Luke Cowan-Dickie has hit back at the negative reaction to Andy Farrell’s controversial decision to call up his son Owen to join the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.
England hooker Cowan-Dickie has waxed lyrical over ‘class player’ Farrell, with the Saracens fly-half to link up with the squad in Sydney on Friday.
Lions head coach Farrell has been forced into replacing utility back Elliot Daly, who has been ruled out of the rest of the 2025 Tour having suffered a fractured foream in the 52-12 win over the Queensland Reds.
Farrell has turned to son Owen, who will become a British and Irish Lion for the fourth time – the fifth player in history to do so.
But his decision has triggered a storm of criticism from fans amid claims of nepotism.
England icon Owen, who quit international rugby in 2023 to join Racing 92 in France before returning to Saracens this summer, has been a polarising figure for his entire career.
And while the ferocious online backlash is hardly unexpected, Cowan-Dickie has insisted that the news has been well received from within the camp.
He said: "You don't lose class and Faz is a class player.
“The internal reaction [to Owen Farrell being called up] was good, Faz is a well known player, he's played quality rugby over many years.
“We knew someone had to come in due to Elliot getting injured which is obviously gutting for him.
“But the overall reaction is what you'd expect, he's a top quality player.
"Obviously, I know Faz well, he's one of those players who will definitely add to the group.
“I'm quite excited to see him, hopefully he's a bit jet lagged so I can get into him a bit."
Scotland fans were stunned when the Lions didn't call up utility back Tom Jordan, who is in New Zealand with the Scottish squad and could have followed scrum half Ben White by taking a flight across the Tasman Sea.
White has replaced Wales scrum half Tomos Williams who was injured against Western Force.
However, Cowan-Dickie can see the logic of calling up Farrell whose playing and training standards will drive the Lions group.
He explained: "The thing with Owen is, he's a good team man, so he might not be involved one week.
“But the next week everything stays the same for him training wise and the standards that he wants.
"He's a good captain, I’ve had many of them over the years.
“The one thing with Faz is that even if he is not the captain, the standards that he sets on the training field, he's got a bit of an aura on the training field which makes you want to try and train to perfection.
“It's quite hard to perfect training every single day. He definitely makes the standards higher."
As for boss Farrell, he himself has responded to the ‘nonsense’ reaction ahead of the Lions’ outing with New South Wales Waratahs on Saturday.
He stated: “I hope people can get past that [the negative reaction]. I think there’s been a lot of that nonsense for some time and that was in the past.
“We all just need to move on and embrace what the Lions is all about and what we’ve got coming ahead.
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June 20, Dublin: Lions vs Argentina
June 28, Perth: Lions vs Western Force
July 2, Brisbane: Lions vs Queensland Reds
July 5, Sydney: Lions vs New South Wales Waratahs
July 9, Canberra: Lions vs ACT Brumbies
July 12, Adelaide: Lions v ANZAC XV
July 12, Brisbane: Lions v Wallabies
July 22, Melbourne: Lions v First Nations and Pasifika XV
July 26, Melbourne: Lions v Wallabies
August 2, Sydney: Lions v Wallabies
“There’s plenty of players that have not played Test matches for quite some time.
“There’s plenty of players that missed Six Nations or 12 weeks of not playing.”
