Andy and Owen Farrell: 'You’d hear one of them talk and you wouldn’t know which one it was’
Of the myriad storylines that always surround an England-Ireland clash, there are very few that can match this week’s narrative of the home captain going up against the visiting head coach.
We have had Farrell v Farrell contests before, since father Andy became Ireland’s defence coach in 2016 and had to plot a path to stopping son Owen, whether he was pulling the strings for England at fly-half or inside centre.
Sunday’s meeting at Twickenham, though, is something altogether different, if not for those directly involved, as Andy Farrell explained in Cork last week, then for everyone else, not least his wife Colleen, for whom Owen is the eldest of their four children.
“It’s always going to be weird, isn’t it?” Ireland scrum Conor Murray said of the Farrell family dynamic on Wednesday. “Something like that is a bit strange.”
Murray had worked with Andy Farrell as a defence coach on the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia and then played alongside Owen four years later, when both were part of the squad that drew the series with the All Blacks in New Zealand. He has seen the father and son relationship at play from both sides and has admired the way Andy has handled the situation in Ireland-England scenarios.
“He’s done it so well for the few times we’ve played England — he sticks at the task at hand. Sometimes he gives some good insights into Owen’s game we might not have seen. It’s always a bit odd when he’s talking about his son.
I’ve played against Owen and toured with him. He’s an incredible player and a really good decision-maker. Having knowledge of the way he plays, he’s still able to pick the right options — that’s what makes him really hard to defend and analyse.
"He plays what’s in front of him really well so it’s going to be tough no matter how much knowledge you have of him.”
Another scrum-half, former England No9 Danny Care, sees striking similarities in the way father and son go about their business, having played under Andy when he was the English defence coach up to the 2015 World Cup, and in half-back partnership with Owen until his omission from the 2019 World Cup squad last summer.
The Harlequins star is now a co-presenter of the BBC Rugby Union Weekly podcast, on which he this week gave his perspective on Big Faz the coach and Junior Faz the captain.
“You’d hear one of them talk and you wouldn’t know which one it was,” Care told the podcast of training with the duo at the England training base in Pennyhill Park. “They sound very similar, they look very similar, but I think just the way they talk to you, the way they talk to a group (is incredible).
How they managed, on a Monday or Tuesday in Pennyhill, in a meeting room, to make you want to go and play a Test match right there and then.
They manage to inspire you and they do it with a massive amount of emotion.
I’d say that’s the main thing about defending and kick-chase and the stuff that takes no talent, but takes hard work and shows your commitment to a team and attitude.
“Owen makes any team better because you have to get up to his level. He has such high standards that he sets and it’s the same with Andy. If you’re not reaching them you’re going to be told.
"Andy’s told me a few times and I’ve been in meetings where he’s not happy with the way a certain defence is done and they get told. Owen would be the same on the training field if you don’t throw him the right ball or you’re letting the team down, he’ll tell you. He’s a defensive coach on the pitch.
He’s on one side of the ruck but he’s screaming at the lads seven or eight (places) over there, and he’s like that all week in training and he’ll be like that for 80 minutes on the park.
"It’s because he knows the game inside and out and he knows what it should look like. So he’s got all these mental pictures of what an aggressive, physical defence should look like and if you’re not up to speed he’ll single you out.”
The obvious conclusion to make is that the Farrells could well cancel each other out at Twickenham on Sunday. Care added: “I think you’re going to see two very similar defences and two very similar gameplans.”
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