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Rugby Union: Owen Farrell’s captaincy style leaves his England teammates rudderless

The referee, Romain Poite, issues a warning for fightin
The referee, Romain Poite, issues a warning for fighting to both team captains, Siya Kolisi and Owen Farrell Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Leadership is one of sport’s intangibles. Eddie Jones caused a stir when he made Dylan Hartley his first captain, given the hooker’s less than exemplary disciplinary record, but it was an astute choice as England’s problems without him emphasise.

England’s 2015 World Cup had ended after they had failed to engage with the French referees in their matches against Wales and Australia and one of Hartley’s qualities was getting officials to listen to him and he was always unfailingly polite and deferential. Owen Farrell was in one sense a natural successor to Hartley, a player who makes himself heard, but they are contrasting leaders. The Northampton hooker’s deference has been replaced by a more strident, hectoring tone that made no impression on Romain Poite in Bloemfontein.

England became individual as their lead dissipated in Johannesburg, no one able to devise a rescue plan for a match that was slipping away, but this time Farrell made himself heard. He complained to Poite after 19 minutes, as South Africa were applying the pressure that led to their first try, that the Springboks were getting away with too much. Ten minutes later, with the deficit down to two, he marched up to Poite again after a scuffle broke out to declare: “We’re trying to play rugby.” His timing was off because Mako Vunipola was about to be called for planting his hand on the face of the prone Pieter-Steph du Toit while Maro Itoje had appeared to get away with a challenge off the ball on Faf de Klerk.

The louder and more aggressively Farrell talked, the less Poite took note. The England captain was protesting again 10 minutes from the end, after conceding a penalty as he desperately tried to turn around a match that had again highlighted England’s weaknesses when they are not in possession, but his words were not heard. Hartley may not have been picked in the squad had he been fit given Jones’s determination to speed up England’s game, but the way the first two Tests, and with them the series, have gone and the number of times Jones has in the last two years talked about Hartley’s understated leadership, he very probably would have been.

Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie are more conspicuous than Hartley on the field, but they are followers in a team that needs leaders. For the second weekend in a row, England suffered the curse of taking a big, early lead, a case of deja voodoo. They were at their most effective carrying out training-ground moves in possession, exploiting the narrowness of South Africa’s defence to score two tries in the opening 12 minutes.

This time, they succeeded in slowing down South Africa’s possession sufficiently to reduce the effectiveness of De Klerk, as well as the number of penalties they conceded at the breakdown, but they again added up to less than the sum of their parts and no one was able to offer an example against opponents who again managed their limitations.

The cool demeanour of South Africa’s captain, Siya Kolisi, contrasted with Farrell’s accelerating indignation. The England players had no one to rally around. Some of the penalties they conceded crossed the threshold of stupidity, culminating in Nathan Hughes’s yellow card 11 minutes from time when the match was still salvageable.

Hartley would have been off the field by that time had he been playing, but it was in the second quarter that England needed an exemplar. Farrell is the ultimate competitor but he has always struggled to contain his frustration and keep his mind clear when the temperature is at its highest.

He will be called to account for his decision at the end of the first half to decline a kickable penalty and go for touch.

England, unlike against Wales in the 2015 World Cup, did have a move that was working well until Mako Vunipola knocked on as he spotted De Klerk lining him up. Two minutes later, Pollard converted a long-range penalty to give South Africa a lead they were not to lose, but it was more about the example to his players that Farrell needed to set.

Jones has pointed out how academy systems deliver model players but no leaders. His vision of having a team that will effectively make him redundant because players will be able to solve problems as they arise without looking to the sidelines has never looked more remote. Without Hartley, he is in a jam.