Owen Farrell: captain, leader… pantomime villain.
Supporters booing England’s record points-scorer need to get their slogans straight — and their heads examined. Farrell has served England with distinction, pride, tenacity and maturity across 110 caps, racking up 1,206 points in the process.
And yet the 32-year-old remains a lightning rod for criticism and flak, much of the nonsense sitting embarrassingly at schoolkid level.
Farrell is the epitome of the legend that should complete the triple phrase Chelsea made famous in honour of John Terry.
Captain Farrell will lead England into Saturday’s World Cup semi-final in Paris against South Africa, the mighty defending champions.
Whatever anyone’s wider views of the man, now is the time for the nation to unite behind its rugby figurehead.
The smirk of supremacy on Farrell’s face proved too much for rival supporters to bear.
The Saracens superstar has never put a foot wrong off a rugby field, and barely so on the pitch either. A committed husband and father, a fiercely loyal friend, a relentless teammate.
So where is the caricature that people boo? That persona is nothing more than a figment of warped imaginations.
Fans at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome booed Farrell before kick-off in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final against Fiji, when the England captain’s name was announced to the crowd.
The Red Rose talisman then went on to win the match with a 20-point haul and a typically assured, dominant performance from fly-half in England’s 30-24 triumph.
The disrespect is staggering, but appears to have roots in both Farrell’s early years as a chief agitator in Saracens’s colours, and as a symbol of England’s prosaic gameplan under head coach Steve Borthwick.
In the early days of Saracens’s stunning successes at home and in Europe, Farrell would step in front of his teammates as the chief wind-up merchant.
The smirk of supremacy on Farrell’s face proved too much for rival supporters to bear.
Farrell is captain, talisman and symbol of the risk-averse Borthwick era, and there are plenty of England fans who consider the former Leicester coach’s approach to Test rugby to be misguided.
The Wigan native England fly-half suffers brickbats as the face of this regime no doubt, but that also carries little to no weight. England’s malaise when Borthwick replaced Eddie Jones was total. The wilted men of the rose had slipped to ninth in the world rankings, and were staring into the abyss of near complete disaster.
The Six Nations under Borthwick was hardly any better, with a record 53-10 hammering by France at Twickenham proving the nadir.
Farrell represents the uber-tactical, kick-heavy approach that Borthwick favours — but the new boss’s time at the helm has already borne sufficient fruit to vindicate his decisions.
Those England fans who boo Farrell may also want to see Marcus Smith installed at fly-half and caution thrown to the wind.
England had neither the time nor the resources to build such a punishing gameplan in time for this World Cup.
Whether Borthwick will look to a more expansive approach in future does not matter right now. England are in a World Cup semi-final, and history dictates that only ultra-accurate approaches pay full tournament dividend.
How Farrell can be criticised for following the boss’s instructions is another oddity.
Maybe he does not fit the poster-boy image that made Jonny Wilkinson everyone’s favourite blue-eyed star.
Farrell and Wilkinson are far more similar than those who know neither would realise.
Both avoid the limelight, choosing a quiet life instead. Both possess relentless drive for excellence and an unending will to win.
The difference is that Wilkinson’s rugby obsession manifested itself in a way that proved pleasing to the public.
Every player who has ever played with Farrell has only had the most positive of experiences.
All the odds will be against England for Saturday’s semi-final against the masterful, brutal Springboks.
England need all the support they can get. Their captain should not have to seek that out, especially not a man and player of Farrell’s standing and quality.
Wherever anyone watches this match on Saturday, it is high time to appreciate Farrell for his remarkable, enduring talent — whatever the result.
