Italy players looked to put England captain Owen Farrell under severe pressure when kicking throughout their Six Nations clash at Twickenham yesterday.
However, on one of the conversions, an Italian player could be heard shouting ‘‘You’re boring me kick it!’ as the Saracens man took his time. He missed by the way!
Farrell, who was far from his best as Eddie Jones men won 41-18, came under fire from World Cup winning scrum-half Matt Dawson for ‘another’ lacklustre display..
“Owen Farrell is an England great but right now it is as if he does not fit in the side’s attacking structure, wrote Dawson. You could tell the England captain was rattled.
“Whatever is going on in his rugby life, he is under pressure. You could see it at times when he was talking to the referee.”
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His interactions with the referee also came under scrutiny from popular WelshmanNigel Owens.
“huge respect for Owen Farrell both as a player and a person”, that “there was too much chat from him to the referee. That must stop,” wrote Owens. in his column for the Mail Online
“He never did that with me. Every time I referee, I tell the players that there is a time and a place for a conversation,” Owens wrote for the Daily Mail.
“If they want to discuss something, they have to do it in the right manner. That is one of the game’s values.
“It is up to the referees to keep strong and stay on top of things like that. We don’t want to see it creeping in.”