Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Owen Farrell reveals the 100th cap moment that was 'a bit awkward'

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Inspiring England captain Owen Farrell has revealed the one moment about his milestone 100th Test cap that felt awkward this weekend. It wasn’t anything that took place on the pitch on Saturday in the bonkers 25-all draw with the All Blacks. Instead, it was the glowing tributes paid to him the previous night by his teammates that left him feeling a touch queasy.

ADVERTISEMENT

It was February 2012 when the now 31-year-old was first capped for his country and he has now become only the third men’s player to earn 100 England caps, following in the footsteps of Jason Leonard and Ben Youngs.

Farrell, though, wasn’t getting caught up in the hype surrounding his new membership of a very exclusive England club. “It’s a special game anyway,” he said about the rare match with the All Blacks.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

“The lads said a few things last night [Friday], which was really nice. I’m not used to it, felt a bit awkward but it is special. I don’t want to downplay it. I’m not taking it for granted, but there was a job to do this week in a big game and the most exciting thing for me was the performance of the lads. It was a special game and I’m glad I was part of it.”

With England having emerged with a draw that looked unattainable until the final minutes, Jones chided the media at his post-game briefing for their generally hard-nosed perception of Farrell and called on them to show some kindness for a change to the captain.

Related

“Owen’s leadership was fantastic,” he enthused. “100 Tests, third highest point scorer in the game, he led the team, kept the composure of the team, and when there was a chance to put down the foot we did it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to get the credit he deserves so maybe today you can be kind, find some kindness in your heart and give him some credit. It might even make him smile when he picks up the paper tomorrow. Just try to find a bit of kindness in your heart.”

Let’s hear some more from Farrell about what he felt was the most exciting part of his big day, the performance of the lads. “The belief shown by the team in that second half was outstanding. I felt we were always in the game even though it didn’t reflect it, especially on the scoreboard in that first half.

ADVERTISEMENT

“As Eddie said, some other teams, even better teams, would have dropped off and it didn’t feel like we were going to and then in the second half, we knocked on the door for a good 20 minutes at the start of it and didn’t quite get the points back that we thought we wound but we stayed at it and had proper belief. I’m proud of the team for that.”

Especially pleasing, he added, was the determination of the youthful England half-backs. “Jack van Poortvliet didn’t look flustered after he made the mistakes. There are loads of young lads that come into Test rugby and go into a big game like today and make a mistake and just don’t want to make another mistake.

“He wasn’t like that, and I thought Marcus (Smith) was brilliant. I thought he was lively. I thought he was at it the whole game and when the opportunities came he was ready for them.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

A
AM 39 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

72 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Would a Springboks B team really conquer the world? Would a Springboks B team really conquer the world?
Search