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Video: Former England flyhalf calls out Owen Farrell over questionable hit in Championship debut

Owen Farrell (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Saracens and England flyhalf Owen Farrell has been accused of getting away with another highly questionably challenge in his Championship debut against Doncaster Knights at the weekend.

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Saracens hammered Doncaster 15 – 50 and Farrell had a fine game in what was his Championship debut, having not played for the north London outfit in seven months due to England duty and injury layoffs.

However, while Farrell made headlines for having a great performance, eagle-eyed former England stand-off Andy Goode has posted a video to Twitter that appears to show Farrell hitting a Doncaster player high.

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“Say what you see, must be different tackle laws in the Championship, no card and no citing,” posted Goode on Twitter.

As Goode points out, Farrell makes contact with the head but didn’t suffer any consequences for the tackle, either during or after the game.

Farrell’s tackle technique has been a constant talking point throughout his career and with stricter laws around tackling being enforced, the Wigan-born star’s at times borderline technique is under the microscope like never before.

Following the match, Saracens Director of Rugby Mark McCall in fact suggested that it was Farrell that was the victim of late hits from Doncaster players.

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“He was in control of everything out there. He actually got hit late a couple of times and reacted brilliantly I thought.

“He didn’t get frustrated, moved on to the next thing pretty quickly and played beautifully at times.

“There was a couple of kicks he doesn’t normally miss, but I thought he played really well.”

The 29-year-old is chasing a British and Irish Lions spot, a berth which would have been considered beyond questioning prior to the Guinness Six Nations. A below par tournament for both England and Farrell has however questioned the fait accompli status of his inclusion in the tour of South Africa.

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J
JW 16 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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