Owen Farrell arrives for the interview fresh from an extra kicking session following training at Saracens. Some things don’t change. He has spent his career searching for an edge. He has always felt that adding “extras” to his training sessions is the most obvious way to improve his game.
“When you are young, you are out there for however long it takes, always trying to do things more intensely,” he says. “I always wanted to be the last one on the field. When you’re younger, you get all sorts of inspiration from other people; try to be like that and try to be the best at this and that. It obviously served us all right.”
Yet other things have changed over the passage of time. Now 34, as Farrell enters the final years of his playing career, he has stopped chasing the perfection he might have seen in others and is instead concentrating on being himself.
He is no longer the player that always has to finish training last. He says the new generation of players like Charlie Bracken lead the way now. Yet this is far from an admission that he is winding down. Farrell says he still “loves being out there” and is still seeking to improve, but in a different way. There may still be another chapter to come in the career of the former England captain.
“I am happy with where I am at,” he says. “There are loads of things that I can do better. I think there is more freedom to what I can do, and that could be around the corner if I get it right. I want to kick on with it, is the point.”
I am intrigued by his use of the word “freedom.” Does that refer to his playing style, a different outlook framed by his experience and maturity?
“I guess I just feel like I am on the cusp of something – like it always has been, you want to get better at something, you want to feel better by working on things,” he says. “It is never the case when something just clicks, it is a constant thing. I have seen glimpses of it, and I feel like there could be more.”
Farrell has always been harder on himself than anyone else. He envies the confidence that the 19-year-old Noah Caluori has shown during his sensational rookie season.
“Everyone sees all the high-ball stuff and his finishing, but he has at times done an unbelievable job coming off his wing and taking some tough carries as well,” says Farrell. “The highlighted bits that everyone sees are not just the only thing that he does. He is big and strong as well, and he makes a difference all over the field.
“He’s obviously special. When he speaks, he knows he wants to get better. He knows he has to, he knows he wants to learn more and he wants to do it as quickly as possible. But he’s great in terms of how much he backs himself at the same time, I would have never been like that when I was younger.”
In a sense, his reference to playing with “freedom” also reflects a change in mindset for Farrell, a relief from some of that internal pressure.
“There were times when I’d overthink a lot of things, times where I got on top of myself too much, times where I felt like everything was on top of me. But I don’t feel that now, I still feel there’s miles more to come,” he adds.
“As you mature, you learn to do things a bit differently,” he adds. “What you used to do doesn’t always just keep working for the whole of your career. You learn to get the best out of yourself a bit differently. I am always wary about saying that sometimes you have changed because it could appear that you are pulling back, but it is really not the case, it is a way of getting more out of it. It is a way of letting the good stuff come out.
“When you are young, you are always chasing. You are still chasing now, but in a different way. I guess, maturing in that way, and trying to not carry things with you as much, and understanding that everything doesn’t have to go a certain way and you don’t have to expect everything to be the way you want it to be all the time. I would say I have got better at that. I wouldn’t say that I am good at it all the time.”
So has he mellowed a little bit? “I don’t know if people would describe it as ‘mellowed’. But it is different. I used to see what you think you should be. It used to fit at the same time when I was younger. I used to love trying harder at everything. I guess now half of it is almost not the ‘trying harder’ aspect. It is almost about getting out of my own way, peeling the layers off and let other stuff come through. Mellowed comes into that because I guess those sorts of things are softer skills but a lot of that comes from maturity and what you have been through.
“Now I try not to always keep piling stuff on top of yourself and be comfortable being you, backing yourself, and also getting out of the way of it. If that is the case on the training pitch and then in games, you are more than likely to have a good day.”
One wonders where all this leaves his thoughts about England. On his return from Racing 92 last year, Farrell told me his primary objective was to learn to love playing the game again. He forced his way into the Lions Test squad last summer as an injury replacement for Elliot Daly, but his position with England has yet to be addressed since he stepped away from the Test stage after the 2023 World Cup, during which his name was booed, to prioritise his and his family’s mental well-being.
But with England it has been something of a no man’s land. Was he good enough to feature in Borthwick’s plans again? And if he was, would he go back? Given England’s worst-ever Six Nations campaign, would Farrell, who has 112 caps for England and the experience of four Lions tours, make Borthwick’s squad better, given his hard-edged experience?
Given the news that Courtney Lawes, another England veteran who retired from the Test stage three years ago, is returning to the Prem to have one last crack at playing in next year’s World Cup, it is likely to remain a question of intrigue into next season.
Farrell, though, is keeping his cards close to his chest. He needs to show international form for Saracens first, starting against Leicester Tigers at the StoneX on Saturday as the club look to keep alive outside hopes of making the Prem play-offs.
But could he see himself part of the England set-up again if he were asked?
“I can’t tell you anything other than just what I’ve been like doing and what I’ve been focusing on and what I’ve been like trying to enjoy here and trying to get the best out of myself,” he adds. “And like I said to you, that feels like there’s loads more to come from that. There’s loads more, and then who knows? I don’t want that to sound leading in any sort of way. It is just where I am at.
“I’ve not given it a lot of thought, and I don’t know if I need to do anything different other than what I am doing anyway, which is just trying to get on and be the best that I can be and the best help I can be around here.
“It [the World Cup] is a long way off at the minute. I know everybody wants to talk about it and rightly so, but I just want to crack on with what I am doing.”