Owen Farrell has expressed his intention to adopt a more carefree approach to goal-kicking, reminiscent of a child playing around, in order to free himself from the mental burden that adversely affected his accuracy in the Six Nations Championship.
During the championship, the England captain's success rate in kicking dropped to a mere 47% after three rounds, but increased to 58% after he kicked three penalties and a conversion against Ireland.
This decline began after the loss to South Africa in the previous autumn, following three consecutive games with a 100% success rate.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Farrell said: “There's always bits to pick up on but the thing that I want to take it back to is enjoy being out there and enjoy kicking balls over the posts, trying to see how well I can strike them and almost taking it back to being back as a kid messing around,
“I've done enough technical work over the course of my career and that's not to say at all I don't want to be better. I do. But I don't want to bog myself down and get in my own way as well, which probably a lot of what I've been doing I feel has been the case.”
Farrell's subpar performance in the kicking return during the win over Wales, where he only successfully made two out of six attempts, suggests that his efforts to rectify his technique had backfired and worsened his mental state.
He added: “Sometimes the more you think about something, the more it becomes a problem,
“And sometimes you think you have a fix and then you think that into a problem. Against Wales I hit one that was good, and then I hit another one that was good but it missed.
"After that I tried to pull back, pull back and pull back and that’s because I was trying to think my way through it rather than try to hit the ball as well as I can. Getting out my own way feels like it is key at the minute.”
“A posh c***” – England forwards international career fell apart after Owen Farrell beef turned nasty
England fly-half Owen Farrell is never afraid of sharing an opinion or two – especially when it’s about someone he doesn’t particularly like.
#1. Dave Attwood
Former England lock Attwood has opened up on the latest RugbyPass Offload about his ongoing rivalry with Owen Farrell.
The Bath lock won the last of his 24 caps for England back in 2016, which could have a lot to do with his relationship with the current England captain.
He revealed: "On the pitch, I struggle a lot with Owen Farrell. We just don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things,
“He hates me with a passion. Despite my earthy roots, he thinks I am a posh c***. He hates that. I bagged rugby league once jovially. I was saying it to take the piss kind of thing, ‘a bloody sport for the peasants’. He f**kin’ hated it."
"He had a bit of a shout at me and went off to the toilet and I followed him.
“We all had a drink or two after the game but we didn’t need to get carried away with this. I was in the urinal behind the door and he was three or four down and as I got in his dad walked in as well, he was coaching at the time. He was, ‘I don’t want to fuckin’ hear it’ or something like that and as he walked out he went to open the door and slam it into the back of me. There was like a stop on the floor so it hit the stop and almost clocked him back…
“We never really addressed it after that. That was where it started and it was like a drunken little bit of argy that went too far. He is an incredibly competitive athlete and he is also very f**kin’ good, he has got high standards. He is a very competitive athlete and in order to be that good, you have to flirt on the wrong side of competitive.
“So whenever we play each other there is always some element in the game where one of us is running at the other one or we are trying to bang each other. There always seems to be an element of that to it. I am sure he is like, I don’t even know that Dave is playing.”
#2. Ryan Wilson
The Scotland back-rower was the instigator in some tunnel argy-bargy when the players returned to the changing rooms after the warm-up back in 2018 with Farrell at the centre.
Footage of the incident shows all hell breaking loose when Farrell barged his way past a number of Scotland players to confront Wilson, who had been attempting to get inside the head of George Ford.
Wilson later revealed he was banned from Twickenham following the incident.
“I remember that game, I was actually injured and after tunnel-gate, after everything that happened in the tunnel against England, I’d lined up a corporate gig at Twickenham,” he recalled to Rugby Pass in November.
“Had it all lined up, a little bit of cash, all excited, only to get a message back saying the RFU have banned you from Twickenham Stadium after everything that happened the year before.
#3. James Haskell
The pair have what we can only describe as a love-hate relationship. As legendary as the 'best mates' videos were during the 2016 tour of Australia, Farrell certainly didn't seem to be enjoying it.
