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'You have to surround yourself with other great leaders and Owen has the core of Saracens' leadership group with him'
Brad Barritt believes the support of key members of the double-winning Saracens leadership team will ensure Owen Farrell handles the pressure of the England captaincy as he attempts to guide his country to glory at the World Cup in Japan.
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Farrell’s form has been patchy in the warm-up Tests for the tournament, one of England’s truly world-class players switching from inside centre to outside half as head coach Eddie Jones attempted to identify his best midfield combination.
Chris Robshaw’s Test captaincy was defined by England’s failure to get out of their pool while hosting the 2015 World Cup, with key decisions he made being put under relentless scrutiny. This is the pressure Farrell will now have to deal with in a pool containing France, Argentina, Tonga and USA.
A member of the 2015 England squad, Barritt captained Saracens to the Heineken Cup and Premiership double last season and understands the weight that is now on Farrell’s shoulders.
He told RugbyPass: “It is never down to one person. Owen is spearheading the leadership force but ultimately you have to surround yourself with other great leaders and he has the benefit of the core of the Saracens leadership group with him.
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“Owen leads from the front and will have great guys with experience around him and it’s about using that because you cannot have a foothold in every facet of the game. You need people to boss the lineout and dictate at the scrum and you need those voices around you. He knows that better than anyone.”
Farrell is one of 15 Saracens players competing for various nations at the World Cup along with Richard Wigglesworth, who is acting as Canada’s defence coach at the tournament.
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Those call-ups mean the Londoners’ squad depth will be tested at the start of the English domestic season. However, the arrival of Damian Willemse from the Stormers gives Saracens an outstanding talent who can play out-half and full-back even though he may still be called into the Springbok World Cup squad if injury strikes.
Mike Brown fronts up at the Gallagher Premiership launch in his first interview since being excluded from England's World Cup squad https://t.co/0KLOYYQgL4
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 11, 2019
Barritt is excited to see Willemse at the club, believing Saracens can help turn him into an even better player thanks to the different style of rugby in the Premiership that requires a more structured approach and a quick understanding of the defensive structure and kick-chase strategy.
With Max Malins and England’s Alex Goode injured, Willemse solves a brewing crisis at No10. Barritt said: “Damian had his first training session with at the start of this week and he is a very exciting talent and is someone who has played at No10 and full-back.
“He is an immensely skilful player who we welcome with open arms and it is a win-win all round. We have the benefit of an incredible talent, a great young player with a fantastic future ahead of him, and he has the opportunity to work on a few different things than he would face playing in South Africa.
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“I hope he will go back a wiser and more rounded player from this experience because anyone who comes over to the UK realises that the game is played in a slightly different way and it requires different skills. The Stormers and Western Province will hopefully benefit from the next couple of months from Damian’s progression. On the flip side, we are going to benefit from a really talented player joining us.
“It’s obviously disappointing that Max Malins is injured having come on leaps and bounds last season. He was looking good in pre-season before getting injured and is out for some time. Alex Goode should be back in training from his foot injury in a couple of weeks and is on the mend.”
Willemse has joined what Barritt calls a “fresh-faced squad” where new combinations will be needed for the Premiership Cup which is taking place as a lead-in tournament before the delayed start to the Premiership. “It’s a fresh-faced squad at the moment. In terms of this early part of the season, the word we are using around the club is ‘opportunity’ because we have a great academy system.
“These guys may not have been given as much of a chance as they would have liked because the starting XV has been so successful. Now, we can unearth the next generation of talent and they can put a marker down for the rest of the season. The squad has come on leaps and bounds.”
WATCH: The RugbyPass stadium guide to Sapporo where England will open their World Cup campaign against Tonga
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’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.)
3 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
2 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?
3 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.
3 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 comments