England must drop Farrell: Carling

Will Carling believes Andy Farrell should be dropped for England’s next RBS 6 Nations clash with France at Twickenham.

England suffered a record defeat to Ireland yesterday, losing 43-13 at Croke Park in Dublin.

Former England captain Carling’s main cause for concern was Farrell’s lack of pace, and he insists head coach Brian Ashton should make changes for the game against the French on March 11.

“Ashton is a huge fan (of Farrell),” said Carling on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek programme. “But you can’t play international rugby at centre without pace, and while Farrell has all sorts of attributes, pace is not one of them and the Irish exposed that quite cruelly.

“I think the line-up of (Jonny) Wilkinson, Farrell and (Mike) Tindall does not pose the threats it needs to in international rugby.

“You might well have fast runners in (Jason) Robinson, (Josh) Lewsey and (David) Strettle on the outside, but that makes it too easy to defend if there is no threat on the inside.

“Ashton, despite his desire to keep a settled side, will have to look at changing the midfield in order to pose any kind of threat against the French.”

Asked specifically if he would include Farrell in the side to take on France, Carling replied: “I wouldn’t select him.

“There needs to be a change. We need to pose a threat in one of those centre positions.”

Despite the heavy defeat, it is not all doom and gloom for England as the countdown continues towards the World Cup later this year.

“It (England’s prospects) would have been a lot better if we had won yesterday,” added Carling. “But the Irish are an exceptional side with exceptional talent, and they had an exceptional day. So many of their players played brilliantly.

“While it’s not sheer panic, it was a reality check, and a fairly harsh one for England.

“But Ashton is a calm man. He won’t panic. He will slowly piece certain bits together – we’ve more bits of the jigsaw now than we did in November.

“But the one area that cries out for me is pace – what we don’t have is explosive pace and we need to try and find it.”