Eddie Jones has urged Owen Farrell to “take his medicine” after he was ruled out of the entire Six Nations before backing his absent captain to return a better player and extend his England career. Jones also believes Farrell’s absence will allow him to address England’s longstanding leadership problem, having only last week insisted he was the right man for the captaincy despite his lack of game time.
Farrell underwent surgery on Wednesday on his right ankle – just 10 weeks after a similar procedure on his left ankle – and will be out until mid-March. It is a dreadful blow for the 30-year-old, who suffered the “freak” injury in training for Saracens last week as he was preparing for his comeback match. But now Jones must make do without Farrell, who has started all of England’s Six Nations matches since he took over as head coach, for the whole tournament.
Jones has a number of other headaches with Courtney Lawes, who is the favourite to assume the captaincy if fit, unable to train at this week’s camp in Brighton with a head injury. Furthermore, Jonny May is expected to undergo knee surgery and miss the entire tournament, Jonny Hill is a doubt for England’s opening match against Scotland next week with a foot problem and it remains to be seen if Joe Marler will be available after testing positive for Covid-19 again.
Henry Slade is unable to train until the end of the week and adding to the uncertainty, Jones revealed he still does not know how big a squad he can select for the start of next week’s camp, making a pointed reference to how France can select 42 players.
He is, however, relishing the opportunity to stress-test his squad. Having lamented a lack of leaders within the English game in the past, he has challenged his senior players to fill the void and does not intend to name his new captain until two days before the Scotland match. On the field, Marcus Smith is likely to reprise the 10-12 partnership with Slade – provided the Exeter centre is fit – which worked so well for so long against South Africa.
And while the previous England captain, Dylan Hartley, was phased out of the side in similar circumstances, having missed the 2019 Six Nations campaign through injury, Jones believes Farrell’s best years can still be ahead of him, citing the example of Dan Carter, who in 2015 guided New Zealand to the World Cup title aged 33. “I’ve chatted to [Owen] a couple of times. Owen’s one of the most resilient, one of the most driven players that I know,” said Jones. “He’s got to take his medicine now, which is have the operation, rehab, go through all that pain, but he wants to be the best player he can be. He wants to captain England again, he wants to play for England again. And so he’ll apply himself really well to his rehab. And he could come back better than ever. And that’s what we’re anticipating.”
Jones stopped short of suggesting Farrell could do with toning down his uber-aggressive approach but added: “There’s no reason why Owen can’t be moving into a very important part of his career. Sometimes you’ve got to train differently when you get to over 30. But there’s no reason why he can’t get better. If you look at Dan Carter, what a great example.”
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Jones has delayed naming a captain because he wants to develop leadership throughout the squad –“there will be a core group of four or five vice-captains, they are almost like the cabinet and they’ve got to make sure they devolve responsibility to the other guys” – but did express confidence that Lawes will be ready to face Scotland. “He’s making good steps every day.” Jones added: “*We are disappointed that Owen’s not with us but it gives us an opportunity to build the leadership density.”
Marler’s positive test, meanwhile, highlights the dangers still posed by Covid and accordingly Jones has instructed his assistants to each spend a day as head coach to prepare them in case he is unable to fulfil his matchday duties. The Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill was also invited into the camp to give a talk to the players on who to be adaptable in the face of adversity on Tuesday, hours before his squad were forced to evacuate their hotel because of a fire nearby. “We don’t ask for [the disruption] when it comes our way but we accept it and I really like how the players handle it,” said Jones. “They just take it in their stride.”