Never at any stage since his professional debut at the age of 17 had Owen Farrell been deemed surplus to requirements, until yesterday.
On those unusual occasions when England chose to start without their captain, they would always take the precaution of making sure they had him on the bench in case of emergency, likewise the Lions before deciding the time had come to cut the umbilical cord.
Farrell, lauded only the other week by Sir Ian McGeechan as ‘a Test match animal’, found himself reduced to the anonymity of a masked bystander for the series decider. In the circumstances, nobody can have been surprised that a season of personal dissatisfaction should come to such an anti-climactic end.
By a strange quirk of fate, his failure to make the bench, let alone the starting XV, will have left him with a bit more than a mental bruise or two, quite something for a player whose granite-like fortitude made him appear immune to human frailty.
It also left him high and dry on 99 Tests and, more significantly, one last chance to complete a century unlike no other. None of the six fly-halves who reached three figures did so in their twenties.
Farrell, of course, will get there with England in the autumn but by then he will have turned 30.
Cape Town yesterday, therefore, would have been his last shot at the goal, not that it mattered an iota in the greater scheme of things. Provided Saracens‘ Premiership reinstatement restores him to peak condition, Farrell will still make it at a younger age than any of his counterparts – Ronan O’Gara (130 Tests), Dan Carter (112), Stephen Jones (110), Johnny Sexton (105), Matt Giteau (103) and Stephen Larkham (102).
Two other fly-halves of global repute, Beauden Barrett and Nicolas Sanchez, are some way adrift.
The All Black, 30 in May, played his 92nd international off the bench in Auckland yesterday as second fiddle to Richie Mo’unga.
Sanchez, coming up 33 after 87 matches for Argentina, still has a way to go.
“The intriguing question will be how Farrell copes with his first major setback”
Of the century-makers only Sexton has played every Test at ten. His Lions predecessor O’Gara always started there, appearing elsewhere only as a sub. Jones can claim to have been an ever-present fly-half for Wales except for one match at centre and while Carter often played centre, especially in the early days, it didn’t stop him becoming the supreme stand-off of the professional era.
Not surprisingly, he completed his century, against England at Twickenham eight years ago, at a younger age than anyone else. In doing so he broke the record set by Jones three years earlier, eclipsing the Welshman by more than 12 months.
Farrell, in turn, can still round off his ton with almost two years to spare on Carter. The more intriguing question will be asked over how he copes with the first major setback of a phenomenal career.
Failure and Owen Farrell have been poles apart for so long that few could have imagined this time last year that the Lions, in their most urgent hour of need, would not consider him worth a place in their 23.
The writing on the wall, starting with a few scribbles over Saracens’ demotion and becoming ever clearer during England’s dismal Six Nations, can never have been more stark. Farrell will turn that into a hydroelectric source of motivation between now and England’s first match of the coming season.
He will also appreciate that the future is not entirely in his own hands. Surely it can be but a matter of time before even Eddie Jones realises that Marcus Smith is no longer tomorrow’s man but that his time is now.
That threatens to have a narrowing effect on Farrell’s Test future. Should Marvellous Marcus make the quantum leap from Premiership show-stopper to global superstar, Farrell will be left to concentrate on making the 2023 World Cup at inside centre where England have redeployed him for the majority of matches over the last two years.
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