Farrell not enough to make Eddie smile
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:40
Despite seeing his under-strength Saracens sides nearly upset Scarlets in Sunday’s EDF Energy Cup opener Director of Rugby Eddie Jones was still not a happy man.
Jones had made 14 changes from his team which had beaten Richard Hill’s Bristol aon Wednesday night and yet saw his team narrowly go down 26-17 against a Scarlets teams which featured 13 full international players.
Having used the game as an opportunity to showcase some of the clubs young talent Jones admitted afterwards that he was disappointed that 'The Men in Black' had failed to take their chances and made costly errors at the wrong times.
"I'm not pleased with the result. It's a game we should have won - and should have won well.
"There are some promising things there but there were some silly, little errors.
"We turned the ball over at the set-piece and the breakdown, made some uncharacteristic handling errors and didn't have enough motion on the ball.
"I'm disappointed with that but there's a foundation there for Saracens going forward and that's very important for us to be a successful club.
"There were six or seven guys under the age of 20 that played today and a lot of those have good futures if they work hard."
The name who would grab all the headlines is a familiar one of course. Farrell, but this time Owen, not Andy, provided a highlight on the night when, at just 17 years and 11 days old, he replaced Alex Goode and became the youngest player to ever play at the top club level.
Former Australian coach Jones clearly has high hopes for young Farrell and says, despite his age, he is already showing some of the important signs of a good professional player.
"He is one of a group of young kids coming through. He's very mature, he's got a very serious attitude and is desperate to make it.
"He understands the game for a young kid and has a good appreciation of what's going on around him."
