Farrell could surely not have expected such a tormenting time in his debut season across the Channel, after he left Saracens last summer, with his big-spending Parisian employers assailed by trouble on and off the field.
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Read MoreThey are ninth out of 14 in the French league, and bottom of pool four of the Champions Cup, needing a win at home to Stormers on Saturday and other results to go their way to make it into the last 16.
He started eight of the first nine matches in the league, winning five, before needing surgery on a groin problem that had forced him to pass his highly valued goal-kicking duties to scrum-half Nolann le Garrec.
A neat pick-up for a try against Perpignan in October was a highlight, but the rugby paper Midi Olympique branded him as “the No 1 recruitment flop [in the Top 14]… plunging [observers] into an abyss of dismay”.
But The i Paper has been told by a well-placed source at Racing that the rumour of Farrell cutting short his two-year contract to return to England – Leicester and Saracens among those mentioned in the gossip – is incorrect, and he is expected to stay put next season.
And despite the obviously frustrating inactivity of late, Farrell is said by Racing team-mates to have been a great contributor in squad meetings and video analysis, particularly on defence.
Farrell joined Racing 92 from Saracens last summer (Photo: Getty)
Frederic Bernes, a rugby writer who covers Racing 92 regularly for French newspaper L’Equipe, tells The i Paper: “Up until now, Owen’s impact on the team is not really strong on the field; he was so-so.
“The young back row Maxime Baudonne said ‘he was very involved, he was like another coach for us’”.
And he is working amid the overall context of a club in transition under their ambitious owner Jacky Lorenzetti, developing youth and moving on from the team who had Finn Russell at fly-half when they played their third losing Champions Cup final out of three against Exeter Chiefs in 2020.
Recruiting the former England boss Lancaster from Leinster for the 2023-24 season was widely hailed as a smart move, and results at first were good, but they have dipped since the start of last year.
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Read MoreLancaster this season might point to five matches agonisingly lost in the last play, and then there have been multiple distractions including his own need to deny he had made any contact with Munster over their coaching vacancy, contrary to a version on a rugby podcast.
The 33-cap French international reportedly turned up to training in an unfit state, three days after the 29-7 loss at Sale Sharks in December.
The Fijian wing Vinaya Habosi, who performed strongly in last week’s third-round 29-19 loss in Glasgow, underwent an internal disciplinary case early in the season after a public row with his wife, though no police charges were brought.
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Read MoreLancaster junior arrived as a squad player, with experience for England Under-20s alongside Jack van Poortvliet and Fin Smith.
And then there is Henry Arundell, the England wonderkid in his second season at Racing, who will be returning to the Premiership this summer, although he is said within the club to have impressed with “the right attitude” in his Parisian sojourn.
“Publicly, the players are supporting him and his game-plan,” he says.
If not, the recent history of Racing suggests Lorenzetti will not keep any adverse opinions to himself.
“It’s not a city club, it’s a departement club which is very unclear in terms of identification. You have some real supporters but they are much less than in Toulouse, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Toulon and so on.
“When things are getting bad, sometimes you need pressure from outside to wake everybody up. That’s why the famous bursts of anger of Lorenzetti can be useful.”
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