Owen Farrell opens door to England return after taking up new job on the side | Rugby | Sport

Owen Farrell has opened the door for a return to the England squad after being overlooked by the British and Irish Lions. The veteran fly-half was omitted from the travelling group despite his father, Andy, being the head coach. Concerns over his fitness were cited as the main reason for excluding Farrell, who previously toured with the Lions in 2013, 2017 and 2021.

It was revealed earlier this week that Farrell had accepted a new job with Sky Sports ahead of the upcoming tour of Australia. He will be working as a pundit when the Lions go up against Argentina in a warm-up match next weekend. He could still be called up at a later date but was not among the extra players recruited for this week’s training camp in Portugal.

Now, it has emerged that Farrell is returning to Saracens just a year after leaving the club to join French side Racing 92. According to The Telegraph, he has already signed a five-year deal as a player-coach, which is set to take hold with immediate effect.

It is said that Saracens have paid a transfer fee of around £169,250, which is considerably less than the £425,000 that Racing 92 had initially demanded. They received approaches from other Premiership clubs but Farrell only wanted to rejoin his former side.

His return to the Premiership will make him eligible to play for England ahead of their upcoming tour of Argentina and the United States. Under current RFU rules, players who are not based in England cannot be called up to the national team.

Farrell’s commitment to rejoin Saracens will technically allow England boss Steve Borthwick to select him, but it remains to be seen if the player himself will be prepared to revive his international career.

After the Rugby World Cup in 2023, Farrell revealed that he would be stepping back from England duty for mental health reasons. However, he recently hinted at a potential return by insisting that he wanted to keep playing for as long as possible.

“I absolutely love what I do,” he told TNT Sports. “I’m passionate about it and I don’t see that slowing down. I wouldn’t sit down and set targets.

“I also wouldn’t say they [thoughts of retirement] are not in the back of my head. They are there in the background. You want to make sure that you’re playing well and your focus is on now. We’ll see what happens.”

Farrell remains England’s all-time leading points scorer and has earned 112 caps for his country in total. He last played internationally at the Rugby World Cup two years ago, where England were dumped out in the semi-finals by South Africa.