1
Wily Owen Farrell met by chorus of boos from Bath crowd
By Josh Raisey
Though the penalty kick to deliver a victory for Saracens over Bath on Friday night was as simple as kicks come for Owen Farrell, he made sure he used every second of the minute allotted to him.
With the scores locked at 12-12 at the Rec between the then-second-place Bath and the third-place Saracens in the Gallagher Premiership, Farrell had a penalty right in front of the hosts' posts with just three minutes remaining.
For a player that has 1,271 Test points, this kick was a guaranteed three points, but the former England captain wanted to make sure he wasted as much time as possible to prevent Bath from securing a comeback win having been 12-0 down at halftime.
Equally, Farrell has overstepped his mark before, and was famously timed out at the World Cup last year against Samoa while taking a penalty.
The 32-year-old was not going to let history repeat itself though, and even had referee Luke Pearce serve as his personal timekeeper as the seconds ticked down.
This did not go down too well with the Bath crowd though, who made their displeasure felt.
Farrell was unmoved though as he sipped his Lucozade and sauntered to the tee to knock over the three points.
Saracens held on for a 15-12 win to leapfrog Bath into second place in the league, putting them in place to earn a home semi-final with two rounds remaining.
Farrell was named player of the match in a display that he said the reigning champions felt "more comfortable".
“It is a tough old place to come. It always has been, but especially this year,” Farrell told TNT Sports.
“They are a top, top side. For us to come here and stick in the fight like we did after a couple of tough results we’ve had of late was tremendous.
“We’ve gone back to being a little bit more ourselves today. We felt more comfortable.
“By no means was that perfect. There were loads of mistakes, but we fought for each other and we enjoyed doing it.”
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Gloucester Rugby accounts reveal £3 million drop in turnover
3
Exeter Chiefs close to revealing new attack and backs coach
4
Edinburgh face anxious wait over Duhan van der Merwe
5
Latest Comments
Lakai? Hell no, Kirifi is the like for like. I could never imagine Lakai throwing a dummy like Ardie, his had’s and offload are probably his best asset. Still a good option to replace Ardies function within the group. Happy for that to phase in slowly over the next two years.
Kirifi is someone demanding attention as Ardie’s/the teams go to back up option though. Like with you’re Kaino ref though, happy for that to reverse back again if Lakai simply starts outperforming him again. The Kaino role has really been filled by Cane (perhaps because they didn’t find a replacement) and the 6’s that have been used are more like a Read/Jones/Flavell/Fifita.
I really do like the idea of that rock being a little bigger and a little tougher than Cane though. Miracle looks like that guy, and there are few possible young kiwis coming through too. Barrett over Vaa’i for me, he just has a little of the mongrol and flair you also want.
Go to commentsI think you have gone in the wrong direction here Nick. I think you need to delve down into the rules etc around Moana Pacifica’s selection policies and then you need to understand that a lot of KIWI BORN rugby players have PI heritage. It appears ok for the 4 home nations to pillage NZ born players constantly without retribution but you want to question whether NZ BORN players should be eligible for NZ? Seems a real agenda in there.
Go back and look at the actual Aims and agenda for MP becoming a entity and you see lots of things enshrined in policy that you arnt mentioning here. EG there is an allowance for a percentage of MP to be NZ eligible. This was done so MP could actually become competitive. Lets be real. If it wasnt this way then MP would not be competitive.
There also seems to be some sort of claim ( mainly from the NH ) that NZ is “cashing in” on MP, which , quite frankly is a major error. Are you aware of how much MP costs NZR Financially?
39 NZ born rugby players played at the last world cup for Samoa or Tonga. PLUS plenty for Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.
Taumoefolau is a BORN AND BRED NZer. However I very strongly doubt he will be an AB, but who do you believe he should be allowed to play for? Levi Aumua is ALSO a born and bred Kiwi.
Aumua was eligible to represent Samoa and Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup in July that year but ended up playing for neither. He IS eligible for his nation of Birth too Nick
He is a Kiwi. Are you saying an NZ born, raised Kiwi cant play for NZ now?
Sorry Nick Kiwi born and bred actually qualify for NZ.
Go to comments