{"id":179705,"date":"2025-10-05T02:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T02:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179705\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T02:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T02:22:13","slug":"tearful-owen-turned-down-lions-heres-truth-of-our-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/179705\/","title":{"rendered":"Tearful Owen turned down Lions. Here\u2019s truth of our relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colleen had just rung from a phone box in Wigan town centre. She was laughing, even though it felt like both our worlds had just ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you laughing?\u201d I asked her. \u201cIt\u2019s not funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Colleen wasn\u2019t laughing because it was funny. It was a nervous reaction. She, like me, was terrified. Colleen was pregnant. We were far too young to deal with this.<\/p>\n

The pregnancy test had confirmed our worst fears. Colleen had been late, and we had been trying to figure it out and work out dates. I was on the phone to Colleen when I called out to my mum to ask her how many weeks it had been since they had gone for a night out in town. They didn\u2019t do that very often. Colleen was worried that the question would make my mother suspicious.<\/p>\n

The only thing Colleen was sure about was that she couldn\u2019t tell her parents. I didn\u2019t blame her. I was terrified of her telling them. I was terrified of telling mine too.<\/p>\n

For a while we both stuck our heads in the clouds and pretended nothing had changed. I got on with my training. Colleen was a fantastic athlete and even more competitive than me. She loved her team sports, netball and hockey, but excelled at running. She ran for Wigan Harriers and was up at the track every night.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Andy and Colleen in 2022<\/p>\n

DAVE ROGERS\/GETTY<\/p>\n

We couldn\u2019t avoid the reality of the new situation for very long. Everything went through our heads. Should we get an abortion? Should we run off together? We were so young we didn\u2019t know what we were thinking. We were meant to be studying for our GCSE exams, while I was also edging towards making my senior debut for Wigan.<\/p>\n

Eventually we worked up the courage to go to the maternity unit at Billinge Hospital. I sat outside as Colleen went in to speak to the health visitor. She asked Colleen if she was going to tell her mum and dad. Colleen said she couldn\u2019t. The health visitor advised her to have a think about things. She wrote \u201cno home correspondence\u201d on her notes, and asked Colleen to come back and see her.<\/p>\n

\"Keiron<\/p>\n

It was an \u201cawful day\u201d for Farrell when his future father-in-law, O\u2019Loughlin, found out Colleen was pregnant<\/p>\n

BOB THOMAS\/GETTY<\/p>\n

Colleen and I were at my house a few weeks later when the phone rang. It was Colleen\u2019s dad [Keiron O\u2019Loughlin, the former Wigan rugby league player]. \u201cHe wants to speak to you,\u201d I said and passed her the phone. Moments later, her face dropped. She kept asking, \u201cWhy, Dad?\u201d When the conversation finished, she turned to me. \u201cDad wants me to come home, immediately,\u201d she said. \u201cBut he wouldn\u2019t say why.\u201d We both knew something was up, so I decided to go with Colleen for support.<\/p>\n

We caught two buses to get to her house on the other side of town. Her mum was standing at the front door, waving a letter. On the front of it was a stamp with a stork and the words \u201cBillinge Maternity Unit\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cColleen, are you pregnant?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m not,\u201d Colleen replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cColleen, I am going to ask you one more time. Are you pregnant?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what\u2019s this then?\u201d she asked, holding up the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my friend Anna, she has used my name,\u201d Colleen replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cColleen, I am going to ask you one more time\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Colleen burst into tears. She couldn\u2019t take it any more. I had one foot inside the door and didn\u2019t know what to do. Maybe I should just leave?<\/p>\n

Then Keiron boomed at me, \u201cAndrew, get inside now.\u201d I was not going to argue.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Owen was \u201cpart of the furniture\u201d at Wigan when his dad was winning Super League titles<\/p>\n

SIMON WILKINSON\/REX<\/p>\n

It was an awful day but it was remarkable how quickly her parents\u2019 reaction turned from shock and anger to support. I look back now, as a parent, and understand what they must have been feeling. Their disappointment and worry must have been terrible. Keiron had been brilliant at helping me with my rugby development. Now his daughter was pregnant. We had been so naive.<\/p>\n

Before the pregnancy, we had had a plan to go to Leeds University to train as physical education teachers in case my rugby career didn\u2019t work out. Now we had to reassess everything.<\/p>\n

When I turned 16, I left school and got a job as an apprentice carpenter for Wigan council. We were fortunate to know that our parents would help us look after and support our baby. Taking the job was more about keeping myself busy and doing something useful as I strove for a full-time contract with Wigan.<\/p>\n

I loved it, spending time in the van with the lads, putting a shift in. But I was a dreadful carpenter. When I signed my first full-time rugby contract, I remember happily handing my tools over to my mates. And the prospect of a baby coming only made me more determined to succeed at Wigan.<\/p>\n

When Colleen had gone into labour, I hadn\u2019t known what to do with myself. I wasn\u2019t used to holding a baby \u2014 probably no 16-year-old boy is. But the amazing thing was that as soon as he was born, the first time I held him, it felt entirely natural. I was instantly obsessed with my son.<\/p>\n

\"Rugby<\/p>\n

Andy\u2019s mother, Carol, Colleen and Owen accompanied him to Buckingham Palace to receive his OBE in 2005<\/p>\n

JOHNNY GREEN\/PA<\/p>\n

When Colleen returned to her parents\u2019 house, I often spent the night there, though I wasn\u2019t allowed to sleep in the same room as her and the baby.<\/p>\n

It was a tough time for Colleen. Owen was a terrible sleeper from the start \u2014 in fact he didn\u2019t sleep through until he was five! One night, Colleen was so desperate she went to her mum and dad\u2019s bedroom in floods of tears because she couldn\u2019t settle him down. Her dad said to bring him up, but her mum said no, that Colleen had to learn, and went with her to get him off to sleep.<\/p>\n

I was not much use at nights. As I had to get up early for training, I rarely helped her with him. It was an old-fashioned approach. A few times when Colleen was really exhausted we would swap places. But Colleen will tell you she could count the number of times that happened on one hand.<\/p>\n

As we were not married at the time, Colleen\u2019s mum asked her what surname we were going to give Owen. Understandably, there was concern from her family about what would happen if we didn\u2019t stay together. Colleen suggested a compromise: we would name him Owen O\u2019Loughlin for now, but \u201cIf we get married, I\u2019ll let him be a Farrell,\u201d she said with a smile.<\/p>\n

As if to soften the blow, she said we would give him the middle name Andrew. Fair enough. And so, on the original birth certificate, his name was registered Owen Andrew O\u2019Loughlin. And my occupation? Apprentice joiner. God help us all!<\/p>\n

The abuse he got as a child was disgusting\"Wigan<\/p>\n

A teenage Owen was once shoved to the ground and berated by one of the rival team\u2019s parents during his early playing days<\/p>\n

REX<\/p>\n

Most players choose to have their kids near the end of their playing careers, but Owen was part of the furniture at Wigan from the age of four. Owen grew up on the touchlines, watching training and matches.<\/p>\n

I never forced him into it. He couldn\u2019t wait to come to training with me and would fetch the balls when we were doing kicking practice. Before long, he was doing the kicking himself. Every child is different. Owen made a decision to commit to the game and then off he went: it became part of his life, as it was mine. He, like me, grew up only wanting to play the game for the love of it. Not to be a big personality off the pitch or revel in the celebrity of it all. Being a character on the field and earning the respect of your peers is what mattered to us both. The apple definitely didn\u2019t fall far from the tree.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Owen in action for England Under-18<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Sadly, too, he was subjected to abuse as a young boy simply because he was my son. Owen had taken to rugby league even more quickly than I had. Having spent so much time with me at training, when he got to year five he was already playing a year up on the Wigan town team, and when he was eight he also joined Wigan St Patrick\u2019s rugby league club.<\/p>\n

He loved the game, but at times it was hard for him because of my profile. Once when he was playing for Wigan St Pat\u2019s against Blackbrook, a scuffle broke out and one of the parents ran on to the field and pushed Owen to the ground. On another occasion, I was training at Wigan and Owen was playing in a game around the corner from the stadium. Colleen phoned me in a bit of a state.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to get here now; there is a fella on the sideline who is absolutely abusing Owen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Owen joined Andy at Saracens, as an academy player, at 16 \u2014 the same age his father was when he was born<\/p>\n

TOM SHAW\/GETTY<\/p>\n

I remember screeching out of the car park to drive over to Wigan St Judes, where the game was being played. Even as I got out of the car I could hear this guy screaming at Owen. \u201cHe\u2019s rubbish,\u201d he shouted. It was disgusting. You would get arrested nowadays. That was the world that was rugby league at the time.<\/p>\n

Some kids might have thought to themselves, \u201cThis is not worth it\u201d. But it obviously was worth it to him. It is right that people now have a sense of how it was for Owen, because it was brutal and it would have shaped him to a degree.<\/p>\n

Owen broke down in tears when I tried to pick him for Lions<\/p>\n

I made it clear to Ben Calveley [the Lions chief executive] that I had no interest in picking anyone because it was deemed politically correct to do so. How could I look a player in the eye and tell him he was not selected only because of the country he was playing for?<\/p>\n

There had to be no bias whatsoever. And that included the consideration of whether to pick Owen.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t shy away from that decision professionally. I wanted to bring him, despite his difficult and injury-disrupted season in Paris. I knew he would add the type of leadership skills we would need with a squad containing only a handful of players who had been on the last proper Lions<\/a> tour, in 2017, when there were midweek matches. This would be Owen\u2019s fourth tour, including the last one in Australia in 2013. I knew he would get it immediately and would help bring the best out of the others around him.<\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

Farrell wanted to bring his son on the Lions tour to Australia from the very start \u2014 it was Owen who initially did not think it was the right call, but joined the tour after an injury to Elliot Daly<\/p>\n

WILLIAM WEST\/AFP<\/p>\n

Every other coach favoured picking Owen too. Ordinarily, that would have been it: we would have simply named him along with the others. But I knew it was not yet a done deal. I told the coaches I would have to ring Owen first. I needed to know whether he wanted to go and what he thought about stepping back into the international spotlight after all he had to put up with during the 2023 World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Book extract: Inside story of how we won crucial second Lions Test<\/a><\/p>\n

This was a very hard phone call. When I asked Owen if he would come, he broke down in tears. He said he did not think it would be right for him, for the squad, or for me as head coach.<\/p>\n

It was a tough thing to hear. I told him to think it through, to take his time, and if he changed his mind then I would put him on the standby list to cover an injury.<\/p>\n

\"Book<\/p>\n

Extracted from The Only Way I Know by Andy Farrell, which is published by Sandycove on Oct 16 at \u00a325<\/p>\n

At the press conference at the O2 arena, after my appearance on stage, I was asked if Owen had been under consideration. Obviously, I didn\u2019t feel I could tell the full story.<\/p>\n

Andy will be in conversation with Joe Molloy in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin on 12 Oct<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colleen had just rung from a phone box in Wigan town centre. She was laughing, even though it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-179705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}