Owen Farrell banishes Lions nepotism accusations with Test match animal performance

Telegraph

22-07-2025

'How do you think I did?' Owen Farrell asked his father, grinning at the novelty of sharing a press conference stage with him for the first time, the latest twist in a family drama that continued to confound. 'Some good things,' replied Andy, gruffly, ever the implacable head coach. 'Nice little chip off the left peg. Always work-ons, though.' The scene was a neat encapsulation of their relationship, with a joint sense of pride at their achievement tempered by a scrupulous care not to present this remarkable story as too cosy an arrangement.
Ever since he was chosen to command the British and Irish Lions 18 months ago, Farrell Snr has been sensitive to accusations of nepotism around selecting his son for a fourth tour. For this very reason, you wondered if, on the occasion of Owen's first match as Lions captain, the pair would be at pains not to be photographed together here at Marvel Stadium. In the end, though, they could hardly stop smiling. It was not just that Owen fully justified his last-gasp summons to Australia with 80 minutes of all-action leadership against tireless opponents, but that he did so with the stamp of paternal approval.
'He's a leader of the squad, and this is a profession we love doing,' Andy explained. 'I suppose we'll look back on it together after the third Test.' When eventually they can reminisce, they will surely identify this victory over the First Nations and Pasifika XV, a scratch team far better organised than anybody had the right to expect, as a high point. For this was the moment when all the psychodrama around Owen, all the awkward questions about whether his call-up was based on merit or part of a glorified family outing, dissolved into the cold Melbourne night.
With the game just four minutes old, he rekindled the fire to startling effect. Outraged at seeing Darcy Graham levelled by a high tackle from Tristan Reilly, he launched himself into the fray, the veins in his neck popping as he threw every oath in the book to defend the wing's honour. It is a fine line that Farrell has walked in his career on this front, sometimes blurring the margins between principled and pugnacious. But the man who last represented England at the 2023 World Cup slipped into his role as Lions leader as if he had never been away. He had not even been close to the skirmish around Reilly when it first erupted, but he charged towards it like a heat-seeking missile.
Conscious of the wider scrutiny he faced, he replicated this degree of intensity in his play. You could take your pick of influential contributions: the audacious chip kick with his wrong foot that bounced perfectly into Jamie Osborne's hands for the opening try, or the delightful show-and-go to send Duhan van der Merwe clean through on the left. Such was his deft choreography of all the Lions' most decisive moves, he emerged as arguably their second most effective 10 behind Finn Russell, despite playing at 12.
That is not an outcome anybody could have predicted from his brief, benighted sojourn at Racing 92, where one French publication named him earlier this year as the biggest flop in the Top 14. Thrust him into this type of environment, though, and the results can be starkly different. Just as he has elevated his game for England according to the size of the stakes, he has forged a reputation with the Lions for fearsome performances, refusing to tolerate even a minute of mediocrity.
It was Paul O'Connell who first observed this in a Lions context, singling him out for praise during an especially impassioned dressing-room speech in 2013. 'I think it's funny that one of the youngest guys in the team, Owen Farrell, is the one who's driving everyone on,' he said, by way of rebuke to everyone else. 'We all need to add that bit extra to our game, lads. This guy's 21 years old, barking at everyone, driving everyone around the pitch.'
At 33, he was far from immaculate in his judgment en route to this tense five-point win, sometimes miscuing his kicks in behind the Pasifika defence. And yet the molten emotion with which he insisted on the highest standards was impossible to fault. His was frequently the only voice that the microphones picked up, not least when he told his team-mates to stop feeling sorry for themselves.
The tantalising debate is whether Farrell has done enough, with this rediscovery of the art of belligerent captaincy, to edge his way into the frame for the second Test on Saturday. At a minimum, you would expect him to be on the bench, given the struggles of Fin Smith and his namesake Marcus to make lasting impressions on this tour. For when it comes to pulling strings, Farrell has proved once more that there is nobody else quite like him.