The Times Magazine 21face, mercifully free of the scar tissue so readily
accumulated by his team-mates, that is so
often referred to by opposition fans as either
slappable or punchable.
Farrell could point to the fact that, other
than his red card for the tackle against Atkinson
he received no other cards of any colour for
Saracens in 2020. Or that no action was taken
against either player in his altercation with
Wilson. But off the pitch, economy of displayed
emotion is his preferred setting, a character
trait that has been a running gag on team-
mate James Haskell’s Best Mates rugby blog.
Typical scene: Haskell talking in the
foreground with Farrell, back to camera, on
the physio’s couch behind. “He’s always at me,
but behind closed doors it’s ‘how much I love
how we’re best mates. Like let’s go for a coffee,
Hask.’ Isn’t that right, bud?” Farrell: “No.”
Haskell: “Really, he means yes. No means
yes up north.”
I have heard that while maybe he might not
be an adherent, he has looked into Buddhism.
When I ask him about it he shrugs it off. “I’ve
had conversations around it,” is all he’ll say.
What is under no doubt is that Owen
Farrell has leadership qualities in spades. He
has captained almost every team he has played
for since primary school and, with Wigan
St Patrick’s rugby club and then through the
age groups at club and international level, often
a year ahead but already bigger and stronger
than those around him. He puts it down to
“always being loud” but then, joking aside, adds,
“I have always been competitive, therefore
I have always been vocal.” And that is nearer
the truth. “I have never assumed things are
going to happen so I’ve shouted them on the
field. I kind of commentate on stuff as it goes
along.” As a younger man he had a reputation
for calling out mistakes and letting frustration
get the better of him but, as he puts it now,
“I have hopefully got better at it over time,
which has led into more leadership stuff.”
The “leadership stuff” is what marks him
out as a once-in-a-generation captain and as he
has progressed through life and the game he
has added to his remarkable genetic inheritance
and the hothouse competitive environment he
had at home with a rugby international father
(“I just thought it was the norm”) and sought
out ways to improve himself and develop his
formidable skill set. On the field, he has driven
himself to a level where he is virtually
undroppable and as immune to form as you can
be at international level for a top team; off the
field, he is a thinker – hence the “conversations
around” Buddhism and a 12,000-worddissertation he wrote on reflective learning as
part of an online leadership and management
degree course at Northumbria University. “It
made me look at things you probably just take
for granted,” he says. “To put it down on paper
stands you in good stead in terms of having
more of an understanding. I interviewed a
variety of different people for it – team-mates- and got their views. It’s all right sitting there
and writing down what you think, but getting
down and into it with other people is not
something you would do every day.”
It was revealed during the 2019 World Cup
that Farrell held eve-of-game briefings for the
squad from which the coaches were excluded.
The aim was for the players to talk about
whatever was on their minds. Hooker Jamie
George went on the record to say, “Everyone
is hanging on every word he says. It is
inspirational without tearing the roof down,
because that is probably not what is needed.
[He] has a very good feel for what the team
needs and what messages he needs to deliver.”
“That takes real emotional and tactical
intelligence,” says former England international
and broadcaster David Flatman. “He wants to
train, play and go home and in today’s world,
in this era of ultra-high visibility, it’s probably
quite refreshing for [England manager] Eddie
Jones and the England squad to have a captain
who doesn’t seek the limelight.” Beyond that,
Flatman says, he is “a rugby machine”.Owen Farrell was “round his nan’s” when
Jonny Wilkinson kicked for glory against
the Australians in the 2003 World Cup final,
watching the game on TV, briefly caught up
in all the excitement and then straight out
to play with his friends on the final whistle
20 seconds later. It was not a lightbulb
moment. The sport-mad 12-year-old was
devoted to rugby league, the code played
professionally in the town by his grandfather
Keiron O’Loughlin, uncle Sean O’Loughlin,
cousin Liam Farrell and, most famously, his
dad, Andy – at that time also an England and
Great Britain star who would win the Golden
Boot awarded to the best player in the world
the following year.
“I think anybody growing up in Wigan
wants to play for Wigan,” Farrell says. “You
had to see the number of people who played
at the local clubs or the number of people
who used to walk down together and watch
Wigan on a Friday night after school... I’ve got
massive memories of going down to watch my
dad at [former ground] Central Park. I’d go to
every game I could.” He would also watch his
father train, retrieve his kicks as soon as he
could walk – and learn to compete. “My dad
never let me win at anything.”
Farrell Senior (or “Big Faz”, as he is known
in the game) was 16 years old when Owen was
born and 30 when he announced his retirement
from rugby league to play union for Saracens.
To say it came as a shock to his son would be
an understatement. The masterplan, as he
understood it then, was that if he worked hard
and showed enough ability he would follow his
father into the family business and represent
Wigan and then Great Britain. “I couldn’t
believe it when we had to move,” he recalls.
“I probably made it a nightmare for Mum and
Dad. They were making a big decision that
they thought was good for everybody. And
I thought it wasn’t for me, and got dragged
down south kicking and screaming.”
Already making for a name for himself at
youth level in rugby league (and the subject of
interest from Manchester United, who offered
him a trial as a goalkeeper and liked what they
saw), there were some who were tempted to
believe that “Big Faz” had been lured to London
with the anticipation that “Faz” (not “Little
Faz”, note) would have to move with him and
become a rugby union, rather than league,
talent. Union has often been accused of luring
league players away with bigger salaries and
international exposure. He did, of course,
and changed both code and schools, but
it was a wrench to leave behind his friends,
grandparents and the tight working-class‘ANYBODY GROWING UP IN WIGAN WANTS TO PLAY
FOR WIGAN. I’D GO TO EVERY GAME I COULD’
Farrell playing for Saracens against Wasps, 2020In James Haskell’s Best Mates rugby blog on YouTubeYOUTUBE/BEST MATES, SHUTTERSTOCK