Owen Farrell opens up on Saracens and England exit

ST ALBANS — There were beads of sweat on Owen Farrell’s temple, and you very much doubted, but couldn’t be quite certain, that it was due to the strain of finally speaking to the media on Wednesday about his withdrawal from international rugby – announced at the end of November – or the two-year contract he signed with Racing 92 in Paris in the meantime.

Much more likely, it was because Farrell was still in his training vest and shorts, having hot-footed it from a team and kicking practice in the warm spring sun, the kind of session he has been through at the same Saracens base near St Albans maybe a thousand times during his one-club, 16-year senior career.

“I want to play for as long as I possibly can as long as I am enjoying it,” Farrell said. “I love playing. That’s always been the case, even during the tougher bits.”

And that was the easy bit for those of us with a notebook or a camera. When it came to Farrell laying out his future plans, and the reasons for the changes, there remained grey areas.

On England, Farrell did not rule out playing for them again – “There’s no point in saying anything now because I don’t know how I’m going to feel later down the line” – while on the British & Irish Lions, he said he had congratulated his dad Andy on being appointed head coach for next year’s tour to Australia.

But on taking part himself, he said: “It’s not something that I have thought about as of yet. When it gets closer to the time, I guess things become clear or they don’t.”

On Saracens, their director of rugby Mark McCall said Farrell had the skills to move into coaching one day, and he hoped it would be back at the club where together they won six Premiership titles and three European Cups, albeit besmirched by punishment for breaches of the league’s salary cap.

So we could see Farrell as a Lion in 2025 and back in England in 2026. He could add to his 112 caps for England and the Lions, and the national points-scoring record he took from Jonny Wilkinson during the World Cup, and the 250th Saracens appearance he will make this Saturday against Harlequins in the Premiership at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Or he might not.

But what about the extent to which personal abuse had swayed his decisions? As a quick recap, the England head coach Steve Borthwick had said Farrell was mulling a step away from the national team at the end of the World Cup in late October.

The brief statement issued by Saracens a month later told us he had decided to do just that, and it cited the “mental well-being” of Farrell and his family. That statement set hares running – with the help of McCall criticising the way some in the media had covered Farrell’s career – to conclude social-media abuse and booing in World Cup stadiums had got too much for a man whose profile as a tough-guy fly-half now came into question.

Anyone who had a heart looked at themselves in the mirror. McCall said on Wednesday: “I think at least it’s maybe changed the dial a small bit. I think Owen’s bravery in [privately] telling people how he felt was a good thing.”

On 22 January, Racing announced they had got their man, having previously been understood to have pursued the signing of another England fly-half, Marcus Smith.

There was silence from Saracens, which may have been down to agreeing terms for Farrell’s release. Three weeks ago, Farrell spoke in an in-house Saracens video interview to say “the time is right” for him, at 32 years old, and his wife and two young sons to go.

Farrell said on Wednesday: “I’m not the most outgoing on social media, I’m not the most outspoken in general, unless it is about rugby normally.

“So I guess I’ve never been one to give too much of myself, and I don’t expect people to know what I’m like, how I am as a person. So when it does get personal, to listen to that would be silly on my part.”

But had the booing, which may have included England supporters, hurt him? “At times, yeah, I guess so, but it only comes back to what I’ve been trying to do the whole time, which is to do my best for people around me and for myself.

“You kind of feel it at times, but it would be wrong of me to entertain it too much, because anyone with an opinion I respect or anybody I know, to be honest, I wouldn’t see them going into comments sections and writing stuff. I deleted social media for the whole of the World Cup, and [yet] you still kind of feel that it’s there.”

Last weekend, the Six Nations for which Farrell had been a spectator, while his club-mate and good pal Jamie George was captain of the national team and another long-time confrere, George Ford, wore the No 10 jersey, finished with England in third place.

Farrell admitted when he attended England against Ireland a fortnight ago, or viewed matches on TV, he “sat there itching watching it a little bit – but I am pretty happy”. He had also used the break to see his brother play for the first time, in the under-12s of the Irish school, Belvedere.

He was asked directly if his England retirement had opened the window to a deal with Racing. “It was all going on at the same time,” Farrell said.

“But it wasn’t because of that, if that makes sense.” More comprehensibly, he declined to speak about Racing too much, because Saracens have a Premiership play-off run-in to cope with, and a Champions Cup last-16 tie in Bordeaux next month. “I want to be unbelievably respectful to both sides,” he said.