By the point I'm brining myself to write about this the news has been out for a while and a few people have had the chance to weigh in on it, and it's getting on my nerves.
What happened?
Owen Farrell finally took a step back from the England squad and honestly, I was so excited when it happened, and then I read an article about it, and I got kind of annoyed about it.
Why did the article get on my nerves?
Because everything is saying that he's stepping back for his and his family's mental health and whilst I think that's a good reason to step back and I think it's great to hear sports personalities choosing to speak openly about mental health issues and I also think that some of the comments online were ridiculous I also think that sometimes the vitriol and the response to it clouds over the issues which started that in the first place.
During the early run up to the World Cup, Owen Farrell did something really stupid that he's been penalised for already this year, and due to the nature of what it was it put another person's safety and health at risk. There was, understandably, a lot of frustration about that, and not just from me. His absence wasn't the reason England didn't get through to the final, and actually they played amazingly well without him, and yet he's still treated as the be all and end all, and that gets on my nerves personally, because it means other good players in the squad either don't get a look in or they get played out of position and then don't perform the way that they would in their normal position.
A lot of that got blamed on Farrell, and that's not really fair because a lot of it was the coach. Farrell got a lot of abuse, including online and also with people booing him at a match. Whilst I absolutely can't say I would have been cheering for him if I was there - because I wouldn't - I think booing someone is a bit of an extreme reaction in this sort of sport. Let's face it, it's not a panto, so it's really not acceptable. It's also not fair to be making threats or personal attacks. You can criticise people for their bad actions without condemning them as a whole person. I'm a very big believer in the idea that we're not wholly bad or good.
That being sad, it does grate a little that this pause to his international career and the reasoning given for the break is painting him as something of a wrong martyr and that's not a narrative I have a lot of time for. I don't feel like he ever really owned his actions and his mistake, the ban that he was given was done under duress because it had initially been dropped and there was a lot of outrage because of it, and rightly so, but now this narrative is about online trolls (which is important) and it seems to be getting away from us talking about red cards for high tackles (which should be red carded) and the way that these rules seem to disproportionately affect tier 2 teams. Sadly people aren't talking about the two things, and the issues for tier 2 teams never got the attention that it deserved and now most people seem to have moved on completely.
I'm glad England will be having a new captain though I am disappointed about the really limited number of names that have been put about as the new captain names (especially given that George Ford isn't being mentioned) and there seems to have been less discussion around who the new 10 will be, and to me that's more important given the importance of the kicker in the game.
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