell hoists an ‘all or nothing’ cross-field bomb that almost sails into touch if not for a bat-back by Jack Nowell.

Wales recover and happily end the half. It is a critical moment where the opportunity for points is squandered by a lack of composure and patience.

Early in the second half, England has decent field position and possession knocking on the door of Wales’ 22. After eight phases, Farrell tries the grubber into the corner but is charged by Anscombe. A minute later he tries to skin Wales down the shortest of blindsides and is run into touch.

Wales are able to eventually able to get out of this situation on the back of these mistakes and a lack of discipline from England’s pack. They notch another penalty goal to reduce the lead to 10-6.

After another Wales exit from the restart, Farrell is again charged own his on 40-metre. This time the deflected ball sails high and wide turning into an unintentional bomb that Williams catches and maneuvers in-field to set up possession nearly on halfway.

That’s three charge-downs on Farrell kicks, two unforced turnovers, and two poor bomb decisions inside 54 minutes of play without much positives on the other side of the equation. Then comes the Sinckler penalties that give Wales another three points.

Can we guess what happens next on England’s next territorial kick after Wales’ exit? Another kick error from the boot of Farrell as it goes out on the full. On England’s next attacking possession inside the Wales 22, Farrell pushes a flat pass to Nowell and it’s knocked on, turning over possession.

Everything he touched seemed to turn into coal. Would you believe that the pass that was knocked on by Mark Wilson and ended 34-phases later in a try to Wales lock Cory Hill, was in fact delivered from the base of the ruck by Owen Farrell, not Ben Youngs? It was.

There were shades of the same Farrell that showed up last November against the All Blacks and failed to clinically kick out-of-hand in spurts, except this time it was nearly a full 80-minute capitulation.

Farrell’s performance in this big-pressure game was far from his best, one that was strikingly bad given the praise lavished upon him in the weeks prior. Farrell is a proven class player but anyone pushing for the title of world’s best flyhalf can’t have a day like this. The execution was so bad you wonder why George Ford wasn’t put into the game at all. If Farrell was playing for Toulon, Mourad would be probably be asking for a DNA test.

England’s captain is a fiery competitor that doesn’t usually shrink to the occasion, proving to be a clutch goal-kicker at the highest level in the past. There is no doubt that he will bounce back from this game but that begs the question of how such a quality player can lay such an egg, especially with a Grand Slam within touching distance with Italy and Scotland around the corner.

There are concerns about whether this cookie-cutter game plan can be rolled out against everyone with similar results, but it is hard to gauge the full extent of its effectiveness with such limited execution from Farrell. Wales handled the kicking game without much fuss in the end, but it was made all the easier when only half of England’s primary kickers could execute.

Wales coach Warren Gatland questioned England’s ability to show up in big games during the post-game press conference, albeit safe with the knowledge his side had already bagged a 21-13 win over Eddie Jones’ side. Gatland’s comments were in part validated by the disappointing performance of England’s captain.

England fans will hope ‘Cardiff Owen’ doesn’t show up in October (or November) this year, and the real Owen Farrell stands up when it matters next.

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Jon 4 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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