Saffycen I agree with your comment about props, they're there to scrummage, everything else they do is an added bonus, but in modern times props are solicited for those other purposes too.
And just a quick digression about this: people keep saying the scrum is more used today, I'm really not sure about this as examples show "no scrum, no win" is utterly obsolete of an adage while the scrum also is taken far more seriously these days if you watch some of those older games and how "trivial", almost random the scrums were.
But to link this with what you're saying about the importance of a good penalty boot, France beat England this year because of their edge in the scrum, so that's a classic example in the most recent events. That try at the end wouldn't have mattered if we didn't get those penalties from the scrum, or at least avoided England getting them.
As for Farrell, I allow myself to make comments about him although I don't know the other heirs to the 10 jersey too much because I've seen how complete a FH he is. I just haven't seen anyone else for England - or many other countries in fact - as complete as Owen Farrell.
And although England has changed a lot as of 2014 as they are now a genuine attacking threat, Farrell really fits the English style perfectly:
insures his team's efforts are rewarded by making the 3pointers - kicks for territory well - has a fantastic eye and boot and judges those touches accurately - is rough on defense, even wins TO ball at the breakdown.
Now the criticism that he doesn't look to attack as much as other FH's out there, even in England itself, I agree with. Then there's also the temper issue and the fact that he's not as consistent as we expect the EPS no.10 to be. But he's got my vote, I like him and I think he gets more shhit than he deserves, reading comments all over the web...
