{"id":282707,"date":"2025-07-22T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282707\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T14:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:27:12","slug":"john-barclay-makes-concerning-owen-farrell-observation-despite-test-spot-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/282707\/","title":{"rendered":"John Barclay makes concerning Owen Farrell observation despite Test spot calls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Heading into the British & Irish Lions\u2019 clash with the First Nations & Pasifika XV, captain Owen Farrell<\/a> was probably the player in the best position to work his way into the Test squad given his pedigree, and after a poor team performance in victory,<\/a> that was still the case after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

Whether it was Sam Warburton at half time, John Barclay<\/a>, Dan Biggar<\/a> or Ronan O\u2019Gara<\/a> at full time, there were plenty of former internationals and Lions<\/a> calling for Farrell\u2019s inclusion for the second Test against Australia<\/a> at the MCG, where the visitors will be looking to clinch the series.<\/p>\n

A head injury to Marcus Smith<\/a>, who was on the bench for the first Test, in the final 10 minutes of the match only boosted the 2013, 2017 and 2021 Lions tourist\u2019s chances of playing on Saturday.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Gara said the Englishman is \u201cin flow mode\u201d when speaking on\u00a0Sky Sports after the match, adding \u201che offers so much\u201d. Warburton said at half time that the \u201ctouches of game management came from Owen Farrell,\u201d adding after the final whistle that \u201cit does seem like it was part of the masterplan that Owen Farrell would come in and he would feature at some point in the Test series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

British & Irish Lions<\/p>\n

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Australia <\/p>\n

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British & Irish Lions <\/p>\n

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Biggar did question where Farrell would fit in on the bench given Andy Farrell\u2019s relationship with Bundee Aki<\/a>, but said: \u201cit could have been so easy for him on this tour to try and force his hand. He\u2019s done nothing flash, but he\u2019s done some really basic stuff that has just made the team tick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Scotland<\/a> captain John Barclay<\/a> did make one observation, though, that the 112-cap England<\/a> international has not kicked from the tee yet this tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting, we\u2019ve not seen him kick on this tour,\u201d the Scot said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if he\u2019s able to kick. He\u2019s obviously had that problem with his groin and didn\u2019t kick a lot at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcus Smith took on the kicking duties in Farrell\u2019s first appearance on tour against an AUNZ Invitational XV, while Fin Smith kicked in the most recent performance.<\/p>\n

Both are accomplished Test kickers, but Farrell is not the second-highest point scorer in Test history for no reason. Part of the reason many want him in the Test squad is because of his reliable kicking under pressure, so it is curious why probably the best kicker in world rugby over the past decade has not kicked off the tee yet this year.<\/p>\n

Biggar did add that it is likely Finn Russell<\/a> will play 80 minutes if he remains fit, meaning Farrell will probably be used at inside centre should he be selected on Saturday. But in the event that the Scot has to leave the field early, it will be interesting who the kicking duties fall to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into the British & Irish Lions\u2019 clash with the First Nations & Pasifika XV, captain Owen Farrell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-282707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114897357608254282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}