\n<\/p>\n
Owen Farrell is considering making himself available for England again despite the social media \u201cpoison\u201d that contributed to him stepping back from Test rugby last year. Farrell, who has been picked as captain of the British & Irish Lions in their final midweek tour game, now says he would love to emulate Johnny Sexton and keep playing at the highest level for as long as possible.<\/p>\n
Farrell, who will turn 34 in September, has not played for England since the 2023 World Cup but has loved his involvement on the current Lions tour of Australia and sounds more open to the idea, if selected, of rejoining the England fold than at any stage since announcing his intention to take a break from international rugby \u201cto prioritise his and his family\u2019s mental wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several of Farrell\u2019s Lions colleagues, having seen him slot seamlessly back into a leadership role since replacing the injured Elliot Daly this month, have asked the former England captain about his future plans and he freely admits to being inspired by the example of Sexton, who was still playing for Ireland at the age of 38.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m determined to enjoy what I\u2019m doing and love every minute of however long that I\u2019ve got left,\u201d said Farrell, who will start at 12 for the Lions against a First Nations & Pasifika XV at Marvel Stadium on Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m not old yet. Johnny played forever and I\u2019m obviously a half-back as well. There\u2019s loads left in us and I\u2019m just determined to enjoy it. I\u2019ve come back to make the most of what I am doing. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farrell, sounding as upbeat in public as he has done in many years, has now returned to Saracens after an ill-starred and injury-hit spell at Racing 92 and is clearly relishing his fourth Lions tour since being called up by his father, Andy. His selection prompted a significant reaction on social media, however, and Farrell Jr admits he has not always found the attention easy to cope with.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s times where people can say this, that and the other and it just goes over your head. And there\u2019s times where you\u2019re not in the best place of all time and you\u2019re almost waiting for something to set you off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that it\u2019s different now. I understand that times are different \u2026 sometimes [social media] catches fire and just takes a life of its own. It goes wherever it goes and there\u2019s momentum behind it. But I don\u2019t always understand it, no. If you go and knock on someone\u2019s door and ask them their opinion of how you played at the weekend, you wouldn\u2019t really listen to their answer. Both [good and bad reactions on social media] are a poison. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s all bad but the things that should matter to me and to us as players are the people that matter to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people I think we should listen to are proper rugby people. Your mates \u2026 they\u2019ll give you a real answer. If you\u2019re in a good place yourself then you can deal with it. There\u2019s obviously a lot of external factors that can creep in but ultimately it\u2019s up to me how I am. Making sure I\u2019m looking after myself, making sure I\u2019m giving myself a break at times. I\u2019m not someone who needs revving up too much. It\u2019s normally the other way, of coming back down and relaxing. So having some perspective and making sure I look after myself in that way will, I think, lead to me being more myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Farrell does return to the England fold it will further increase the options available to the head coach, Steve Borthwick. Fly-halves Fin Smith and Marcus Smith are both on tour alongside Farrell in Australia while George Ford has just reached 100 caps while steering his country to victories against Argentina and the United States.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n For now, though, Farrell is more intent on serving the Lions than fixating on his own prospects of featuring in the last two Tests. \u201cI think the most important thing is that I come here, be myself and then see where that goes,\u201d said Farrell, chosen as midweek captain by his father ahead of the Wales captain Jac Morgan and England\u2019s Jamie George. \u201cAnd I mean that genuinely. I\u2019m not saying that but don\u2019t mean it. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lions are also collectively keen to extend their winning momentum ahead of Saturday\u2019s second Test against the Wallabies following their 27-19 victory in Brisbane. \u201cObviously there is going to be a reaction from the weekend,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cWe need to be ready for that and more.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who know Farrell best of all, however, are convinced the Lions have a \u201cTest match animal\u201d at their disposal if needed. \u201cThe better we train as a non-23 team, the better prepared the Test team are going to be and he has driven that massively,\u201d said George, delighted to be back in the same dressing room as his Saracens teammate. \u201cHe\u2019s unbelievably impressive. You don\u2019t play with him for a year and it still takes your breath away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Owen Farrell is considering making himself available for England again despite the social media \u201cpoison\u201d that contributed to him stepping back from Test rugby last year. Farrell, who has been picked as captain of the British & Irish Lions in their final midweek tour game, now says he would love to emulate Johnny Sexton and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[336,4979,311,2553,4134,1977,205,1030,2552,1611,1007,4980,204],"class_list":{"0":"post-11562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-british","9":"tag-door","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-farrell","12":"tag-irish","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-media","15":"tag-opens","16":"tag-owen","17":"tag-poison","18":"tag-return","19":"tag-sidestepping","20":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}