Owen Farrell may have been pushing for a Test spot in Tuesday night’s 35-0 win over Melbourne Rebels, but he says he will still be happy if he remains a bench understudy to Johnny Sexton.
The young England outside half was bang on target with three out of three conversions as he took his tour tally through the 40 points barrier. He has now scored with 18 out of 19 attempts:
6/7 v Barbarians
6/6 v Queensland Reds
1/1 v Waratahs
2/2 v Brumbies
3/3 v Melbourne Rebels
But while his goalkicking, along with Leigh Halfpenny’s, has been remarkable, his old round play has also improved as the tour has gone on. That’s why he declared himself happy with his lot.
“I've been asked to play wider and flatter and take it to the line a bit more which I'm comfortable with. I want to do that, so I've been enjoying it,” said Farrell.
“I was just trying to make sure that we kept going forward, whether it was through the middle or out wide. We wanted to keep in the middle of them and to be fair to us we kept getting a quick ball from the forwards and, in the end, backing up off the scrums and line-outs going forward.
“It’s a healthy battle with Johnny. He is an excellent player and I'm learning off him. If it keeps going the same like this I will be extremely happy by the end of the tour.”
