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Owen Farrell becomes first player to be beaten by the clock
By Ian Cameron
England's Owen Farrell made plenty of history today in Lille today, both the wanted and unwanted variety.
England made it four wins out of four at Rugby World Cup 2023 but they were made fight for it by Samoa, with Steve Borthwick's side limping over the line 18-17 in Lille on Saturday.
On the plus side for Farrell, he broke Jonny Wilkinson's long-standing England points record, surpassing Wilkinson's 1,179 points tally against Samoa in Lille.
However, he became the first player to ever fall foul of the shot clock at a Rugby World Cup.
A kick must be taken within 60 seconds (playing time) from the time the team indicated their intention to do so, even if the ball rolls over and has to be placed again. World Rugby introduced a visual shot clock to hurry kickers along in a bid to speed up the game.
While plenty of players have run the clock shot close at the Rugby World Cup, no one has ever gone over the allotted 60 seconds, until Farrell, who went over time in 65th minute, squandering three precious points for England.
Twitter - or X as it is now called - had a field day.
Squidge wrote: "What a day for Owen Farrell, breaks Wilkinson’s points record and beats Sexchicken to become the first player to ever time out a kick at a World Cup."
Journalist Owain Jones wrote: "Was getting low-level anxiety with kickers letting the shot-clock run down to the red and now Owen Farrell has let it overrun. Astounding from a player with such experience."
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Latest Comments
No he's just limited in what he can do. Like Scott Robertson. And Eddie Jones.
Sometimes it doesn't work out so you have to go looking for another national coach who supports his country and believes in what he is doing. Like NZ replacing Ian Foster. And South Africa bringing Erasmus back in to over see Neinbar.
This is the real world. Not the fantasy oh you don't need passion for your country for international rugby. Ask a kiwi, or a south african or a frenchman.
Go to commentsDont complain too much or start jumping to conclusions.
Here in NZ commentators have been blabbing that our bottom pathway competition the NPC (provincial teams only like Taranaki, Wellington etc)is not fit for purpose ie supplying players to Super rugby level then they started blabbing that our Super Rugby comp (combined provincial unions making up, Crusaders, Hurricanes, etc) wasn't good enough without the South African teams and for the style SA and the northern powers play at test level.
Here is what I reckon, Our comps are good enough for how WE want to play rugby not how Ireland, SA, England etc play. Our comps are high tempo, more rucks, mauls, running plays, kicks in play, returns, in a game than most YES alot of repetition but that builds attacking skillsets and mindsets. I don't want to see world teams all play the same they all have their own identity and style as do England (we were scared with all this kind of talk when they came here) World powerhouse for a reason, losses this year have been by the tiniest of margins and could have gone either way in alot of games. Built around forward power and blitz defence they have got a great attack Wingers are chosen for their Xfactor now not can they chase up and unders all day. Stick to your guns its not far off
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