Thoroughly enjoying the fact that Farrell's "performances" on the last tour have seemingly been memory holed in favour of calling him a legend and banging on about the stuff he does to drive standards, like a lions touring party lacks that or that his teams have never dropped theirs in his presence
Ben Kay came out with the most confused one yet:
Where he particularly shines is he’s just so good at being singularly focused in.
Amazing stuff
Biggar has it about right IMHO....
This is a disgrace. No Owen Farrell starting for either the Lions or England. How is rugby supposed to continue without his driving of standards?
I heard a theory that he's mainly been brought in to be a leader of the mid-week side and put some bite into it.
As someone else noted, he's not played a game in 2 months or a test in 2 years, so he's unlikely to make the test side, but he gives options to rest others and keep the dirt trackers on their toes.
I've heard Joe Marler talk about how, on his Lions tour, the mid-week side pretty much became a separate team and partied for most of the last two weeks.
Not sure I necessarily agree, but it's more viable than the idea that he'll push Russell for the test spot.
Well, his Dad just said that he won't start midweek so that means he'll be a shoe in for the ANZAC game 😄
Thoroughly enjoying the fact that Farrell's "performances" on the last tour have seemingly been memory holed in favour of calling him a legend and banging on about the stuff he does to drive standards, like a lions touring party lacks that or that his teams have never dropped theirs in his presence
Ben Kay came out with the most confused one yet:
Amazing stuff
Full Farrell bullplop bingo that article.
Well, his Dad just said that he won't start midweek so that means he'll be a shoe in for the ANZAC game 😄
And the opinion I’ve heard (BBC pod, I think) is that the next midweek team is more likely to be the test team.
The theory being that the Anzac game is essentially a BaaBaas match so very hard to judge what you’ll face.
At risk of being v unpopular, I don't think Farrell's mistrust of Marcus has any thing to do with his technical competence or position, but rather whether he has the 'right stuff' to be a Lion. He singled out how Hansen showed the way, but perceives Marcus as the opposite.
Against Argentina, (and yes he was outnumbered), Marcus waved through both their tries when he could have made a dominant hit on both occasions. (This might partly be why he brought Owen Farrell in, but I won't fight for that hill!). Here's a 4 minute reminder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULUiyAbfgMg
Both of those were two on ones, and the ball was gone before he could hit anyone, did what you should stayed on his feet.
Farrell would never have got anywhere near them he has all the pace of a geriatric slug, the first you may have got away with hitting the player that had already passed, the second would have likely been a yellow and even if they did not score a penalty try.
But not really in the spirit of rugby to hit someone after the ball has gone, and not what you would want someone coaching your kids to do.
A dominant tackle is when someone has the ball and you stop them on the gain line, not a cheap shot after the ball has gone.
Eh, you should be making sure the passer hits the deck. Brown was superb for it. Make them regret the draw and pass and leave them under no illusions that a dummy would be a mistake.
I think Marcus has tackled well so far and he improved things off the bench. What the defensive issues tell you are he's not a natural 15.
Eh, you should be making sure the passer hits the deck. Brown was superb for it. Make them regret the draw and pass and leave them under no illusions that a dummy would be a mistake.
I think Marcus has tackled well so far and he improved things off the bench. What the defensive issues tell you are he's not a natural 15.
Marcus was on his own with no one else in sight, to hit the player when the ball was long gone and you are not committed to the tackle is foul play, the Lions defence left Marcus high and dry and both try’s were caused by poor defensive positioning of other players.
If you had your winger with you can commit but on your own, you need to stay up and hope to pressure them into a mistake.
Marcus does tackle much better now, but that match was a defensive shamble's
The comments re whether Smith could/should/might have done something technically differently against Argentina are irrelevant, because they're all rational. Perceptions trump rationality and Farrell perceives Smith as untrustworthy - why? Remember, Farrell was a hard nut, surrounded by hard nuts esp' in league (Edwards, Burrows, Sinfield) and he doesn't think Smith belongs in that category - rationality has nothing to do with it!
To be fair, we don't really know what Farrell is thinking.
We see lots of idiots on Social Media who love to slag Marcus off for any minor infringement. The main sources of hate seems to be that he wasn't born in England, has nice hair, does hitch-kicks, and plays for Quins.
We see lots of media types also comment. But, media types are primarily out there to sell more media. So, they sometimes pick a viewpoint that purposefully gets media clicks and earns them more money.
I am pretty sure that the coaches ignore a lot of this noise and use statistics and video analysis, etc to make their choices. I am certain that a video analyst would have looked at the 2 Argentina tries in copious detail (far more than we would be able to do) and will know exactly where they went wrong.
And - they will have a lot of data to work with - especially, stamina/fitness levels and work rates. They will know exactly what Smith's tackling is like. They don't need ask Jeff on Twitter . . .
Ultimately, for the tests, they will choose Marcus at 10 or 15, starting or on the bench, or even not selected, based on the game plan that they are choosing to implement and the other players and player combinations that are available and the actual statistics/abilities of those players.
It isn't a Facebook popularity contest - it is a rugby match.
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