Saracens issue an update on extent of the Owen Farrell injury
Saracens are hopeful that Owen Farrell will be fit for Sunday’s Heineken Champions Cup round-of-16 clash with the Ospreys. Farrell limped off with an ankle injury in the 70th minute of Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership victory over Harlequins, but the England captain has made a rapid recovery.
“Owen took part in some of the training today [Wednesday], so we are relatively optimistic that he will be available for this weekend,” said director of rugby Mark McCall. Farrell cried out in pain after rolling his left ankle while making a tackle close to Saracens’ try line at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and hobbled off.
The 31-year-old fly-half had injured the same joint while on England duty in the final stage of the Guinness Six Nations, raising concerns that an aggravation might have caused more significant damage.
But McCall has put those fears to rest as Saracens return to the knockout phase of Europe’s prestige club competition, which they last won in 2019, after a two-year hiatus due to their relegation from the Premiership.
“Owen didn’t need a scan. He was much better on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after the pain,” McCall said. “He trained today and as long as there is no reaction to that, I am sure he will be okay. He is our captain and he played brilliantly on the weekend, led the team very well. So fingers crossed.”
Saracens’ England contingent also includes Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Mako Vunipola and Max Malins, but despite their involvement in the Six Nations and against Harlequins, McCall insists they are raring to go. “They have been away for eight weeks, but they have always been superb at coming back to the club and chucking themselves into it,” McCall said.
“We saw that against Harlequins last weekend when they all played well. They are all looking forward to playing in a quarter-final in Europe, which we haven’t done for a while.”
The Champions Cup is set to be overhauled from the existing format of two pools of 12 teams and McCall would favour a return to the old structure of groups of four teams. “It was magnificent, to be honest. You had to work incredibly hard to get out of your group and it was a real achievement to get out of your group,” McCall said.
“It’s probably not the same achievement to get into the last 16 now as it was to get into the quarter-finals all those years ago. I personally would prefer the old format.”
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wel the crusaders were beaten by a queensland reds side that hadnt beaten them at home since 1999 and queensland reds partied like it was 1999
Go to commentsThink it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
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