The Owen Farrell verdict on his kicking display versus Wales

England skipper Owen Farrell has given his verdict on the standard of his kicking in his team’s Guinness Six Nations win over Wales, a victory that was left hanging in the balance until five minutes from time when Ollie Lawrence grabbed the third try of their 20-10 success.

Out-half Farrell had his difficulties with the boot throughout, getting charged down early on, kicking out on the full later in the opening half and eventually finishing up with a frustrating accuracy rate off the kicking tee as he only landed two of his six attempts, scoring five points but leaving another 10 behind him on the field.

It annoyed him that his inaccuracy left his team vulnerable, all their hard work going unrewarded as it wasn’t until very late that they finally could take a breath knowing they were two scores in front and set to take the victory.

“I didn’t kick well, no. That was obvious,” admitted Farrell in the aftermath of what was a win for head coach Steve Borthwick in his first away match in charge. “They weren’t coming off the way I’d like them to but I have been here before, I’ll get out to work again.

“The only thing with that is the team probably deserved to be further ahead and the team worked hard to be further ahead. The fight that they showed to stick at it, especially away from home and in that last 20 minutes to take control of the game like they did, I thought was fantastic. Yeah, I’ll get back to work.”

The victory was the second England win this month, this latest success over Wales adding to the bounceback that began versus Italy following the round one loss to Scotland. What did Farrell generally make of the triumph that keeps them in the title hunt heading into their round four match at home to France on March 11?

“I’m pleased with the performance as a whole. We want to keep stepping forward and that, for the reasons we have just spoken about, was a real step forward. Now we have got a week’s training to get after it and learn quickly again and prepare for a massive Test in two weeks.

“We feel like we are getting better. There are bits of it [the new way under Borthwick] poking through now and, as we have said, the more time we spend together the quicker we want to learn and the more we want to push on.

“With this being the start of our journey we have to make sure we are laying the foundations and we feel like we are doing that but, at the same time, we have got to make sure we are having little conversations and trying to get on the same page to fill the gaps as players. You see little bits of personality coming out and combinations starting to come together within that.”