Owen Farrell has been urged to bring his confrontational style to the England captaincy and get “in the face” of France by Eddie Jones, but was warned he must curb his aggression when talking to the referee.
Farrell will captain England from the start for the first time on Saturday, having escaped punishment for his role in the tunnel bust-up before England’s defeat by Scotland last month. Farrell was caught on camera running up the tunnel to accost Scotland’s No 8 Ryan Wilson but England argued that he was coming to the aid of George Ford.
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Farrell has previous against France after he was fortunate to avoid disciplinary action for an elbow on Morgan Parra in 2013. That incident followed a trip by Louis Picamoles but while France were successful in riling Farrell back then, Jones said he had no qualms turning to his inside-centre once Hartley was ruled out with a calf injury.
“We want him to be in their face. That is one of the best attributes of his play. He is an aggressive, in-your-face type player, we want him to be like that,” said Jones. Asked if the tunnel incident at Murrayfield affected his decision, Jones added: “Not at all. He did what was right for the team. I expect our players to do what is right for the team.”
While Hartley has captained England for 25 of Jones’s 26 matches in charge – Chris Robshaw and George Ford shared the responsibility against Samoa in the autumn – Farrell habitually takes over when the hooker is replaced. He did so against Australia in November but Jones was forced to defend Farrell’s manner when remonstrating with the referee, Ben O’Keeffe, to ensure a Wallabies try was reviewed and subsequently disallowed.
“We don’t want him to be aggressive and in the face of [Saturday’s referee] Jaco [Peyper],” added Jones. “That is when he is going to have to have that ability to change but he does that with his goal-kicking. He slows himself down and gets his heart-rate down and kicks superbly and that is the role he will have to do when he needs to speak to the referee.”