Owen Farrell has been backed to bounce back from his Six Nations disappointment by the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, who does not believe the England captaincy weighs too heavily on the fly-half.
Farrell was one of only four players involved in England’s Six Nations draw against Scotland who did not go straight back into Premiership action last weekend. Instead, McCall opted to rest Farrell and believes the decision will pay off in Saracens’ Champions Cup quarter-final against Glasgow on Saturday.
The England captain was replaced with 10 minutes to go at Twickenham after a poor performance in which he was fortunate to escape being sent to the sin‑bin, leading to further question marks over the side’s leadership problems. Speaking after the match he appeared to shoulder the blame for his team’s second-half capitulation.
However, asked if Farrell finds the responsibility a burden, McCall said: “No, I don’t think so. He is learning all the time. He is going to be a great leader for his country. He has played a lot, the captaincy is very demanding at international level as well. So for him to get a week away and come back in, not be a captain but to be one of our crucial leaders, he has been brilliant.”
Farrell’s Saracens teammate George Kruis was also rested last weekend while Ben Youngs and Ben Moon were omitted by Leicester and Exeter respectively because of injury. However the Rugby Football Union’s interim chief executive, Nigel Melville, thought all England players should have been given the weekend off.
He said: “We had the Six Nations and the players really all needed a rest last weekend, and a lot of them played. That weekend following a bloc of internationals is a really important week to rest. I don’t think the clubs get the best out of them by playing them straight after. In a very intense period, you need that week off, then you can go again. That is something some clubs manage better than others.”
Under the £220m Professional Game Agreement, England players who feature in all five Six Nations games and for at least 80% of the total minutes must have one week off in the four that follow. In April last year Saracens selected Mako Vunipola against Bath despite being obliged to rest him, and this season Wasps sought permission from Eddie Jones to pick Elliot Daly because he had met a similar threshold after the autumn internationals.