The rise of rugby's Nepo Babies

Spectator

3 days ago

Julie Burchill may not have coined the phrase 'Nepo Baby', but my Coffee House colleague certainly has established a reputation as a deliciously mordant chronicler of the phenomenon.
The babies are everywhere, although as Burchill points out, 'there are some professions in which the far reach of the dead hand of nepotism strikes me as worse than others'. Modelling and the media appear to be jobs where nepotism is more important than talent. (Incidentally, before you ask, I am not related to John, Bob or even Dennis Mortimer, the former Aston Villa midfielder.)
But there is another profession where having the right surname seems to be increasingly handy, and that's top-level rugby. These days the sport isn't just about power and pace, but apparently who you are related to.
The British and Irish Lions play their third and final Test against Australia today and among the 23 players selected by coach Andy Farrell is Owen, his son.
In his heyday Owen Farrell was a very fine player. He made his England debut in 2012 and won the last of 112 caps at the 2023 World Cup. The following year he signed a lucrative deal with a French club, Racing 92 of Paris, but it wasn't a success.
Farrell quit the club halfway through his two-year deal and returned to England in June with the jeers of the French ringing his ears. 'Un flop', as one rugby website remarked. In fairness to the 33-year-old Farrell, his season was disrupted by injury – no surprise given his age – and since January he managed to start only six matches.
This didn't bother his dad when he needed a replacement for the injured Elliot Daly, who broke his arm in the Lions' second match of their Australian tour. He drafted Owen into the squad despite his lack of form this season, and the fact he hadn't played international rugby for nearly two years. There were plenty of alternatives – Scots, Irish and Englishmen at the top of their game – but Andy selected his son. He justified it on the grounds of his 'experience', but Lions should be selected on form and fitness. Dan Biggar, the former Wales and Lions fly-half turned pundit, said he was 'struggling to get to grips' with the sense of it.
Owen Farrell isn't the first player to seem to benefit from having his old man as head coach. There's Dan Lancaster, who, like Farrell, signed for Racing 92 last summer.
Racing 92 are one of rugby's heavyweights – European Cup runners-up in 2018 and 2020 – yet Dan Lancaster arrived from Ealing Trailfinders, who play in the second division of English rugby. The French press were surprised. Did Dan's arrival at Racing have anything to do with the fact his dad, Stuart, is head coach? When the question was put to Jacky Lorenzetti, Racing's owner, he replied: 'Nepotism, why not, but let's not get too carried away' Stuart Lancaster (who coached England a decade ago) was sacked midway through the season and in June Dan left Racing.
One of rugby's first apparent nepo babies was the Welshman Thomas Young, handed a professional contract in 2014 by his dad, Dai, when he coached London Wasps in England's Premiership. 'When things didn't work out at Cardiff Blues… my dad gave me an opportunity to come here,' said Thomas. Dai made his son club captain in 2019, a few months before he left Wasps by mutual consent. Thomas subsequently flew the Wasps' nest to rejoin his dad who was then coaching Cardiff.
There also seem to be rugby Nepos in Australia and South Africa. Robert du Preez was accused of 'nepotism' in 2019 when he coached the Sharks in Durban. Du Preez dismissed his critics as 'cockroaches', although he never came up with a good reason why he kept selecting his son Robert junior at fly-half instead of the clearly superior Curwin Bosch.
There are also players whose dads aren't coaches but who seem to still benefit from having a famous father. Among them are Adam Hastings, son of Scotland legend Gavin; Tom de Glanville, whose dad Phil captained England in the 1990s; Jack Bracken, son of Kyran, a World Cup winner with England in 2003, and Reuben Logan, whose dad, Kenny, played for Scotland and whose mum is Gabby, the BBC sports presenter who represented Wales in gymnastics.
Premiership club Sale Sharks recently signed the 20-year-old Reuben and the club's director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, said: 'He has got two ex-professional sporting parents. That stands for a lot for me in terms of when you are that young.'
Rugby's Nepos are different from their media and modelling peers in that they have given blood, toil, tears and sweat in pursuit of their goal. They are all talented, disciplined and admirable young men.
But professional rugby is a cut-throat business with a surfeit of talented youngsters all vying for a contract with a small number of top-flight clubs. A report in 2020 in the Guardian about the competition for contracts in the English Premiership stated: 'One experienced Premiership academy manager has said he believes up to 20 per cent of the country's most talented teenage players each year are being overlooked or blithely ignored'.
It apparently helps to get noticed if you have a famous dad or, even better, if he picks the team.