Owen Farrell hopes to have rediscovered his goal-kicking groove just in time for Saracens’ Premiership play-off tilt.
The England captain fell out of synch off the tee in the Six Nations, but hit back to perfect rhythm in Sunday’s 45-21 dismantling of London Irish at StoneX Stadium.
Farrell bagged a 20-point haul with the boot, even striking the post with his one effort at goal that failed to sail over.
Saracens’ five-try win sealed top spot in the league with one regular-season game to spare, in the process also extinguishing Irish’s own play-off ambitions.
Farrell and Co can now expect to host Northampton on May 13, with Leicester and Sale the likely competitors in the other last-four clash.
“I feel better with my kicking, but I’ve got to make sure that’s the norm now,” said Farrell.
“I haven’t changed anything too big, it’s just trying to slow myself down a little bit and take it back to what I know. The one that I missed deserved to miss. It nearly crept over, but it deserved to miss.”
Farrell linked up with Jonny Wilkinson in England’s Six Nations campaign to help iron out some minor kinks in his goal-kicking routine and action. The 31-year-old appears to have pulled off the difficult feat of amending, as opposed to remodelling, his goal-kicking approach.
Farrell talked about the need to guard against over-correction during the Six Nations, and his four penalties and four conversions in north London yesterday proved classically assured.
Saracens have been on the hunt for their trademark poise all season, following last term’s 15-12 Premiership Final defeat by Leicester. Mark McCall’s men left last year’s Twickenham showpiece fuming for not showing their natural selves, and have since set about righting those wrongs in this new campaign.
As the Barnet men gear up for another play-off tilt, however, Farrell insisted that mission must be put to bed before the league switches to the knockouts.
“I think the frustrations from last year’s defeat were definitely the driving force for us at the start of the year — but not now,” said Farrell.
“It definitely spurred the way we got after the season, because last year hurt us, it did. But now, we’re so, so far away from that, with where we are, so we want to make the best of that, kick on and enjoy this period.
“Last year, we maybe just tensed up a bit, and didn’t necessarily get the best out of ourselves.”
Irish raced into a 10-point lead in the chase for a league double over Saracens that would have kept them on course for the semi-finals. Alex Goode, Sean Maitland, Theo Dan and a late Eroni Mawi double settled the argument, however.
“Though the first part of the game didn’t go to plan, I thought our attitude was there in terms of enjoying everything, not just when you’re flying and going well,” said Farrell. “It felt like we were in the right mindset.”
