{"id":106715,"date":"2025-08-30T12:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T12:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/106715\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T12:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T12:17:08","slug":"racing-92-owner-levels-scathing-rebuke-at-owen-farrell-in-french-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/106715\/","title":{"rendered":"Racing 92 owner levels scathing rebuke at Owen Farrell in French press"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jacky Lorenzetti has launched a stinging attack on Owen Farrell<\/a>, accusing the former England<\/a> captain of dishonesty in the manner of his departure from Racing 92<\/a> earlier this summer.<\/p>\n

The comments come just two and a half months after Racing and Saracens<\/a> reached an agreement for Farrell to tear up the final year of his contract in Paris, paving the way for a return to North London.<\/p>\n

Racing, who had originally paid \u00a3500,000 to buy Farrell out of his Saracens deal in 2023, were determined to recoup as much as possible of that outlay.<\/p>\n

After a tense round of negotiations, a compromise fee was agreed, thought to be in the region of \u20ac225,000, ending Farrell\u2019s underwhelming spell in France.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old had signed a two-year contract at La D\u00e9fense Arena but managed just 17 appearances, his stay blighted by injuries and speculation about his long-term future.<\/p>\n

Lorenzetti had previously defended his marquee signing in public, describing him as \u201can incredible leader\u201d even as Racing slipped to tenth place in the Top 14.<\/p>\n

His tone has now hardened dramatically.<\/p>\n

For the Racing owner, it seems it was Farrell\u2019s appearance over the summer for the British & Irish Lions<\/a> that has left a sour taste in his mouth.<\/p>\n

Just weeks after cutting short his unhappy stint at Racing 92, the 33-year-old fly-half was back in a red jersey, called up by father Andy Farrell for the tour of Australia. He made four appearances for the Lions despite having allegedly told Racing he needed to scale back his playing commitments.<\/p>\n

Speaking this weekend, the Racing owner told<\/a> L\u2019\u00c9quipe: \u201cI felt like throwing up. He left us saying: \u2018I\u2019m injured, I have a headache, I want to play less. Saracens are offering me this opportunity, etc.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd suddenly we find him with the Lions. It\u2019s something I don\u2019t understand. It\u2019s called lying. You have to tell it like it is. It feels good to let him go! I felt like I\u2019d been betrayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lorenzetti has form for turning on his stars, having previously criticised Siya Kolisi\u2019s impact at Racing and branded Johan Goosen\u2019s sudden 2016 retirement.<\/p>\n

Farrell\u2019s return to Saracens always looked inevitable, despite interest from Leicester<\/a> Tigers and other Premiership sides.<\/p>\n

The fly-half, who has 112 England caps and three World Cups to his name, is understood to have accepted a significant pay cut from the \u00a3685,000 a year reported in the French press to fit within Mark McCall\u2019s wage structure at StoneX Stadium.<\/p>\n

For Racing, the Farrell affair was the latest in a line of costly misfires in their \u201cgalacticos\u201d recruitment drive, which also brought Siya Kolisi<\/a> to the club after his World Cup heroics. Farrell, twice named European Player of the Year, was supposed to be the missing piece in the Parisian side\u2019s pursuit of a first Champions Cup.<\/p>\n

RugbyPass understands that Racing 92 are now moving away from the superstar model of recruitment, due to what Lorenzetti feels have been repeated high-profile dud signings for the club.<\/p>\n

Although he specifically excluded Owen Farrell, Stuart Lancaster\u2019s recent comments about his time at the club would seem to support the idea that there was a group of overpaid and underperforming stars employed at the Parisian side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the environment I\u2019ve just left [Racing 92], without naming names, there were a group of players\u2026 it was driving me insane. You know, on good money, turning up, checking in, checking out. Happy if they\u2019re playing, happy if they\u2019re not playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t disruptive and they weren\u2019t bad people. They were all good guys. But they didn\u2019t have that desire to want to be the best they can be, and that really frustrated me at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacky Lorenzetti has launched a stinging attack on Owen Farrell, accusing the former England captain of dishonesty in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-106715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}