What will England do with Owen Farrell?

First topic message reminder :

As I have just said in another thread, Owen Farrell was, to me, the player who developed the most on tour. Before he went, I thought (justifiably, I may add) that he was just a kicking machine who carried no threat with ball in hand. However, by the end of the tour, he was playing flatter and bringing his outside backs into play very nicely, thank you very much.
Do you think Lancaster (and however his club coach is - I should know, can't remember and can't be arsed checking who it is on Google) will have seen this and move him closer to the gainline or will they leave him as is, lying deeper and playing more of an O'Gara type game based around territory?

beshocked wrote:Fair points. I suppose that's why a player like Hodgson finds it easier to do that because he's more experienced.

I hope that Farrell practices it in the pre season warm up matches then.

A lot of the time when I have seen Farrell play it doesn't seem like he thinks. He just keeps to a script. Generally automatically kicking the ball.

If Farrell does become more instinctive, less automated he could be very good indeed.

Hodgson does seem to use his brain a bit more. Kicking to touch intelligently. Making good decisions.

 

I agree with this beshocked. Before the Lions tour, I was worried because it seemed like Farrell had taken the criticism of 'become more attacking' as meaning to chip and chase the entire time, which is fine, but it seemed to be his only attacking play. In the Rebels game, I saw another dimension to his evolving gameplay. He actually sat pretty flat, and looked to engage his outside backs with well -placed and well-timed passes. As you said above, it loked like he was actually thinking and making intelligent decisions. I really hope he continues to develop in this way because he certainly looked pretty decent.

Farrell will start the season as first choice because he has the better defence.
However if he cant get the backs firing he will be replaced by burns.
If he doesn't play flat he will be a gonna.
During the '10'6 nation's wilko was first choice with flutey at 12.It was a disaster because wilko played 10-15 yards behind the gain line.He was replaced by flood because flood played flat and gave us a platform to play.

sickofwendy wrote:Farrell will start the season as first choice because he has the better defence.
However if he cant get the backs firing he will be replaced by burns.
If he doesn't play flat he will be a gonna.
During the '10'6 nation's wilko was first choice with flutey at 12.It was a disaster because wilko played 10-15 yards behind the gain line.He was replaced by flood because flood played flat and gave us a platform to play.

Toby Flood has has his brain pulled out through his nose,
His innards have been drawn and his corpse dressed with fragrant, preservative oils.

Entirely bound in heavy bandaging and shrouded in a sarcophagus, he's being hauled up to his final resting place as we speak.

For me the great thing is that we have 3 good quality international fly halves. Farrell and Flood have both had good and bad days for England, but have demonstrated that when they get it right they are capable of performing well in big wins against SANZAR teams. Burns is still a bit raw and lacking in experience but seems to have the skillset to overtake both IF he develops well. It's a great position to be in, and there seems to be a real depth of talent across much of the squad now. I suspect that come RWC 2015 we will have some very very good international standard players that don't even make the squad. Tough on those that miss the cut, but hopefully great for England.

I like Farrell's mental strength, he very rarely looks phased by anything. He looks at home in international rugby too, there is a lot to be said for that at the age of 21 with only 16 caps.

I would like to see him challenge the defence a bit more too, I think he could catch a few defences off guard if he had a run occasionally. I honestly think it will come when he has a little more experience.

Wont be in time for the next world cup but ben botica at 23 is coming along nicely being mentored by one of the best in the buisiness, add to that henry slade at exeter, George Ford at Bath, Danny Cipriani finally, finally reckoning he's going to sort his crap out...then there are a fair few options in the future

sirtidychris wrote:Wont be in time for the next world cup but ben botica at 23 is coming along  nicely being mentored by one of the best in the buisiness, add to that henry slade at exeter, George Ford at Bath, Danny Cipriani finally, finally reckoning he's going to sort his crap out...then there are a fair few options in the future

Whilst Botica is a promising looking player, I really hope he does not play for England.

Why not Tiger?

Because he's a kiwi

For me it would be like Flutey, Vainikolo, Hape & Waldrom getting their caps. None of them was significantly better than other alternatives and all were fully formed players before arriving within the confines of English rugby union. It made us look desperate.

At least Ben was born in England.

aucklandlaurie wrote:
At least Ben was born in England.

I thought he was born in New Zealand.

Yeah in this case i agree with LT

Burns, Farrell, Flood, Ford, Slade, Hodgson...etc etc if we cant find a good English Fh out of those we're in trouble...

Ozzy3213 wrote:

aucklandlaurie wrote:
At least Ben was born in England.

I thought he was born in New Zealand.

your right, I just looked it up, I had mistakenly thought he was born whilr Frano was playing at Wigan.