At the end of a year in which his goal-kicking and all-round excellence have driven the national team to new heights, Owen Farrell has become a darling of the Twickenham crowd. But there was a bittersweet return to his native north west with Saracens last night.
While Farrell ensured that the European Champions Cup holders maintained their unbeaten record in pool 3, kicking 14 points and scoring a try, he left the field in the 74th minute to a chorus of boos. Indeed, his every act had been jeered in the time since he avoided punishment for a challenge that was described by Steve Diamond, the Sale Sharks director of rugby, as “a late, high, no-arm tackle”.
To make matters worse for the home fans, it was Farrell who scored the try five minutes later that effectively settled a scrappy but compelling contest, in which Sale played most of the second half with reduced numbers. Three players from the home side were shown yellow cards — Rob Webber, Bryn Evans and TJ Ioane — which only heightened the sense of grievance at Farrell’s escape.
But there could be no begrudging Saracens’ overall superiority as they claimed a record-equalling 13th straight European Champions Cup win, which was duly confirmed by a second try late in the game from Nathan Earle. They were not at their best, but they had territorial control for much of their game and it was a credit to an excellent defensive effort from Sale, much improved after a 50-3 drubbing against the same opponents a week earlier, that the result remained uncertain until the closing stages.
There was a potential injury concern for Saracens, too, when Mako Vunipola limped off with a knee injury midway through the second half. Whether it becomes an issue for England remains to be seen. Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby, was hopeful after the game that the knock was not serious, but Vunipola’s stock has risen considerably in recent months, his importance to club and country as a ball-carrier all the greater in the absence of his brother, Billy, whose own knee injury will rule him out of the RBS Six Nations Championship.
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Farrell, too, has been a central player in the success of Saracens and England this year, but, despite scoring those 19 points, this was not an evening he will remember with particular fondness. For a start, there was the rarity of consecutive missed penalty kicks at goal early in the second half. Both, by his standards, were extremely kickable. From 28 metres in the 45th minute, when Webber was sent to the sin-bin for pulling down a maul, he sliced badly to the right. Two minutes later, from a little further out, he pulled the ball to the left, turning away in disgust and tossing the kicking tee in frustration.
By this stage, Saracens were leading 6-3, having had the upper hand in the first half, but running repeatedly into a brick-wall defence. Farrell added a third penalty goal when Evans was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on, but still, somehow, Sale stayed in the game. They might even have taken an unlikely lead when Denny Solomona almost clung onto a kick from AJ MacGinty behind the defence that bounced back sharply at shoulder height.
In his first game for Sale since his contentious departure from Castleford Tigers — the rugby league club who are suing both the player and his new employers — Solomona might have had a hat-trick, but failed to grasp one interception attempt and was almost on the end of a try-scoring pass from Mike Haley after a scything break from Josh Charnley, another wing recently lured from rugby league.
Then came the controversy in which Farrell found himself embroiled, in the 68th minute, as Solomona flung a wild pass in his own 22 above the head of Haley. Farrell was lining up a hit on Haley, but the pass slipped through the full back’s hands so that, by the time Farrell arrived, the ball had gone, he could not arrest his momentum, his shoulder thudding into Haley’s face.
The decision was referred by Andrew Brace, the referee, to the television match official, who, at the same time, was also asked to review a tackle from TJ Ioane, the Sale No 8, in which George Kruis had been knocked backwards. While Farrell was exonerated, Ioane became the third Sale player to be shown the yellow card for failing to wrap his arms around Kruis, and Farrell kicked three more points. Diamond believed Farrell had been fortunate to remain on the field, but McCall felt the challenge had “not looked too bad”. Either way, there will be no escaping punishment for such challenges next month, when World Rugby’s new measures to police contact with the head become effective.
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Diamond and McCall expressed their displeasure at such drastic changes being introduced in mid-season. “It should be done at the end of the season, you should have two months of pre-season to prepare,” McCall said.
“It’s difficult for coaches and players,” Diamond said. “So referees are left on the spot and they probably don’t know what to do half the time.”
Farrell certainly made the most of his reprieve last night, collecting a lovely offload from Will Skelton to score his side’s first try, then Earle picked up a deft grubber from Alex Goode to skip home shortly afterwards. There was a consolation score for Sale through Evans, straight from the kick-off, but the damage had already been done.
