Former All Black Justin Marshall has compared Andy Farrell’s decision to omit his son with a big Rassie Erasmus call before the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Owen Farrell was one of the big-name exclusions from the British and Irish Lions’ 38-man group to tour Australia next month.
Similarly, Erasmus decided to leave out 2019 World Cup winner Handre Pollard from his squad for the 2023 global tournament.
Just one 10 at the World Cup
That was due to the Springbok fly-half’s injury issues, with Manie Libbok the only out-and-out 10 named, but Pollard was immediately called in when Malcolm Marx went down early in the pool stages.
Marshall duly reckons that Lions boss Farrell will go down a similar route with Owen and bring him in later down the line.
“You will see him,” he said on the GBRANZ podcast. “There are always injuries.
“I think it’s quite a clever strategic move from Andy Farrell because of the pressure that was around it – ‘is he going to select his son?’ It’s like, ‘righto, I won’t select him in the first 38, I will have him as a standby’.
“It’s a classic Rassie Erasmus isn’t it? I’m not going to pick Pollard and then next minute somebody’s mysteriously injured, and in comes Pollard.”
Farrell has left the door open for two extra players to join the Lions tour and Marshall believes that Owen brings something to the table that the other fly-halves in the squad don’t have.
“The other component about leaving Farrell out is having one reliable goal-kicker,” he said.
“That’s why they said about leaving [Sam] Prendergast out because he’s actually a bloody good goal-kicker, but Marcus Smith and Fin Smith are a bit erratic.
“Finn Russell kicks really, really well when he plays for Racing or Bath, as he currently is, but for Scotland he can be slightly more erratic and the stats show that.
“If Finn Russell doesn’t start, they don’t go in with two seasoned pros or have a Jonny Wilkinson where it’s like, ‘righto, anything within 45 metres, he’s banging that thing over 90 per cent of the time’.”
Changes what the Wallabies do
Marshall was joined on the podcast by former Wallaby Jeremy Paul, who agreed with the ex-All Black and stated that having an accurate kicker could impact Australia’s approach.
“As a team you’re like, ‘no penalties, no penalties’. In that 50 metres, you’re over-disciplined I suppose, over-communicating about that penalty and range. Within 45 metres, it was three points every time [against Wilkinson],” he said.
“Marcus Smith being moved back to 15, I think they have to go Russell at 10. I think Gibson-Park is definitely the best nine, the way he controls the game.
“With Finn Russell, they will go 10, 12, 13 [Scotland] combo, that’s how I see it.”
READ MORE: Henry Pollock’s ploy to avoid B&I Lions blunder which sent Louis Rees-Zammit ‘to the NFL’
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/all-blacks-great-andy-farrell-has-used-classic-rassie-erasmus-move-with-clever-exclusion-of-son-owen
