A bullish Owen Farrell has insisted that question marks over his selection for England’s crucial World Cup match against Wales will not faze him, adamant that his relationship with George Ford remains positive despite the latter being dropped in his favour at fly-half.
Farrell will start at Twickenham on Saturday evening with Stuart Lancaster controversially opting to pair Brad Barritt and Sam Burgess together at centre. Ford was extremely disappointed to be left out for the crunch fixture, after starting against Fiji and excelling earlier this year.
Lancaster’s selection of both Farrell and Burgess has raised eyebrows before the Pool A tie, which is likely to shape who advances to the knockout stage of the tournament. However, Farrell denied that his performance would be affected against Wales or that Ford would dwell on the selection.
“It is what it is and I’m thankful I’ve got this opportunity,” Farrell said. “People can say what they want, it’s the people inside the camp that count to me. External matters don’t matter to us. We’ve been exactly the same.
“It [the selection criticism] doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t motivate me. The people that matter to me are inside this camp. All I want to do is do my job for this team. Everybody’s excited about the game, this is why you play rugby, to play in games like this.”
On his relationship with Ford, Farrell added: “We went to school together when we were 13, 14 or something, and then ended up playing in the 16s, 18s and 20s together. We’re just open with each other, there’s nothing we don’t lay out there rugby wise. We’re two people that are obsessed with the game and like to talk about the game, we’re probably a bit boring really.
“We’ve been training 12 weeks now and pushing each other. George is obviously a brilliant rugby player and has shown it over the Six Nations and the course of this year. We talk about everything anyway. We’d be exactly the same as we would do, as it was last week, as it was in the autumn when he got picked and I went on the bench. It’s been exactly the same.”
Burgess’ place in the side is arguably the most contentious call by Lancaster, whose hand was in many ways forced due to a chest injury sustained by Jonathan Joseph. This week the Wales centre Scott Williams said he would much rather face a straight-ball carrier in the backs rather than the jinking Joseph.
Wales have serious injury issues of their own and have been beaten by England in the past two meetings. The most recent of those, at the Millennium Stadium during this year’s Six Nations, provided drama before the match had even begun following a stand-off in the tunnel when Chris Robshaw refused to lead England out.
Graham Rowntree, the England assistant coach, claimed the recent defeats will have scarred Wales and that they will “have doubts” going into Saturday’s game. He said: “I’ve got a huge amount of respect for them. I’ve worked with their entire coaching team apart from Robin [McBryde], and I respect the work that Robin does. I have worked with the players, I played against them for a long time.
“They’ll be coming with some doubts in their mind, especially when they reflect on our last two performances against them. But their coaching team will have them wound up and will have a few tricks up their sleeve tactically.”
On Lancaster’s selection, he added: “I’m really looking forward to seeing this group play together. But I can’t stress enough that it’s a 31-man job. You have got to choose the right tool for what’s in front of you. That’s what most teams do around the world, that’s selection. We’ve gone for those players with Wales in mind. It could change next week.”
Dan Biggar, who is Wales’ kicker throughout the World Cup in the absence of Leigh Halfpenny, dismissed Rowntree’s suggestion that his side would have doubts following recent defeats against England.
“I don’t think so. We’re a confident outfit. We’ve got to give enormous respect to the stadium we’re playing in and the side we’re playing against, it’s going to be a tough Test match. We’re going to rock up here a confident outfit.
“We’re fully aware of how difficult the challenge is going to be with the world class players they have on show but we certainly don’t have any doubts in our mind. We are trying to prove to everyone that’s written us off that we’ve got a good shout in this game. We’re going to be positive.”
