Rugby World Cup 2019: Owen Farrell issues rallying cry to fans to get behind England and inspire them to glory

England captain wants his side to give the nation something to scream about after watching the women’s football and cricket teams bring the public together to create something special

Owen Farrell has issued a rallying call to the nation to get behind the England team and inspire them to Rugby World Cup glory, having seen what the public can do during this summer’s major tournaments.

England Women may not have won the World Cup in the summer, but their run to the semi-finals captured the imagination of the nation as England got behind the Lionesses like never before. That feeling was magnified by the stunning circumstances in which England won the Cricket World Cup in that famous super-over at Lord’s.

Now, it is the turn of Farrell’s England team to inspire the nation and bring the feel-good factor back once again, but the skipper knows that will only happen if they manage what they failed to do four years ago and emerge from the pool stage.

“Whenever a team has got to the knockout stages and built some momentum, the country goes mental for it,” Farrell said on the eve of England’s opening World Cup clash with Tonga. “The football World Cup last year was a massive example of that. The Cricket World Cup again showed loads of momentum towards the end, the Women’s World Cup was brilliant.

“England’s a fantastic place that builds loads of momentum when there’s a tournament on and every time one comes around you get involved in it.

“I already know how good the nation is at getting behind the team at tournaments like this. We’ve all been a fan, whether it was the football World Cup, Cricket World Cup, and you seen the momentum that gathers back home.

“I’m sure those teams were able to feed off that. Hopefully we give them something to cheer about while we’re here and get some momentum from it.”

England have spent a long time waiting for this moment, particularly in light of the 2011 and 2015 debacles. Farrell was a part of the latter squad, having been overlooked for Martin Johnson’s squad on the ill-disciplined tour of New Zealand, and while he stresses the campaign four years ago no longer players a part in his thinking, it is inevitable that those 2015 survivors in this squad feel a debt to make up to the public.

That in a way resonates to what the cricket team – and in particular Ben Stokes – went through. That infamous night in Bristol threatened to wreck Stokes’s career, let alone his reputation with the public, yet what the last four months have shown us is that the sporting public will forgive and forget if the achievement is so big that it cannot help but be celebrated.

Stokes now seems a shoe-in for the Sports Personality of the Year award come the end of 2019, and no matter how strange it sounds, the accolade still represents an awful lot given that it is a public vote.

Farrell may just be one of those who could rival the cricketer for the gong if he leads England to the World Cup for the first time in 16 years. But he doesn’t plan on being the only star in Japan this autumn. Asked who England’s Ben Stokes-like figure in the squad is, he immediately answers: “Hopefully we’ve got a few. We’ll see what presents itself.”

Owen Farrell wants his England team to give the English public something to get behind (Getty)

England launch their campaign inside the Sapporo Dome, scene of Australia’s near-scare against Fiji yesterday afternoon, where it became quickly apparent that even if a capacity crowd of 45,000 fans turn out, the noise will not be an issue. Such is the nature of Japanese sport that fans cheer at the right time, show respect at the right time and clap at the right time, but between those little interludes, stadiums will be exceptionally quiet. It is a remarkable instance that can perhaps only be rivalled by the silence experienced at Thomond Park when Munster’s opposition kick at goal.

Such is the silence surrounding the stadium, England’s lineout calls will be louder than ever, given the voices among the Wallabies and Fijians could be distinctly heard on Saturday. England will be fully aware of that, as while they trained inside an empty Dome on Friday, the full coaching team plus the non-playing members of the squad were in attendance to watch the Pool D opener involving what could very well be England’s quarter-final opposition. It’s for that reason that Jamie George will come prepared, with the hooker the most at risk of scrutiny come lineout time.

“Around lineout time there is a bit of change we might need to make in order for a line-out to work, you need a trigger,” George said. “Often a line-out caller will shout a letter or number or a colour and that triggers movements. You can go into a line-out with three or four different things that can happen and you are listening for that. Thankfully our line-out callers are pretty good at that and we are aware of that.

“I have always got potential options when the lineout happens. The trigger might be a hand movement, we might just back one thing. There are hundreds of options you can get around that. It is just being aware of that and making sure we are all clear what we want me to do.”