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Andy Farrell got to experience what it felt like to cheer on son Owen as a father for the first time since his retirement, with the Ireland head coach opening up on the emotions that surround the Farrell family on game day.
Farrell will look to lead Ireland to a third consecutive Six Nations victory next Sunday when they travel to Twickenham to take on an England side captained by his son. The rivalry is not unfamiliar for the pair, with Farrell Snr taking up a role as Ireland’s defence coach in 2016 under Joe Schmidt before replacing the New Zealander in the top job following last year’s Rugby World Cup.
But it was at that tournament, where Ireland were dumped out by New Zealand in the quarter-finals, that Farrell was finally able to do something that he had not experienced since hanging up his boots, and that was to watch his son play at the highest level of the game without having to scrutinise, coach or assess his performance and simply support from a paternal point of view.
With England beating the All Blacks with one of their greatest ever performances to reach the final in Japan, Farrell was able to experience matchday both as a fan and a father, which he admitted sent the “nerves through the roof” in a way that he never experiences when in his coaching capacity.
“Now that was tough, I was back to being a parent again and that’s tougher than being a coach against your son,” Farrell said. “I actually did the whole fan-family thing that day on purpose, to get back to how it felt before all this ever happened.
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1/16 Six Nations team of round two
England regained the Calcutta Cup with a 13-6 victory over Scotland, while Ireland maintained their 100 per cent record with a bonus-point win over Wales and France stumbled their way past Italy. So who makes our team of the weekend after round two?
Getty Images
2/16 15. Jordan Larmour (Ireland)
The Irishman has looked assured since replacing Rob Kearney as Ireland’s No 1 full-back and brought Saturday’s Aviva Staium encounter to life, beating four Welsh defenders with a beauty of a side-step that opened the door for the first try of the match. Kearney remains a pair of safe hands at the back, but Larmour is proving how he gives Ireland an extra cutting edge in attack.
AFP via Getty Images
3/16 14. Andrew Conway (Ireland)
Conway is quietly going about his business as the best-performing wing so far in the Six Nations, having put in two very strong performances so far. The Munster-man looked strong in defence and took his chance when it presented itself to seal the bonus point.
AP
4/16 13. Arthur Vincent (France)
Given the task of replacing the injured Virimi Vakatawa and did himself justice with an assured performance. The centre contributed well with ball in hand but it was his defensive work that stood out with 16 successful tackles to lead the line in stopping a much-improved Italian side.
AP
5/16 12. Sam Johnson (Scotland)
A few contenders for the shirt as both Owen Farrell and Bundee Aki has positive impacts this weekend, but Johnson gets the nod for being the standout Scot in defeat during the Calcutta Cup clash. The centre has put in two good performances in as many weeks, only for no reward.
REUTERS
6/16 11. Matteo Minozzi (Italy)
His head-to-head battle against Teddy Thomas saw both score tries, but it was Minozzi who showed a more all-round game that helped drag Italy back into the fight when they were in danger of being blown out of the game. As well as his try, Minozzi showed good awareness and handling to link with his teammates to unlock the most impressive defence from the opening weekend.
EPA
7/16 10. Johnny Sexton (Ireland)
George Ford performed well under pressure at Murrayfield and Romain Ntamack did well attacking-wise, but Sexton’s return to form cannot be overlooked. The Ireland captaincy is helping to bring the best out of him once more, and not only did he vary up his pass-to-kick ratio nicely, but he also put in a solid shift defensively – as depicted by his busted cheek when he was eventually replaced.
REUTERS
8/16 9. Anthoine Dupont (France)
The first of four players to maintain their place in our team of the weekend, Dupont is threatening to make the Player of the Tournament award a one-man race if he maintains this level of performance. It was his miss-pass that sent Gregory Alldritt in for a try, while he also made another outside break and no-look pass that split apart the defence. A word for his replacement Baptiste Serin, who scored a sumptuous individual effort.
Getty Images
9/16 1. Ellis Genge (England)
Genge may be consigned to the role of replacement at the moment but he is doing his best to batter the door down to the starting line-up in his own uncompromising way. Twice now he has come on to noticeably improve England’s scrum, which has given them the platform they need to seize control of games, and his try finally broke Scotland’s spirit to take the Calcutta Cup back south of the border.
Getty Images
10/16 2. Julien Marchand (France)
Marchand endured a slight wobble in the lineout mid-match, but it was sandwiched by a virtuoso performance with and without the ball. The hooker was one of Les Bleus most prominent carriers, but he also chipped in with 11 tackles in a 100 per cent defensive showing.
REUTERS
11/16 3. Tadhg Furlong (Ireland)
The Irish tighthead was at his rampaging best to barrel over the Welsh defence and score Ireland’s second try, putting them back in front, but it was his reaction to winning a scrum penalty on their own five-metre line that prompted the biggest roar of the match. Furlong keeps his place comfortably as the outstanding tighthead of the Six Nations so far.
PA
12/16 4. Maro Itoje (England)
Itoje proved England’s defensive linchpin with a whopping 23 tackles in the face of Storm Ciara as the lock made a right nuisance of himself, including in the set-piece where he helped to pick apart the Scottish lineout.
AFP via Getty Images
13/16 5. James Ryan (Ireland)
Ryan keeps his place in the side with another mammoth showing with the ball in hand. Ryan carried more than any other Irish player alongside Larmour to make 50 metres from an impressive 14 attempts, and added onto that was a team-leading 18 tackles that helps to mark him out as the player of the round.
AFP via Getty Images
14/16 6. CJ Stander (Ireland)
Like Ryan, Stander retains his place with a second man-of-the-match gong in as many games. Strictly speaking, Stander played the duration at No 8 this week but such was his performance – and that of a certain Englishman – we had to find space to squeeze them both into the back-row.
AFP via Getty Images
15/16 7. Sam Underhill (England)
The flanker may not have landed all of his tackle attempts but the ones he did – 16 in total – stopped the Scots in their tracks. Underhill showed the best of his game when he needed just a split-second to strip the ball at the breakdown late in the first half and release Elliot Daly to counter.
AFP via Getty Images
16/16 8. Tom Curry (England)
Curry answered his critics in the No 8 shirt with a dominant showing at Murrayfield. The young Sale forward helped protect full-back George Furbank by dropping deep, made 12 successful tackles and led a back-row unit that delivered five turnovers in the opening half, and in a game where the hard yards were tough to come by his 70 metres were game-defining.
AFP via Getty Images
1/16 Six Nations team of round two
England regained the Calcutta Cup with a 13-6 victory over Scotland, while Ireland maintained their 100 per cent record with a bonus-point win over Wales and France stumbled their way past Italy. So who makes our team of the weekend after round two?
Getty Images
2/16 15. Jordan Larmour (Ireland)
The Irishman has looked assured since replacing Rob Kearney as Ireland’s No 1 full-back and brought Saturday’s Aviva Staium encounter to life, beating four Welsh defenders with a beauty of a side-step that opened the door for the first try of the match. Kearney remains a pair of safe hands at the back, but Larmour is proving how he gives Ireland an extra cutting edge in attack.
AFP via Getty Images
3/16 14. Andrew Conway (Ireland)
Conway is quietly going about his business as the best-performing wing so far in the Six Nations, having put in two very strong performances so far. The Munster-man looked strong in defence and took his chance when it presented itself to seal the bonus point.
AP
4/16 13. Arthur Vincent (France)
Given the task of replacing the injured Virimi Vakatawa and did himself justice with an assured performance. The centre contributed well with ball in hand but it was his defensive work that stood out with 16 successful tackles to lead the line in stopping a much-improved Italian side.
AP
5/16 12. Sam Johnson (Scotland)
A few contenders for the shirt as both Owen Farrell and Bundee Aki has positive impacts this weekend, but Johnson gets the nod for being the standout Scot in defeat during the Calcutta Cup clash. The centre has put in two good performances in as many weeks, only for no reward.
REUTERS
6/16 11. Matteo Minozzi (Italy)
His head-to-head battle against Teddy Thomas saw both score tries, but it was Minozzi who showed a more all-round game that helped drag Italy back into the fight when they were in danger of being blown out of the game. As well as his try, Minozzi showed good awareness and handling to link with his teammates to unlock the most impressive defence from the opening weekend.
EPA
7/16 10. Johnny Sexton (Ireland)
George Ford performed well under pressure at Murrayfield and Romain Ntamack did well attacking-wise, but Sexton’s return to form cannot be overlooked. The Ireland captaincy is helping to bring the best out of him once more, and not only did he vary up his pass-to-kick ratio nicely, but he also put in a solid shift defensively – as depicted by his busted cheek when he was eventually replaced.
REUTERS
8/16 9. Anthoine Dupont (France)
The first of four players to maintain their place in our team of the weekend, Dupont is threatening to make the Player of the Tournament award a one-man race if he maintains this level of performance. It was his miss-pass that sent Gregory Alldritt in for a try, while he also made another outside break and no-look pass that split apart the defence. A word for his replacement Baptiste Serin, who scored a sumptuous individual effort.
Getty Images
9/16 1. Ellis Genge (England)
Genge may be consigned to the role of replacement at the moment but he is doing his best to batter the door down to the starting line-up in his own uncompromising way. Twice now he has come on to noticeably improve England’s scrum, which has given them the platform they need to seize control of games, and his try finally broke Scotland’s spirit to take the Calcutta Cup back south of the border.
Getty Images
10/16 2. Julien Marchand (France)
Marchand endured a slight wobble in the lineout mid-match, but it was sandwiched by a virtuoso performance with and without the ball. The hooker was one of Les Bleus most prominent carriers, but he also chipped in with 11 tackles in a 100 per cent defensive showing.
REUTERS
11/16 3. Tadhg Furlong (Ireland)
The Irish tighthead was at his rampaging best to barrel over the Welsh defence and score Ireland’s second try, putting them back in front, but it was his reaction to winning a scrum penalty on their own five-metre line that prompted the biggest roar of the match. Furlong keeps his place comfortably as the outstanding tighthead of the Six Nations so far.
PA
12/16 4. Maro Itoje (England)
Itoje proved England’s defensive linchpin with a whopping 23 tackles in the face of Storm Ciara as the lock made a right nuisance of himself, including in the set-piece where he helped to pick apart the Scottish lineout.
AFP via Getty Images
13/16 5. James Ryan (Ireland)
Ryan keeps his place in the side with another mammoth showing with the ball in hand. Ryan carried more than any other Irish player alongside Larmour to make 50 metres from an impressive 14 attempts, and added onto that was a team-leading 18 tackles that helps to mark him out as the player of the round.
AFP via Getty Images
14/16 6. CJ Stander (Ireland)
Like Ryan, Stander retains his place with a second man-of-the-match gong in as many games. Strictly speaking, Stander played the duration at No 8 this week but such was his performance – and that of a certain Englishman – we had to find space to squeeze them both into the back-row.
AFP via Getty Images
15/16 7. Sam Underhill (England)
The flanker may not have landed all of his tackle attempts but the ones he did – 16 in total – stopped the Scots in their tracks. Underhill showed the best of his game when he needed just a split-second to strip the ball at the breakdown late in the first half and release Elliot Daly to counter.
AFP via Getty Images
16/16 8. Tom Curry (England)
Curry answered his critics in the No 8 shirt with a dominant showing at Murrayfield. The young Sale forward helped protect full-back George Furbank by dropping deep, made 12 successful tackles and led a back-row unit that delivered five turnovers in the opening half, and in a game where the hard yards were tough to come by his 70 metres were game-defining.
AFP via Getty Images
“I went on the train with all the fans, enjoyed the atmosphere before the game, understood what it meant for my wife and the kids, and the nerves were through the roof. You want your son to perform, don’t you? When you’re a coach, you don’t feel like that. You’re assessing things, seeing how the plan is coming together, you’re busy and you’ve got a distraction.”
Since retiring from Saracens duty in 2009 and joining the club’s coaching set-up, Farrell has either been in charge of his son or against him. Andy helped coach Owen through his early days at Saracens, and the pair both made firsts in the 2012 Six Nations, where Farrell Snr started his international coaching career as Stuart Lancaster’s defence coach and Farrell Jnr made his first for his country in the same game. The two would work together throughout the four-year World Cup cycle as well as on the 2013 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, but the relationship was very much between coach and player, not father and son, despite certain accusations from others around the camp.
Farrell was sacked as England defence coach when Eddie Jones took over at the start of 2016, allowing the former rugby league star to move across the Irish Sea and join Schmidt’s set-up later that year. The move was a surprise considering the close proximity that Jones worked with Farrell during their time together at Saracens.
“Mark Sinderberry was the CEO at Saracens,” Jones said on Thursday. “He’d been my CEO at Brumbies, he rang me up and said ‘What do you think?’
“I’d seen (Farrell) play rugby league, I thought ‘Yeah, sign him’. Then, by a number of circumstances, I ended up over there (as Saracens coach). He was unfortunately injured and we got him to start coaching. I saw a guy who was really focused on being his best, whether as a player or coach.”
Owen Farrell has been keen to forge his own path out of his father’s hulking shadow, which if anything has only made the similarities between the pair even more obvious such was his father’s leadership abilities and resolute confidence. But the relationship between the two has often appeared an odd one, given the professionalism they have to let take control what remains of their father-son bond.
For instance, will they talk in the week leading up to the Six Nations clash next Sunday? “Probably, yeah,” said Andy. “What about? I don’t know. It certainly won’t be about our tactics. And it certainly won’t be about his, so ...
“It’s as professional as it gets, because that’s all we’ve ever known, with Owen being a professional and me being a professional coach. It’s never been any different. I’m proud of the situation, as a father and him a son, I’m proud of how it is handled because it is one of utmost respect, but of professionalism first and foremost.”
Jones sees plenty of those traits in his current England captain, adding “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, but perhaps the ones who see the good and the bad of their rugby relationship are those closest to them: the rest of their family.
“The hardest part is certainly for Colleen (Andy’s wife, Owen’s mum), 100 per cent,” Farrell Snr said. “And for Owen’s sisters (Elleshia and Gracie), and the young fella, Gabriel (Owen’s brother).
“It’s weird for them, they’ve got unbelievably mixed emotions, they’re only human. How do they try and come to terms with it? I suppose they hope that both sides do well. And that’s not going to happen. So it’s a difficult one for them.”