'Nothing's frustrating': England captain's defensive retort to questions on latest low-frills display

Owen Farrell didn’t allow criticism of the England attack performance in Wales to take the shine off what he believed was a well deserved away victory in a country where they struggled on recent visits. England were laboured when it came to turning pressure into points, Farrell missing a couple of penalties and his team managing to score just two tries for the second successive game in a row.

Asked if there was anything that was particularly frustrating about the 24-13 win in Llanelli, Farrell replied: “Nothing. Nothing’s frustrating.

“It was one of those games where for a large period of time there was swings in momentum, it was a bit tit-for-tat at times and hard to get your foothold in the game momentum-wise. 

“That isn’t to say it was all our own doing. We were playing against a good team who had their say in the game. We wanted to stick at it and come out in the big moments and when that presented itself I thought we did well.

“Not everything goes your way but we stuck at it and when the game was ready to be taken I thought we were ready there waiting.”

Sounds like Eddie Jones had Hitchcock on his mind at the break in Llanelli#AutumnNationsCup #WALvENG ??????????????https://t.co/tQHqcBFgt6

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 28, 2020

England will now likely host France at Twickenham in the Nations Cup final and Farrell is excited about the potential still left in Eddie Jones’ team. “Course we feel like we have got loads more left in us. Course we feel like we can improve a lot of things, but in terms of coming down to Wales, which we have not done too well in recently, and getting a win I thought it was a good performance.

“We are always going to be critical of ourselves and see what we can do. We want to improve as much as we can and it’s good that we have got another opportunity to do that next week and to do it in training.

“Our back row is very impressive at the minute,” he added. “We have got some outstanding athletes and some outstanding rugby players. You can see that by the people who are not here as well. Jack (Willis) coming in getting a key turnover was big, but I thought all our bench came on and made a big impact on the game and that is why it felt so good towards the end.” 

Does the England looeshead have a case to answer here? #WALvENGhttps://t.co/u7J10I1Qnq

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 28, 2020