Have you been ghost-writing for Brian Moore?
"The weekend was a throwback to times when two young fly-halves were strutting their stuff on the way to the top of English rugby. So much has been written and said about Owen Farrell and George Ford that just to see them simply playing, without the claustrophobic strictures of international rugby, was delightful, but tinged with one huge caveat, which we will address later.
Farrell, 31, splits opinion in the starkest of manners; very few are neutral about him or his performances. He is a wonderful footballer and the most tenacious of competitors. From almost first whistle to last against Northampton Saints he ran the game with a judicious mixture of belligerence, perception and precision. So much so that you had to wonder why anyone would see him as an international centre when he is so clearly a No 10.
In many ways Farrell’s game has developed along the lines of another great fly-half – Johnny Sexton. Initially a superb executor of game plans, a precision kicker, and a driver of men. You always wondered if he had to step outside this prescribed game whether he would have the necessary talent. Sexton has answered that question – he has.
On Saturday, like Sexton, you saw the more complete package, with Farrell’s probing kicks augmented by playing flat to the line and being a highly effective distributor. It left you wondering: what if Eddie Jones had let him play with this freedom and concentrated on finding a settled centre partnership outside him?
On Sunday, Farrell’s former schoolboy team-mate, Ford, put in a man-of-the-match performance to help Sale to the Premiership final in two weeks. Not a time for his attacking guile, this was a time to dig in and marshal the game into areas of the field that kept Leicester at bay.
Ford, 30, did this with aplomb. Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson could not have been more effusive in his praise of Ford, saying an area of calmness surrounds him. He was like the rugby version of David Gower, someone who seems to have that bit more time than other players.
I have always had a sneaking respect for Sale – unfashionable, unapologetic and just very effective. They operate in the most difficult sporting environment possible, scrapping for every young player and fan, while surrounded by four big Premier League football teams and several Championship clubs.
In the final, Farrell and Ford will be pitted directly against each other and although this is a tantalising prospect, the truth is that the player who is given the front-foot ball to play with will probably come out on top.
Nonetheless, it will be fascinating to watch both trying to manage the game in its context. There is no doubt Sale do not have the same cup final experience as Saracens, but their obduracy could carry them a long way, provided they do not get blown away at the breakdown, like Northampton.
When historians come to write up this period of rugby, they might define a fault line that hampered England developing for long periods. None of this is the fault of Farrell or Ford, but the talent of both players has been such that under the former England head coaches, Stuart Lancaster and Jones, it was deemed necessary to have both in the same team. This led to many years where selectors did not force themselves to choose between the two, insisting that Ford played at fly-half and Farrell at inside centre.
This was nowhere near as productive as claimed. This is because the concept of two playmakers is overrated and for each time you can highlight when it worked, you can point to many more times when it did not.
Furthermore, when Farrell played at No 12, he did a job, but that should not be the measure. The assessment should consider what is lost when he does not play at No 10, and what someone else, a natural centre, could have done had they been given the time to develop a long-term partnership and whether those things, in aggregate, would have been more effective.
All this said, it will be a pleasure to watch two masters of their craft playing for English rugby’s biggest club prize."
