Steve Borthwick insisted that Owen Farrell will come good from the kicking tee after another wayward performance against Wales, as England’s head coach turned his attention towards the next match against France.
Ollie Lawrence’s 74th-minute try sealed England’s 20-10 victory – their first in Cardiff since 2017 – but Borthwick’s side might have been out of sight by then had Farrell not missed four kicks, worth 10 points, from the tee. He was also charged down in the opening exchanges of what was only his second start for England at fly-half in two years.
Farrell admitted it was an off day, expressing frustration that he failed to capitalise on the chances his teammates provided. “I didn’t kick well, it wasn’t coming off the way I’d like it to be. But I’ve been here before, I’ll get hard at work again. The team probably deserved to be further ahead, the team worked hard to be further ahead.”
It has been a problem through this championship for Farrell, however. In England’s three matches, Farrell has landed only seven of 15 kicks at goal, with a success rate of 47%. Johnny Sexton’s is 89% for Ireland. During England’s autumn campaign, Farrell began flawlessly with 100% records against Argentina, Japan and New Zealand but dropped off against South Africa and is yet to recover from that slump.
Borthwick was adamant, however, that he did not consider handing kicking duties to Henry Slade or even Freddie Steward, despite Farrell’s struggles, and he chose to bring Marcus Smith off the bench for the final 14 seconds of the match only. “I think Owen answered it really well and really honestly, and that’s immense credit to him,” said Borthwick. “When you have been a world-class kicker for as long as he has, there are moments where you have days that don’t quite go your way. But when he has got a proven track record he will always … we will always, a bad day happens, he will always come good.
“We can all improve, we all think about how we can improve what we do on a daily basis. That is a consistent message if you look around the whole team, the whole England squad want to improve – the players, the coaches, the management team, we want to get better.”
England’s victory leaves them with 10 points from three matches and still in outside contention for the Six Nations title, albeit with sterner tests against France and Ireland to come. Borthwick refused to engage with the idea that England are in the overall race, however, insisting his only focus was France, who are due at Twickenham on Saturday week. Preparations begin at a mini-training camp in Brighton this week and Borthwick said: “[France] kick the ball a lot, they kick it long and they kick it very, very often, all the way up and down the field.
“When they recognise you making a mistake, they’ve got pace to capitalise on the errors and they have a forward pack that’s very big and powerful so that makes the set piece a challenge and the contact area a big challenge. They have multiple threats, the size of the forward pack, the pace and the distribution in the back line, and the kicking game.”
