Farrell and Co are repaying coach’s faith
IHAVE been very impressed with Stuart Lancaster’s start as England coach, which has led the team to two wins from two matches and featured some great performances from Saracens players.
The biggest thing Lancaster does is back his players – and they definitely feel it. There’s no uncertainty. People like Mouritz Botha and Brad Barritt have played for him before with the Saxons and I think that is the single most important reason they are doing so well.
Owen Farrell has taken his assured kicking onto the international stage with great success. Owen is a really talented young rugby player, with wonderful skills and temperament, and he has shown that. It’s vital now that England stick with him. I’ve said it before: he will make mistakes. The ability to keep faith with Owen and some of the others is going to be the trick and that’s probably the downside should England decide to change managers again.
Would I like to see Lancaster keep the job? That’s not completely my call, but he has been very impressive. He laid down the law on little things like the Danny Care incident, acting quickly and decisively – and players want that.
Farrell, Barritt and Botha – as well as Charlie Hodgson – have been rewarded for their progress with Saracens and involvement in the Saxons, all working their way up to the senior team. When the club started doing better we knew we’d have more players in the representative teams, and that natural progression has been eased by the Saxons coach becoming England coach.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Someone else I fancy to follow them is our young hooker Jamie George. He’s currently doing an apprenticeship under Schalk Brits and John Smit and still getting game time. He plays the game with his brain, is very skilful and offers something different. Every time he plays he impresses.
Despite having several players away on Six Nations duty, Sarries have continued to be terrific. They’ve really pulled their weight and when I regularly fly over from South Africa to visit I’m always really impressed with what they’re doing. We don’t see our team as weakened over this period, and that’s because of our rotation policy. All of these players have played in the Premiership. Some are younger but there’s so much experience, even among people like Jamie, Jackson Wray and George Krule.
Brendan Venter is Technical Director of Saracens. They face Leicester Tigers on Sunday, kick-off 2:30pm. Under-14s go free. For tickets call 08448471876 or visit www.saracens.com