22 The Times Magazinecommunity that he loved. Indeed, he insisted on
travelling back to play for his old club in Wigan
every weekend before he finally acclimatised.
Steve Robins was the head of PE at
St George’s School in Harpenden, an
institution that would eventually provide four
members of the England 2019 World Cup
squad including Farrell – the others were
Maro Itoje, Jack Singleton and Farrell’s great
friend George Ford, who followed him from
a rugby league background in the north and
would soon live opposite him. “Owen turned
up on his first day and everyone stared at him
thinking, ‘Blimey, you look about two years
older than us,’ ” Robins would remember later.
“It was a different environment for him – a
church school down south with smart blazers.
He looked uncomfortable but it didn’t take
him long to undo his top button.”
“It was very different,” reflects Farrell now.
“You come down and don’t know what to
expect. I probably did find it tough until I
started to get to know people, through playing
rugby or messing around at lunchtime or
whatever. I guess after that I didn’t look back.”
The distinctions between the codes were not
a huge obstacle, because he was young and
talented enough to embrace to any technical
differences. As predicted/intended, he followed
his father to Saracens and, to the surprise of
nobody who had seen him progress through
the ranks, became the youngest player to
appear in English professional rugby union
when he played in a home defeat against
Llanelli Scarlets 11 days after his 17th birthday
(a record broken by Ford, playing for Leicester
Tigers, just over a year later). After a period
on loan at Bedford Blues, Farrell resumed his
career at Saracens, continued to apply himself
and develop his game until he was both a
world-class fly half and inside centre with a
beautiful passing game and able to run incisive
and aggressive attacking lines. This is when,
presumably, he started “getting under people’s
skin”, although an irritating winning habit
born of his preternatural determination to
succeed cannot have helped.
The honours at club level began with the
Premiership title in 2011 and then gathered
pace from 2015 with four titles in five years
and, from 2016, with three European Rugby
Champions Cups in four. Personal awards
(European Player of the Year 2017 and 2018) and
point-scoring records, international recognition
(88 caps to date) and honours followed, with
a Lions Test series in 2013, three Six Nations
Championships, a World Cup final appearance
in 2019 and the Autumn Nations Cup win
last year. He is on track to pass 100 caps and
eventually overtake Jason Leonard’s record of
114 to become England’s most capped player.
Flatman would not bet against him getting 150.As with all serial winners, however, it
is the next thing that always matters the
most. “We’re coming off the back of a good
campaign,” he says, looking forward to this
year’s Six Nations series. His thoughts on the
team’s prospects are as predictable as they are
doubtless sincere. “The expectation is to win
the tournament and build on where we left
off. We had a good autumn but I feel like we
are only just scratching the surface.” With
Covid dominating everyone’s lives, he says
rugby players are in “an extremely fortunate
position to be able to get outside and do our
job right now”.
At club level, the situation has been less zen
over the past 18 months. Following relegation
from the Gallagher Premiership after points
deductions for breaching salary cap rules – a
subject Farrell either cannot or does not wish
to comment upon – the decade’s pre-eminent
European side are set to begin the new season
in the second tier of English rugby.
Although it will mean not operating at the
highest level for the first time in his seniorcareer since the loan spell with Bedford,
Farrell opted along with several other senior
players to extend his contract and pledge his
long-term future to the club. “My dad played
and coached at the club,” he says, furrowing
his brow. “I’ve been here since I was a kid, and
when you have been at a club like Saracens
for that long I think the only thing you are
going to do is care massively about the place.
There is a different challenge this year, which
is exciting in its own way, and that is to
hopefully get the club back to where it belongs.”
It is perhaps telling that he references
his father’s involvement with the club as an
integral part of his attachment. Andy Farrell,
now the Ireland head coach, lives in Dublin.
“It has been different for us,” he admits. “We
have always been together, either in the same
house or round the corner, so it just makes
you appreciate family even more.” Despite
living in suburbia down south, he talks
still of missing his family in Wigan and not
getting back enough. On top of all the other
disruption brought by the pandemic, it is this
fracture and distance from his old normal that
seems to pain him most, although he concedes
that his new normal is shaping up quite nicely.
In the past six months he has put the
salary cap debacle behind him and extended
his contract at Saracens. He has also signed
up, alongside Andy Murray, swimmer Adam
Peaty and cricketer Jos Buttler, with challenger
brand Castore to front its roster of “Better
Never Stops” British sporting talent – as part
of the deal, he will work “hands on” to develop
a new rugby boot in the perennial pursuit of
that extra 1 per cent. He has a young family with
his wife, Georgie, and Tommy (and another
baby on the way). He is, he understandably
says, “unbelievably happy where I am”.
Farrell’s heroes include NFL quarterback
Tom Brady and late basketball legend Kobe
Bryant, both “leaders in sport” who cemented
their legacy by spending serious amounts of
time with one team, the New England Patriots
and LA Lakers respectively, and who stayed at
the top for their whole career. “You don’t just
do that by doing the same thing,” he reasons.
“You constantly have to reinvent yourself to
progress and stay ahead of what’s going on. I
want to make sure I give everything to now, to
be the best I can.” He won’t rule out returning
to rugby league (“I wouldn’t write anything
off”), but for now he is quite content to carry
on winning things and breaking records for
Saracens, England and the Lions, infuriating
opponents and opposition fans and simply
being “the very accomplished, world-class
talent that you’d love to have on your team”. nTo see the full premium sportswear collection,
visit castore.comMOVING DOWN SOUTH, ‘IT WAS VERY DIFFERENT. I DID FIND IT TOUGH’
With baby son Tommy after the Ireland game in August 2019Tommy joins in kicking practice, May 2020SHUTTERSTOCK, OWEN FARRELL/INSTAGRAM