Reunion of Wigan pair gives nation reason to believe again

[Antwigan]

A good read of 'our' 2 lads... from the Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 13,00.html

Reunion of Wigan pair gives nation reason to believe
The mutual appreciation society was completed by Robinson, who twinned Farrell and Wilkinson in the same sentence and could barely find the full-stop to cram in the superlatives.

Come to think of it, the loser in this was probably Robinson himself, who got some kind words from Wilkinson but little from Farrell bar the blame for losing Wigan Warriors the 2000 Super League Grand Final to St Helens. Robinson did not show much interest in this line of conversation, but Farrell recalled Robinson’s crucial error (a knock-on) — Farrell might have added that he himself had scored a try — and the point was nicely made, albeit in jest: this man does not do defeat well.

The Wigan reunion would excite anyone, Wilkinson for one and Brian Ashton for another. The England head coach’s own roots are in rugby league: his late father, Albert, played for Wigan and he watched his first game there in 1951. Of Farrell and Robinson playing at Twickenham together, he said: “I’ve thought ‘Wow!’ I never thought anything like this would happen.”

More pertinently, he has watched the chemistry of these old club-mates and wondered what it might do for England. “I’ve got a gut feeling,” he said, “that having Farrell and Robinson on the field together will spur them on to something special.”

This is not purely hunch, though, and the evidence has already been at large. “They’re pretty competitive in training,” he said. “It was a very competitive environment that they both came from. They’re quite keen to upstage each other.”

They are clearly delighted to be reunited in this way, too, as Robinson made apparent in recalling the team announcement: “My name got read out, his name got read out. It was a massive thing, for me and for him. We’ve had some great times over the years, we’ve been reminiscing this week. He deserves it, he’s one of the best players I’ve played with.”

Yet for all the staggering pinch-me unlikelihood of having these two rugby league legends playing for England in the other code, there is a clear composure to Farrell. When he sat at home watching Wilkinson kick that Sydney dropped goal in 2003 — “as excited as anybody, very proud”, he said — he never imagined himself at England level in the 15-man game. And even having switched, the “nightmare” of the 18 months he spent injured made him doubt that even more.

But now he is here, there is no sense of a grand debut upon him. He said he expected to feel no different on Saturday to the way he felt when he played international rugby league. “To play for your country is always the same motivation,” he said. “The aim of every sportsman is to be the best. Everybody puts pressure on themselves and it’ll not be any different for us on Saturday.”

Which can surely only warm the hearts of England fans. The selection of Farrell and Wilkinson, in particular, has been described as a great gamble, but when you see these three so at ease with the tasks ahead, so thrilled with the opportunities at hand, you wonder at the levels of confidence they must inspire in their team-mates.

You get the impression, too, that they are warming to the challenge of rescuing England from their slump. “I’m patriotic in any sport. The cricket’s been killing me over the last few weeks,” Farrell said.

For the moment, he would settle for sorting out the rugby union team. England cricket? Now there’s a challenge for him.

[ancientnloyal]

I said in a previous post about Farrell that Im happy about any attention, the Wigan club is again in the newspapers, albeit for non rugby-league purposes

[Ron]

Ant: Love your avatar, couldn't stop laughing. Where did you get it?

[Antwigan]

Hello there
MMmm now your asking. I trove through that many forums and right clicking on other peoples avatars to save to my comp I couldn't possibly remember sorry. May have been the excellent skyuser website.
Cheers