{"id":7594,"date":"2012-02-03T01:38:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T23:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/rugby-england-debut-trio-take-different-routes-to-top\/"},"modified":"2012-02-03T01:38:17","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T23:38:17","slug":"rugby-england-debut-trio-take-different-routes-to-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-england-debut-trio-take-different-routes-to-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-England debut trio take different routes to top"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mitch Phillips<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

BAGSHOT, England<\/span> Feb 2 (Reuters) – Three men will
\npull on an England senior shirt for the first time and walk out
\nproudly together to face Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday but
\nthe routes they have taken to get there could not have been more
\ndifferent.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Twenty-year-old tyro Owen Farrell, South Africa-born Brad
\nBarritt and 30-year-old number eight Phil Dowson were the
\nheadline-makers when interim coach Stuart Lancaster stayed true
\nto his word on Thursday, with five more uncapped players
\nincluded among the replacements.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Farrell, outstanding for Saracens this season, will start at
\ninside centre and if he performs as nervelessly in the Six
\nNations opener as he did in front of the media pack on Thursday
\nthen England might well have solved the number 12 problem which
\nhas dogged them since Will Greenwood retired.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Farrell was always destined to play international rugby from
\nthe moment his toddler hands began swapping passes with his
\nfather Andy, a dual-code international and now England assistant
\ncoach.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

His formative years were spent in Wigan as Andy led the
\ntown’s league team to 13-man glory but once he too switched
\ncodes he represented England at every junior level.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

His calm game management at Saracens and ice-cool nerve,
\nnotably on show when his goalkicking helped them win last year’s
\nPremiership final, belie his tender years and he expects to
\nremain as grounded in the cauldron of an evening Calcutta Cup
\nclash with an atmosphere fuelled by a day’s Edinburgh drinking.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’ve kicked in front of 82,000 at Twickenham, it doesn’t
\nchange for me,” he told reporters. “The build-up to it may be a
\nbit different, the atmosphere is exciting at the beginning and
\nyou notice at the end but it’s just a game and in between you
\nhave a job to do. Once you cross that white line you focus on
\nyour job.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m excited, as anyone would be, and I’m looking forward to
\ngetting stuck in. I’m looking forward to the atmosphere, looking
\nto enjoy it and hopefully thrive off it.”
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mitch Phillips BAGSHOT, England Feb 2 (Reuters) – Three men will pull on an England senior shirt for the first time and walk out proudly together to face Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday but the routes they have taken to get there could not have been more different. Twenty-year-old tyro Owen Farrell, South Africa-born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}