Farrell / Must Be Dropped / Part 2

From Curry’s sending off in the third minute of England’s RWC opener on Saturday, England were backs to the wall.  And how George Ford responded! – 27 points from his boot, and a masterpiece of strategic adaptation and game management (which he’d been doing for Leicester all season before his nasty injury in the 2022 Premiership final[1]: so, no surprises whatever).

The suspended Owen Farrell could no more have pulled off that essential performance than fly over the moon: all he’d have come up with would have been blood-and-guts, huff-and-puff, & probably another card.    And England would effectively have been out before the tournament had even really got going.  His red card and still-current suspension during the warm-up series was as felicitous for England as that.  

And there is no obvious vacancy at 12.

This is the RWC; this is serious.  So, back to where we were four weeks ago:  Farrell Must be Dropped.[2]  

ND

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[1] Haven’t seen this mentioned, but nearly half England’s starting 15 (and some of the Argentinians!) have played with Ford at Leicester at one time or another.

[2] Actually, for a little more creativity: when his suspension is lifted, Farrell could be put on the bench against the contingency some opposing eejit decides the solution to Ford’s dominance is to drop him with a forearm to the head.  Then the bonehead can take over against the remaining 14 men.  Smith can also be on the bench as a general-purpose option: people already like the thought of him at 15, and he could probably do 9 as well as 10.