Owen Farrell

[Reggie]

I've been wanting to ask this for a long time.

Is Owen Farrell the most over hyped, over rated player in the current England squad? Discuss.

Predictable, poor decisions, petulant.

I would genuinely like someone who 'gets him' to enlighten me as to why/how he is England's best option at 10. What am I not seeing?

[TigerLad]

He's never going to get dropped no matter how badly he plays. He's only just got back from injury and yet he was picked over Myler, Ford and Cipriani who have all played all this year. Him and Danny Care will start barring injury. He does what he does well and comparing him to Wilkinson is massively unfair, he's nowhere near that level.

[Darc Tiger]

Yes.

[fortysix]

Just posted about Farrell elsewhere on site. Totally and utterly irrelevant-club class at best-- in most situations, a massive and total negative.

But he is a world class goal kicker .
Stancast needs to bin him now, and go for broke

Imagine

Brown/ Watson
Roko/ Wade
Tuilagi/ Burrell
Burgess
May/ Yarde/ Watson
Cipriani/ Ford
Care/ Youngs

Hate to see someone injured long term but our best bet is just that---

[Reggie]

"comparing him to Wilkinson is massively unfair..."

I didn't (and would never) compare him to Wilkinson, but where is the flair, unpredictability, vision, X factor, whatever you want to call it, that Ford, Cipriani (and even Burns) can bring. Kicking skills can be taught - natural vision, intelligent decision making and the ability to keep the opposition guessing, probably can't.

Or maybe I'm just expecting too much...

[ellis9]

Absolutely yes! I've always said he is overrated. It's going to be hard enough for England to win the World Cup as it is but it will be impossible to win it with Farrell playing at 10

[fentiger]

Absolutely yes! I've always said he is overrated. It's going to be hard enough for England to win the World Cup as it is but it will be impossible to win it with Farrell playing at 10

+1

[amazing tiger]

would say ford is going to be a better player. i was suprised to see him picked as he has not had much game time this season. would also have to say care was was not great his kicking was awful

[L Smith]

"comparing him to Wilkinson is massively unfair..."

I didn't (and would never) compare him to Wilkinson, but where is the flair, unpredictability, vision, X factor, whatever you want to call it, that Ford, Cipriani (and even Burns) can bring. Kicking skills can be taught - natural vision, intelligent decision making and the ability to keep the opposition guessing, probably can't.

Or maybe I'm just expecting too much...

Kicking skills can be taught? Try telling Ford and Burns that...

[baz1664]

To put Farrell at centre and put Ford at fly half just shows how deluded Lancaster and co are, Farrell is no carter or Giteau and we should not be accommodating him, his kicking game was awful, he offers nothing offensively, he just kicks his goals, Lancaster needs to grow some and get the players off who are not performing, Farrell and Care should have been been gone before 50 mins. can anyone explain the scrums in the last 5 mins when we wouldn't go for a quick tap when the game was nearly lost, bizarre!! Eastmond, Attwood and May did show appetite and desire, three defeats against the Southern Hemisphere big 3 could be devastating for Lancaster!!

[TigerLad]

"comparing him to Wilkinson is massively unfair..."

I didn't (and would never) compare him to Wilkinson, but where is the flair, unpredictability, vision, X factor, whatever you want to call it, that Ford, Cipriani (and even Burns) can bring. Kicking skills can be taught - natural vision, intelligent decision making and the ability to keep the opposition guessing, probably can't.

Or maybe I'm just expecting too much...

I meant the non stop comparisons to Wilko in the media. Whenever he kicks a goal someone mentions Wilkinson. Maybe that's because of the huge impact Wilkinson had on English rugby but very few players have been compared to him like Farrell. Which isn't fair to either.

[ellis9]

Why commentators compare Farrell and Wilkinson I have no idea. Farrell isn't fit to lace Wilkinson's boot!

[ellis9]

Why commentators compare Farrell and Wilkinson I have no idea. Farrell isn't fit to lace Wilkinson's boot!

[Jeremy Anderson]

As I have posted elsewhere Care and Farrell kicking out of hand was very poor. No point having exciting wingers and Eastman playing if they don't have a chance to run apart from May's try.
Bigger question for me was why anybody expected Farrell to be on form when he had hardly played any rugby. His kicking out of hand was very poor. I doubt he ever will release a back line like a good 10 should but without his kicking game he had nothing to offer.

[ellis9]

I didn't even see the game yesterday so I'm not giving my opinion about Farrell on yesterday's performance but on every game he plays in