When have we *ever* been known for that outside of occasional ten minute periods in freak matches
Anyone can have a bad day, but the case against Farrell now is unanswerable really. Unless you're judging fly halves by their tackle count.Borthwick backs ‘world-class kicker’ Farrell to recover from slump
The England fly-half Owen Farrell missed four kicks from the tee in the Six Nations win against Wales but head coach said “he will always come good”www.theguardian.com
Wow, did not realise that it was that bad. Unironically should give Slade a go; he's been kicking at 87% for Chiefs this season.
It's not even like it's just this 6N though, he has been having multiple shockers the past few years. Ford had that one game where he missed maybe 3 and it was forever held against him, just like that one game where Hughes bounced him was forever held against him. Farrell can consistently put in worse performances than those that have been held against others and it doesn't seem to stick.
Isn't there a clause in Gatland's law that says a player has to be offered a 'reasonable' contract by the Welsh regions and if not, then they can play abroad and still be eligible? Because offering a £250,000 player a £30,000 contract is not reasonable, and those players should be allowed to play elsewhere.wow...
Twelve Welsh players earning up to £250,000 told they can now only get £30,000
The 12 players met with bosses at their club last week, with some told they didn't even want to insult them with an offerwww.walesonline.co.uk
That better be the reason, because if not it's pathetic.
About 18 months in 2000-2001.
How are his stats for Sarries? Alex Lowe in the Times suggesting it might be linked to his ankle injuries? Or needs to change his technique.
Don't think his stats for Sarries matter. Reality is he's not a reliable kicker anymore at international level. Before you could understand his value as if there was a penalty in the opposition's half you felt it was an almost certain 3 points. Now it's got to the point of lucky dip. Yes he's still capable, he had 100% kicking rate in the first 3 games of the AIs, but have 100% sometimes and 40% at others isn't good enough. Even if his kicking percentages were good enough, I still don't think he justifies his place with his crap kicking and tactical selections. I don't know if he's been so drilled by EJ or what, but he's actively holding back the England attack.
I know we aren't coaches but when masses of the fans all seem to be saying the exact same thing in complete contrast to the coaches, it makes you wonder what the hell the coaches see. If you sat Borthwick down and asked him to justify Farrell's place on the team, I would not be surprised if it ended up being entirely based on woolly "intangibles" because everything that can be statistically measured is poor. Considering Borthwick is supposed to be renowned as Mr Stats, it just makes no sense.
Either that or Farrell is executing Borthwick's game plan perfectly which is even more worrying.
That would be fair if Farrell was a safe option but he's not even that, he's arguably more prone to imploding than Ford or Smith when things go wrong and doesn't have the tools to stop the game sliding away once it has begun. Some of England's biggest implosions / collapses have been with Farrell at the helm and to which he has actively contributed.
If I recall, one podcast I was listening to said his all in stats for the season were 77% Apparently in line with his worst kicking stats.
