Owen Farrell: 'I wouldn’t describe myself as the best in the stands'

If there has been an upside to the four-game ban handed down last month to Owen Farrell, it’s that in his two England media appearances since then a more human side to the soon-to-be 32-year-old has been very evident.

In the past, his two regular weekly briefings as captain – team selection day and then post-game – would largely pass without much notice. Of course, it never helped that it was Eddie Jones with whom he was on deck with.

The gabby Aussie was always the more quotable interviewee and invariably that was where most time was spent with the lines of inquiry in the limited time available.

It was similar in early 2023 with Steve Borthwick taking over from Jones, with explanations needed from the guarded rookie Test-level head coach about where England were continuing to go wrong.

However, three weeks into England’s France 2023 stay, it is Farrell, the usually quietly spoken Wiganer, who has been star turn when on deck with Borthwick for media duties.

It was at base camp in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage on September 4 when the out-half surprisingly candidly talked in public for the first time about the ban received for his shoulder connecting with the head of Wales’ Taine Basham on August 12.

“I made a mistake and I got banned for it in the end,” he fessed up without hesitation. “I’m not going to sit here and moan about it now. I’m excited for this World Cup to start, I’m excited to see what this team can do and I’ll look forward to being available again.”

Seventeen days later, seated alongside Borthwick in Lille on Thursday night after it was just confirmed that he will skipper England this Saturday versus Chile, Farrell sounded dead pleased his purgatory was over. No more would he be watching Rugby World Cup games from the stands.

He could have batted away queries about his recent non-involvement in the wins over Argentina and Japan with glib answers that gave nothing away about how he really felt being sat away from the action in Marseille and Nice with his direct replacement George Ford securing back-to-back official man of the match awards.

Instead, he was honest and his answers shed light on what it was truly like these past few weeks kicking his heels with the tournament pressing ahead without him involved. “I’m knackered by the end to be honest, especially that first one (against Argentina),” he quipped about watching from the stands like every other England fan at Stade Velodrome or Stade de Nice.

“I wouldn’t describe myself as a good watcher. I feel involved, I feel like I am out there at times; I feel every emotion. Sometimes I reckon I’m a bit more emotional than if I was playing so I wouldn’t describe myself as the best in the stands… (but) I wouldn’t say I am unbelievably loud, it’s just the emotion of the game.”

The sole silver lining to his absence has been that it wasn’t an injury that kept him out. “Playing in that warm-up game and not for a few now has been a bit challenging because you are unbelievably excited to play for England, you are unbelievably excited about getting started in a World Cup but since we found out about the ban my role was clear, my role had changed.

“I was glad I was still able to train. It’s not like being injured where you are sat inside and can’t do too much and you train on your own. I was still part of the group which was good… and I’m excited to get out there now. I have said excited a lot of times now!

“The World Cup is the biggest tournament you can play in. We have all been here for three, four weeks now, you can see the size of the tournament, you can see the atmosphere that is building around the place, you can see the crowds that are coming to the games – everything is bigger and personally I can’t wait to get going.

“I’m excited to play for this team. The team has done unbelievably well, we are in an unbelievable position as we stand here and we want to kick on. I’m desperate to be a part of it.”

Farrell has a lot to live up to when he runs on at Stade Mauroy given that Ford, who until Farrell’s red card hadn’t worn the No10 shirt since March 2021, has stolen a march on his positional rival with his sumptuous 27-point display versus the Pumas and then last weekend’s persistence in eventually wearing down the Japanese with the boot.

The circumstances for this Chile, though, game are different. England are expected to win this particular fixture with ease and with a back three consisting of Marcus Smith sandwiched by Henry Arundell and Max Malins, the firepower is there to go and attack with the ball in hand rather than another sky-dominated takedown of a Pool D opponent.

It’s intriguing how Farrell and England will go about their business – do they continue to win ugly with a kick-fest or produce an attacking spectacle similar to how France dismantled Namibia and how Ireland and South Africa both blitzed Romania?

“Massively excited. I’ve been looking forward to getting to the World Cup and it has been tough not playing, but it has been great to see what the lads have done and I can’t wait to be a part of that. It’s been brilliant. The team has done unbelievably well the last few weeks and to get the two results has been fantastic,” reckoned Farrell about the situation he is coming into.

“George has been playing brilliantly. It has been brilliant to watch and I’m excited to try and be involved. The team has been playing really well and it is exactly what we wanted to see as an England player. I can’t speak highly enough of the way that he has been performing.

“Am I excited to get back and pull the shirt on and go out at the weekend? Yeah, massively and I’m looking forward to seeing what this team can do on Saturday,” he declared, going on to explain how he helped when unavailable for selection.

“I’ve been around long enough to have a decent feel and hope for what the team needs. I’m not been too quiet, I’ve done stuff as I saw fit I guess, backing myself that I have a good enough feel for what the team needs… but ultimately I want to be out there on the grass more than anything.

“It has been good to be involved in the training over the past few weeks and prepare the team in the best way we can that way, but I’m looking forward to being able to play.”

That play will start with Smith lining out in the No15 shirt with Ford potentially joining them from the bench as he has been named as the 22nd man. What would you make of all three 10s all playing at the one time, Owen? “I can speak for the other two, they are very good players,” vouched Farrell, who celebrates his latest birthday this Sunday.

“To have two very good players around you is always a pretty big plus for me. As for the way we go about working together, we are pretty open.

“We’re constantly talking about the game, constantly trying to get on the same page in the way that we see the game and the way that the team and the way that that is fed into the team. I’d hope over the past I don’t know how many weeks it is now that we have been together that we have developed a better relationship over the course of that.

“Marcus is a fantastic player; everyone knows what a talent he is. Hopefully we can link up, hopefully we can find space together, hopefully we can get each other involved in the game. There will be many different ways of doing that.

“With Marcus and what you are talking about at full-back, you have seen how he has come on and impacted the game over the past however many games that he has involved, he has come on and had an impact straight away. He wants the ball, he wants to make a difference, he wants to get the team on the front foot and I see it being no different on Saturday.”

Having listened to Farell openly sing the praises of Ford and Smith, it left head coach Borthwick interjecting, offering his take on what his reinstated captain had been up to in the six weeks since he last played. “We are all tremendously excited to see our captain on the grass on Saturday,

“He has been an incredible leader for this team despite being unable to play the first two games of the World Cup. He has been a fantastic influence in harnessing the leadership across the whole squad. He has been a role model on and off the field. I’m looking forward to seeing him leading this team out on Saturday.

“I had the opportunity to work with Owen previously and to come back now a few years later at this World Cup, what I see is the way he trains, the way he prepares himself, the way he competes in everything is exactly the same. The exact same.

“What I see is the skill and influence he has over others is incredible. I see the way he has harnessed the senior leaders in this group, the way he has helped the younger players in this group, they all look up to him and he is a mentor and is a great voice and in terms of myself as well and the coaching team, the input he gives to the programme.”

After all the talk, Saturday is the time for action, however. “We want to take a step forward on what the lads have already done really well over the last couple of weeks, playing some really smart, winning rugby so far, and we want to kick on,” Farrell insisted.

“The team has figured out ways to impose themselves on the game, the team has figured out when they are out there when to close off games as well which is a big plus. Everything I have seen has been good and in terms of improvement, you always want to improve. We are going to be pushing to improve, there is always stuff that you can do better and we are excited to get into that.”