Jamie George possesses one of rugby union’s widest grins and seems to be a genial chap. Although he would be forgiven for being a touch biased towards a team-mate of over a decade, his opinion on Owen Farrell is unequivocal.
“He is one of the best players that has ever played the game,” said the Saracens hooker of his skipper following Sunday’s 38-22 victory over Exeter Chiefs at StoneX Stadium.
“Some of the criticism he gets, I can never get my head around. Come down to Saracens every week and watch him play. He is the very reason why we have won as much as we have.”
Farrell kicked 18 points at the weekend, a haul that included a long-range penalty that bounced over the crossbar via the right-hand post. But there were encouraging signs in the rest of his game, too.
A couple of flicked offloads either side of half-time complemented a sharp break in the build-up to Sean Maitland’s try as the hosts scrubbed out a 15-10 deficit, landing a bonus-point and securing a Premiership semi-final. Betting against Mark McCall’s men landing another domestic title in June would be rather brave.
In his fourth appearance since November, following two European Challenge outings and his comeback fixture against Bristol Bears, Farrell was not perfect. He threw one poor pass and misjudged a touch-finder from a penalty to foreshadow a poor second quarter for his team. Those lapses aside, though, the 30-year-old was mightily impressive.
McCall saluted a “phenomenal” performance and, perhaps more importantly, Farrell’s “incredible” impact on Saracens “emotionally”. George explained just how his captain sets an example.
“With his voice, with his actions, in the week with the way he prepares,” George added of Farrell. “He shows people how it is done. I can’t speak highly enough of him. He is the best player I have worked with in every facet of the game.”
“People hear [his voice] on the ref mic or whatever but imagine being next to that when it is happening,” George said. “It is incredible. Do you know how hard it is to talk whilst you are that tired?
“I talk a lot but there is a cessation in the game when I think ‘I can’t do it’. He does it for 80 minutes, non-stop, relentlessly. It is all of the stuff people don’t see.
Two ankle injuries have restricted Farrell to just nine appearances in all competitions this season. Sunday represented his sixth Premiership match to go with two European Challenge Cup games and a sole Test for England, a 32-15 victory over Australia last November that ended in the first of those injuries.
George stated that Farrell’s influence did not dim during rehabilitation periods: “He turned into our head coach, he is that good. He is so, so important to this team and he offers so much on and off the field.”
Analysis: Five moments against Exeter that showed Farrell is nearing his best
45th minute
When playing well, Farrell threatens the gain-line purposefully as well as distributing. He flicked away two offloads against Exeter and spotted a gap from his own 22 early in the second half. Throwing a dummy towards Nick Tompkins, Farrell stepped off his right foot inside Jack Yeandle and beat Sam Maunder before accelerating into open space.
45th minute
Having crossed the halfway line, Farrell scanned for support. Tompkins was close by but surrounded by scrambling defenders, so he fizzed a pinpoint pass off his left hand to Alex Lewington.
