The fly-half has opened up about walking away from international rugby after the 2023 Rugby World Cup
Former England captain Owen Farrell has opened up about his decision to step away from international rugby and the incident in a match against Wales that ultimately proved a tipping point for him.
On Monday, it was confirmed that the 33-year-old had returned to English rugby by rejoining Saracens after an injury-hit campaign with Racing 92 in France. He had joined the Top 14 side in a mega-money deal last summer, but endured a frustrating season across the Channel, leading him to cut his deal short and return to his boyhood club.
His move back to England has made him eligible for Steve Borthwick’s side once again, but Farrell remains undecided on when or even if he wants to return to the international scene, having announced in the wake of his team’s 2023 World Cup exit that he would be stepping away from Test rugby for an unspecified period of time for the sake of his and his family’s mental well-being. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
It came after the fly-half came in for heavy criticism for his performances at the tournament in France, despite England finishing in third place overall after a last-gasp one-point defeat to eventual champions South Africa in the semi-finals.
While Farrell impressed in that game, he was taken aback by the treatment he received from his side’s own fans, having been booed before England’s quarter-final clash with Fiji.
In a new interview with The Telegraph, however, the Saracens man says everything started to fall apart weeks before the World Cup began, as he was sent off for a high tackle on Wales’ Taine Basham during their warm-up match at Twickenham.
Huge controversy followed, with the red card initially overturned before World Rugby appealed against the decision, leading to him being banned for England’s first two World Cup matches. The backlash involved, Farrell says, created the “perfect storm” as his own fans began to turn on him.
“I didn’t mean to make the tackle like that,” he told the publication as he reflected on the incident nearly two years on. “It was an accident, but what came with it threw me because I had sat down before the World Cup and said I was determined to make it the best time of my career.“I felt like I was playing well enough towards the end of that year and wanted to kick on and enjoy playing with England and do the best that I can. What came after was tough because it was a lot.
“But it was only me not being able to deal with it. It was getting on top of me a bit. The World Cup was tough and I felt that this was not like it should be playing for my country, playing for England, I have loved playing for England throughout my career.“I found the games a time to get away from everything else. The weeks were hard enough. It was getting on top of me, and it didn’t feel right. It really didn’t feel right and I don’t want to ever make out that is what is it like to play for England because it was not.
“It was me. It was what I was going through. I don’t know. A build-up of everything. I don’t know how long for, it might have been years,” he added. “I could make sense of it all individually. I could make sense of the criticism, I could make sense of the booing, and I could make sense of everything that was going on. But put it all together and it felt like it was non-stop. It was overwhelming.”
Admitting that everything “seemed to hit the fan” in the wake of the controversy, Farrell continued: “In the past, when I was younger, people thought I didn’t care. I did care. Everyone thinks that I didn’t because I was competitive. But stuff did hurt.
“I overthink everything anyway, but I always just thought it was all just part of it, and I would fight against it and suppress it. I had wanted to enjoy it, but everything seemed to hit the fan after that.”
“The one thing is that I am remarkably lucky to have the people around me, otherwise I wouldn’t have got there.”
Quizzed on whether he is interested in returning to international duty with England, Farrell added that he was focusing on “getting back to being happy and lov[ing] my rugby again”, with his return to Saracens at the forefront of his mind currently.
However, he left the door open to a potential comeback, adding: “Who knows what I will feel like in six months or a year’s time. The key behind all of it is that I am determined to be happy.
“I have changed. Not in a way that is unrecognisable from before. But I have changed. I have looked at myself a lot and am still doing now. This is what makes me so determined to get it right.”