Watch: Owen Farrell ‘booed' by team-mates on his Lions return
The former England captain was controversially called up by father Andy this week – in news broken by Telegraph Sport – to replace injured Elliot Daly.
It will be his first international involvement since stepping back from England duty following the 2023 World Cup, a tournament in which he was booed by supporters – an incident he has admitted greatly affected him.
And the Saracen was booed again when he was shown on the big screen sitting in the stands at Allianz Stadium alongside the other squad members who were not playing against Waratahs.
Owen Farrell getting jokingly booed by his team-mates 🤣 pic.twitter.com/tvWnDOumH1
— Sky Sports Rugby Union (@SkySportsRugby) July 5, 2025
The boos were pantomime rather than serious and that was emphasised when Lions prop Stuart, sat behind Farrell, also started booing the 33-year-old.
Stuart was clearly joking and his fellow Lions, including Maro Itoje and Tom Curry, found the incident hilarious with Farrell also seeing the funny side.
Farrell last month told Telegraph Sport how he found being booed against Fiji in the World Cup particularly difficult to handle.
'I could make sense of it all individually,' he said. 'I could make sense of the criticism, I could make sense of the booing, and I could make sense of everything that was going on. But put it all together and it felt like it was non-stop. It was overwhelming.
'That was no one's fault and I am not asking for anything. I am just trying to say how it was for me. In the past I would have just fought against it and that didn't seem to fit anymore. It didn't get the best out of me in recent times, now that I have been maturing.
'In the past, when I was younger, people thought I didn't care. I did care. Everyone thinks that I didn't because I was competitive. But stuff did hurt. I overthink everything anyway, but I always just thought it was all just part of it, and I would fight against it and suppress it. I had wanted to enjoy it, but everything seemed to hit the fan after that.'
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