Mark McCall slams 'shameful' negative narrative about Owen Farrell

Saracens boss Mark McCall conducted a near 20-minute media briefing on Thursday to shed some light on why Owen Farrell has decided to make himself unavailable for England selection for the upcoming Guinness Six Nations.

It was at 3pm on Wednesday when a brief statement by the London club revealed the shocking news that the 32-year-old was taking a break from international rugby so that he and his family could mentally refresh after a challenging time which included him being regularly booed by the crowd at the recent Rugby World Cup.

Suspended for the opening two matches of that tournament following a Summer Nations Series red card versus Wales that was punished by a four-game ban, Farrell returned to lead Steve Borthwick team’s to within a whisker of reaching the World Cup final, eventual winners South Africa needing a last-gasp penalty to clinch their semi-final win.

Having attended the end-of-tournament World Rugby 2023 awards function in Paris in a solo capacity two nights after England defeated Argentina in the bronze final, Farrell has since returned to the Gallagher Premiership and has played in three Saracens wins in recent weeks.

However, it has now emerged that he won’t be playing for England when they begin their Six Nations with a February 3 assignment away to Italy and McCall, the Saracens director of role, has now told an online media briefing that there is no guarantee that Farrell will eventually made a Test-playing return.

Speaking to an audience of around 20 journalists for close to 20 minutes on Thursday afternoon ahead of Saracens’ home game this Saturday versus Northampton, McCall said about Farrell’s potential post-Six Nations England return: “It’s hard to think that far ahead. His happiness and his well-being is paramount.

“If that in time involves him going back to play international rugby, so be it. He has got nothing to prove, has he? I don’t know how many caps he ended up on, 108, 110 caps, captain of England, and that wasn’t enough for some people.

“He was made to feel the way that he has been feeling so if he wants to after a break go back to international rugby and it is something that he enjoys and loves, then go for it. But if he chooses that he doesn’t miss that in six months, well then we will support that as well.

“Certainly I didn’t try to persuade him not to change his decision or anything like that and I’m pretty sure Steve (Borthwick) didn’t either,” added McCall about the recent discussions with Farrell in the lead-up to Wednesday’s announcement.

Grasping the nettle as to why Farrell believes he needs to step away from England to mentally refresh, McCall pointed the finger of blame at the mainstream media, a narrative that was followed by what he described as a social media pile-on.

“All I am saying is that social media, we have absolutely zero control over. Zero. But for me, this began in the mainstream media and the narrative that was created around Owen. Not from everybody and not from everybody on this call, but that is what happened.

“Everyone will somewhere in their heads agree with that and then it was a pile-on on social media, but it was created on the mainstream, so maybe there is some in your industry who need to look at themselves.

“Down the years he has probably been made to feel that he has done something much worse than he has actually done at various times if you know what I mean, and that every single little thing that has been picked up and scrutinised to a level which doesn’t happen with most other players.

“You might say, ‘Well, he is the England captain’. I’m still not sure of other England captains in other sports or whatever who have faced the level of scrutiny. Very rarely is it positive and we are talking about somebody I would consider to be a model professional, somebody who cares deeply about what he does, somebody who cares deeply about the people that he does it with.

“He has been portrayed in a way that doesn’t fit the person that people close to him know and we have ended up where we have ended up… I haven’t thought enough about this call to go back and reflect on when that negativity towards him began. It probably began before he was ever sent off for anything to be honest, so there has always been just an unfair narrative I would say and I don’t know why that is.

“I have worked with Owen for 15 years, worked every day with him for the last 15 years, and I don’t know if the person that is being portrayed in the media bears any resemblance to the person that I know. First and foremost he is a family man. His family have always come first and on top of that, he is a brilliant, caring, supportive teammate and a loyal friend to many. Just a thoroughly good, decent human being and that’s the person that I know.”

Despite this negativity surrounding Farrell, his form came to the boil at France 2023 and McCall described it as remarkable in the circumstances that the out-half performed so well. “It’s actually quite remarkable that he played the way that he played during the World Cup if we take into account how he was feeling. Amazing, incredible really.

“So you have got a person who is probably right on top of his game at the moment, probably the best he has ever been playing, yet he has been made to feel the way that he feels and his family have been made to feel the way that they feel and it’s shameful really.

“Like I said, his happiness and his well-being are paramount and the happiness and well-being of his family are paramount and any decisions that allow that to happen, that is the most important thing. Whether that involves him playing international rugby or not remains to be seen.

“I don’t think it’s a physical thing with him and I don’t think it was the emotional toll of playing a lot which has created this. Something completely different has created how he has been feeling so we’ll see.

“Certainly we need to make sure that we are checking all the time with him. As Steve said yesterday [Wednesday], it’s incredibly brave and courageous of him to open up in the way that he has. Not just to us at the club and other people in England but really to the world as well. So I admire him for many, many reasons anyway, but I admire him even more for doing this.

“It’s not right [the negative narrative]. A lot of these questions you would have to address towards Owen in due course. I can’t tell you why he feels the way that he feels but certainly his happiness and his well-being and his family’s well-being is the most important thing of all and any decisions that are taken going forward, he will have the full support of the club like he always has.”

Farrell’s decision to take an international break follows the early November decision of World Cup final referee Wayne Barnes to retire, stating that he and his family were fed up with the level of abuse. McCall suggested something needed to be done to combat what was happening.

“There is probably a wake-up call for all concerned because there is absolutely no way a referee should face what Wayne faced and there is no way a player, a person like Owen should face what he has faced probably over a much longer period of time than Wayne, to be honest.”

About this weekend’s latest Premiership, McCall added that a decision on Farrell’s availability won’t be taken until Friday as he was still carrying a knock from last weekend’s home win over Bristol.

“Owen got a bang on the knee last weekend and so we will determine whether he plays this weekend or we save him for the Bulls next weekend. We will make that decision tomorrow.”