'He wouldn't do it intentionally': England rally around their captain
SPOTLIGHT: England flyhalf George Ford, a close friend of Owen Farrell since childhood, said England would rally around their skipper as he faces a ban.
Farrell is set to find out on Tuesday if he will miss his side’s World Cup opener against Argentina after he was sent off in a warm-up match against Wales.
The flyhalf’s shoulder-led challenge to the head of Taine Basham during England’s 19-17 win at Twickenham on Saturday was upgraded from a yellow card to red during the match itself by the recently introduced ‘Bunker’ review system.
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Even for Owen Farrell that’s a shocker. Tackle School was never gonna retrain a player to do differently something you’ve let him away with for over a decadepic.twitter.com/GrclZhyHhd
— Randall Munro (@randallmunro) August 12, 2023
Farrell will now appear before a video disciplinary hearing on Tuesday that will determine the length of his suspension.
World Rugby’s mid-range sanction for a dangerous tackle is six games. And with the panel set to take into consideration Farrell’s three-match ban for the same offence in January, on top of five matches in 2020 and two in 2016, it would be extraordinary if the experienced 31-year-old received a lenient punishment.
England will have two more warm-up games, against Ireland and Fiji.
Any suspension could also rule talisman Farrell out of the start of the World Cup, with Steve Borthwick’s team launching their campaign against Argentina – on paper their toughest first-round opponents — in Marseille on September 9.
“Owen’s not a player who would intentionally want to do that,” said Ford.
“We’ll get behind him, he’s our captain and our leader and he’ll be back.”
Ford added: “He is huge for us, he is the captain and the way he drives things every day is unbelievable.”
He told Amazon Prime: “We will get around him whatever the situation and whatever the outcome is.”
With Farrell set to miss a few games, the door is open for Ford to grab the No.10 jersey.
“Whoever has the opportunity to play against Ireland, they’ll put their best foot forward and then going into the World Cup it will be the same,” added Sale’s Ford.
“One thing’s for sure – Steve Borthwick and the coaches will have the best plan going into the game [against Ireland next week].”
On that match against Wales, England managed to overcome an eight-point deficit to snatch victory, with Farrell’s replacement, Ford, the mastermind behind the hosts’ recovery.
“This win is going to be big for us,” Ford said.
“However, you train and whatever scenarios you train, it’s not like it is in the heat of the moment when you have three men in the sinbin, point down and under the sticks.
“You can never replicate that and this gives us unbelievable belief, a real solid platform to know what we can do.
“Traditional English rugby is set-piece orientated, so getting on top there to be able to play the game we want to play and we’ll take some real belief from that.”
Sources: AFP, BBC & Amazon Prime
