The Lions tour of South Africa was made for Owen Farrell, tight, tense and dominated by the boot, but the England captain played a mere bit part and was left out of the match day 23 for the final and deciding Test.
At least he was in the squad, unlike his England captain predecessors on the previous three trips, Dylan Hartley, Chris Robshaw and Steve Borthwick, and he joined Jason Robinson who did not play a part in the Third Test in New Zealand in 2005. But as he enters his last month as a twentysomething, his career has reached a defining moment with a clamour for attacking outsidehalves...