So here we go again. Owen Farrell in high shoulder charge trouble? Tick. England flattering mostly only to deceive? Tick. Injuries and unavailability threatening to disrupt their World Cup? Tick. Tick. They may have finally won a match but, in truth, an air of weary Groundhog Day familiarity hangs over English rugby that extends well beyond the length of ban awaiting their national captain before next month’s global tournament.
Farrell will certainly be experiencing a powerful sense of deja vu as he awaits the verdict on Tuesday, which is almost certain to sideline him from his team’s keynote opening pool game in France. As recently as January he was lucky not to miss the start of this year’s Six Nations championship after a longer suspension was reduced to three weeks because he agreed to attend World Rugby’s “tackle school”. Does that mean, as several wags have observed, that he is now eligible for a masters degree?
It is almost beginning to resemble a Twickenham-based episode of the classic sitcom Porridge. There is no question that Norman Stanley Farrell – “You are a habitual offender, who accepts bans as an occupational hazard” – is now facing another period of playing confinement (as it happens “Slade Prison” could equally refer to England’s strait-jacketed attacking game) and mitigation is relatively thin on the ground.
While the braced 63rd-minute shoulder to the head of Taine Basham was not the absolute worst of its type, that defence misses the point. In addition to the obvious player-welfare implications, it was reckless and unnecessary. Nor was this some helplessly overeager debutant flying in. It was England’s captain, who should have known better with his side reduced to 13 men, playing in his 107th Test. It should also have cost his side any chance of victory and would probably have done so had Wales’s pack not run out of battery life.
So what next for Farrell and his team after another frequently uncomfortable and fretful 80 minutes? Removing him entirely from the equation, from the management’s perspective, is akin to losing the central pole of the whole red rose marquee. As captain, goalkicker, competitor-in-chief, tactical fulcrum and centre option, there is no more conspicuous absentee.
There is a school of thought, though, that going Farrell-free – shortly to be listed above gluten-free on Twickenham’s corporate menus? – might not be completely unhealthy. After the former had disappeared on Saturday, George Ford helped deliver an improbable victory and, even with their depleted reserves, the home side held firm. It would also slightly simplify the starting midfield conundrum and allow a place on the bench for Marcus Smith, potentially enhancing England’s game‑breaking ability.
In terms of leadership, furthermore, England are in need of calmer direction. While Steve Borthwick insisted the four yellow cards his side received were unrelated, they were all caused, to some degree, by slight panic or clouded thinking. Freddie Steward’s misjudged aerial hit on Josh Adams was a prime example and also came close, in the post‑game opinion of Warren Gatland, to meeting the threshold for a red card.
Call it discipline, call it composure, call it clarity: whatever, England are still searching for it with only two warm-up games left until they meet Argentina in Marseille on 9 September in a fixture that might shape their whole tournament. While there were some little wins on Saturday – Ben Earl, Ford’s contribution, Maro Itoje’s late close-quarters try – there was also no huge sense of gathering momentum.
Pace is among the bigger issues. Earl stood out because of his consistent ability to raise the tempo but few others could lift a largely pedestrian team effort, with the distinctly rapid Henry Arundell often a virtual spectator. If the cruelly injured Jack van Poortvliet is ruled out of the World Cup, the nippy Northampton scrum-half Alex Mitchell could easily emerge as a key man in terms of generating the holy grail of quicker ball.
But given Mitchell was omitted from the squad only a week ago, that already invites other wider cultural and tactical questions. While attacking fluency is hard to conjure overnight, not enough English players have the innate game understanding or situational nous of, say, Wales’s Liam Williams who, under pressure in his own 22, sought to run the ball out knowing the opposition had only 13 players. It was while England were scrambling to readjust, significantly, that Farrell went high at Basham without engaging his brain first.
Some will be spending the next day or so endlessly sifting the minutiae of Farrell’s prospects and musing on the appointment of an all-Australian disciplinary panel, including the former Wallabies John Langford and David Croft, to hear the case. But jokes about kangaroo courts are another distraction from the wider factors draining English rugby’s potential: short‑term decision making, flawed Rugby Football Union appointments, a lack of accountability, dislocated player pathways, blinkered player development and, too often, a bloated sense of self-regard and exceptionalism.
Everyone in rugby knew Farrell’s tackle technique was an accident waiting to happen. It did not stop England reinstating him as captain and putting all their eggs in that one precarious basket, for which a heavy price is now about to be levied. Ironically the 31‑year‑old cuts a more relaxed figure off the field these days but, as with “Fletch”, some old habits die hard. And now England are heading to Dublin to play a strong Ireland side coached by – checks notes – Andy Farrell. A tricky August could soon become even tougher.
