The 'bossed' impression a 14-year-old Owen Farrell made at Saracens

Owen Farrell has carved a reputation for himself in rugby as one of the sport’s most influential figures, but this wasn’t something that only came to the England and Saracens skipper during his professional playing days. No sooner did he get his feet in the door at the London club as a teenager was he making a lasting first impression on everyone around him.

The influential Farrell, the 31-year-old who last month won his 100th England cap in the Autumn Nations Series draw with New Zealand, made his Saracens first-team debut in 2008 at the age of just 17, the youngest player at the time to have played professionally at that level in England.

However, it was the first impression that Farrell made some years earlier that was never forgotten by retired back-rower Will Fraser, who was interviewed on the latest Rugby Stories podcast by BT Sport.

The Saracens episode celebrated their 2016 Heineken Champions Cup/English Premiership double, the first in the club’s history, but eleven years earlier, Saracens had just made the high-profile signing of rugby league legend Andy Farrell, not realising that they were essentially getting two greats – the Wigan cross-code convert and his son who would instantly become a star in the making at his dad’s new London club.

“Owen came down when Andy signed for the club,” remembered Fraser about the arrival of the Farrells at Saracens. “So naturally everyone was here training, his son Owen is here. And then I remember the first session Owen did. I was 16 at the time, he was 13 and he came and just bossed the entire session.”

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Fraser might have the age of Farrell slightly out – he had turned 14 in January, two months before his father was signed by Saracens in March 2005. But you get the drift, the kid was hot property from the off. “My dad signed for the club when I was about 13,” added Farrell in the podcast. “We moved down south from Wigan.

“My dad moved down before the family to do the pre-season and I came down with him and joined in a bit of training and so on with the club. Just kicked balls back and did a bit of running with them. I have been down this way since then, a long time. I’ve had to fight to keep my accent.”

That accent was very much in full flow when Saracens won the first of their three Champions Cup titles in 2016, Farrell kicking seven penalties to guide his club to a 21-9 win over Racing 92 in Lyon. “It makes me sweat even thinking of it now,” quipped Farrell. “I built it up so much that that was the one that made the club massive.

“We always believed we were good enough to put ourselves in a position to have a chance. I guess to win one, especially the first one, is unbelievable. We all piled into one room having an alright time, yeah.”

So grand were those celebrations that Nigel Wray remarked: “The end is marvellous. You think, good lord, we’re champions of Europe. That is quite amazing… I remember waking up the following morning with George Kruis’ medal around my neck. Neither he nor I have any idea whatsoever how it got there but he got it back the next morning at breakfast.”

Fraser was thrilled with his friend Farrell’s decisive contribution. “Pick a player that is going to win you a game, I’m picking Owen every day of the week,” he enthused.

As for Farrell, leaving Saracens has never been a consideration during his long stay, not even when they were automatically relegated from the Premiership over the salary cap scandal. “The interest was always with Saracens,” he explained.

“As soon as you settle into life here, you find yourself playing in the academy and then playing underage games for them and, then before you know it, you are finishing up schools and ending up being a full-time player here. I can remember all of that and there are a lot of lads here that went on that journey with us that went through all the same things and we’re all best mates really now.

“When you are here you feel like you are cared about, your family is cared about, you feel like you are all part of it. There are not too many people that I think want to leave this place. You want to be a part of what is happening on the field but a big part of that is how the feeling around the place is.”

• For the full episode on the Saracens story check out BT Sport’s new podcast series, Rugby Stories, part of its BT Sport Pods line up of podcasts. Every Monday, Rugby Stories, presented by Craig Doyle, is spotlighting and celebrating English club rugby history. Btsport.com/pods