England’s Farrell and Smith partner up to revitalise attack for Australia tour

Owen Farrell has returned to the England squad with a renewed hunger and has teamed up with Marcus Smith to set about revitalising their misfiring attack, according to the assistant coach Martin Gleeson.

Farrell missed the entire Six Nations through injury but has returned to England fold for a mini-training camp where he and Smith are plotting much-needed improvements before the summer tour of Australia.

Eddie Jones has made no secret of his desire to pair Smith and Farrell together in the 10-12 axis – ideally with Manu Tuilagi outside them – but, because of injuries and Covid complications, the two have played only 68 minutes together, against Australia last autumn.

In Farrell’s absence, England scored only eight tries during a disappointing Six Nations campaign, five of which came against Italy. Since making his comeback for Saracens, however, Farrell has shown encouraging signs of form, having slipped off the boil last season and enduring a disappointing British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa.

England gathered for their three-day camp in south-west London on Sunday to begin preparations for the tour of Australia. Attack coach Gleeson, who is confident of “significant improvements” against the Wallabies, said Farrell and Smith have been putting their heads together.

“[Owen] is key for us, a really important figure within the squad,” Gleeson said. “In the autumn him and Marcus got on really well. He drives a lot of the behaviours, the attitude, the desire in the team. The guy is hungry. He’s a student of the game. We have little groups with him, me and Marcus, speaking about what we need to do. It’s good to have him back in camp, really good to have his presence back again. I think it’s going to be a massive