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Owen Farrell needs to clean up his act to become England all-time great

<span>Photograph: Matthew Impey/Shutterstock</span>
Photograph: Matthew Impey/Shutterstock

Even as he made ugly contact with the head of Wasps’ young fly-half Charlie Atkinson, Owen Farrell knew he had messed up. Barely had he hit the ground himself before he could be seen lifting up both his arms in apology, fully aware a red card was the only possible outcome. The inevitable ban heading his way threatens to hit Saracens just as hard.

When an England captain is involved in these kind of incidents, as Dylan Hartley and Martin Johnson will wryly tell you, there is no rest for the wicked. This collision looked particularly grim: a young, innocent victim floored by an aggressor with a bit of previous who should have known better. All at a time when violent high challenges in rugby, rightly, are under the microscope. If Farrell is available for Saracens’ Champions’ Cup quarter-final away to Leinster on Saturday week the game will have much explaining to do.

Related: Owen Farrell red card cost Saracens dear against resurgent Wasps

There are all kinds of other possible implications, too, but let’s concentrate first on the actual tackle. Atkinson, not long out of Abingdon School, made his Premiership debut less than a fortnight ago. As he shaped to step inside, he seemed not to see the approaching black-shirted menace. Farrell had every opportunity to make a legal tackle, rather than the crude, one-arm bandit smash that followed. A simple misjudgment?

Farrell could easily have gone lower and there appeared a measure of pent-up frustration involved. If he is lucky the judiciary will decide it was simply a mid-level offence with an entry-point suspension of six games, which can be mitigated downwards by up to 50%. If, however, the panel, which meets on Tuesday night, decide it is a high-end misdemeanour, by a serial offender, the entry point will be 10 weeks with a five-week ban the best outcome.

Either way, there appears no chance of Farrell participating in the Leinster quarter-final, around which his relegated club’s entire season now hinges. If Saracens lose, their current season will in effect be over, potentially sidelining England’s skipper from competitive rugby until the national team’s scheduled game against the Barbarians at Twickenham on 25 October. When and where he plays again for Saracens remains to be seen.

It is also a state of affairs which, however much he claims otherwise, muddies the waters for Eddie Jones. Before the Saracens-Wasps game Jones was suggesting he had no plans to hand the responsibility to anyone else this coming winter. “We haven’t decided the captaincy yet but at this stage there is no reason why it will not be Owen. He did a great job in the World Cup and the Six Nations. If he is fit and available, there is a very good chance he will be captain.” Jones, unlike certain people currently in power, is hardly going to do a U-turn based on a few shrill headlines. Equally, he would not be doing his job properly if he did not ask himself a basic question: is a captain with a suspect tackling technique my best leadership option? And if he is, what does that say about the overall culture of my squad and its future capacity to learn from its mistakes?

One swinging arm in a club jersey, to be clear, is hardly the end of the world. Farrell remains a consummate professional, a world-class kicker and a certainty to make the British and Irish Lions squad next year. Jones will surely have to advise Farrell, however, that any further similar indiscretions will not be viewed benignly.

Maro Itoje is being widely touted as a potential Lions captain; if that scenario were to unfold, logic would suggest it makes Itoje a more than viable candidate to lead England into the 2023 World Cup in France.

The ball, then, is in Farrell’s court, regardless of the disciplinary panel’s verdict.

Maybe this weekend will prove a Damascene moment and prompt the most impressive conversion of his life: from single-minded, hair-trigger warrior to mature senior statesman, a man who can rise above life’s minor irritations, play hard but absolutely fair, smile benignly at officials and charm the media on a daily basis.

An unrealistic fantasy? Not if he fancies retiring as a national icon to rival Jonny Wilkinson. It will not be straightforward and nor should we underestimate the stresses latterly felt by all Saracens players as, one by one, every single certainty in their lives has evaporated. But, in addition to offering Atkinson a one-to-one mentoring session once the latter is fit again, Farrell needs to reflect on where he goes from here. He will be 29 in a little over a fortnight and, potentially, still has half a dozen more years to cement himself as an all-time English great. If that is his aim the king of the swingers needs to get a grip on himself.

Final uncertainty

Premiership sources have acknowledged they still do not know where this season’s Premiership final on 24 October will be played. Twickenham is due to host the England v Barbarians game, hopefully with a 20,000 crowd, the following day but officials admit they are still looking at staging the club finale at a neutral club ground instead. It is also understood all 12 Premiership clubs have applied to stage trial games with fans present and are awaiting updates from the government this week following the apparently successful pilot fixture between Harlequins and Bath at the Twickenham Stoop. “We have said on previous occasions that having supporters in the stadiums is fundamental to the future financial stability of the clubs and I think we demonstrated we can do that safely and securely,” said Quins’ chief executive Laurie Dalrymple, keen to see fans return again for his club’s final home fixture against Wasps. “I don’t see any reason why other clubs can’t do it.”

One to watch

Exeter will clinch a home play-off semi-final if they can score a bonus-point win over Gloucester on Wednesday, even if third-placed Bristol score a maximum points victory over Northampton 24 hours earlier. While the Bears could theoretically still get to 73 points with an equal number of wins, their points difference is so massively inferior there is no way they can overhaul the Chiefs if the leaders put four tries past a beaten Gloucester at Sandy Park. The race behind Exeter for the top four, however, is still intense with Sale, Bristol, Wasps and Bath separated by just five points with four rounds to play. Sunday’s fixtures involving 2 v 5 and 4 v 3 could prove pivotal.