The day Owen Farrell was ‘dump tackled’ by England women’s star in front of watching Eddie Jones

Former England Women’s star Maggie Alphonsi has told how she stopped Owen Farrell in his tracks during a training session after the England skipper “targeted” her many years ago.

Alphonsi, now a respected rugby pundit, was renowned as one of the women’s game’s most ferocious tacklers during a glittering career that saw her win seven Six Nations titles.

And, speaking on the latest episode of the RugbyPass Offload podcast, the 37-year-old revealed she sometimes trained with the Saracens men’s academy side, which included future internationals such as Jamie George, George Kruis and Farrell.

In one session, watched by future England coach Eddie Jones, Alphonsi and Farrell had a bruising encounter.

“At the time, Owen Farrell had his Justin Bieber quiff,” Alphonsi laughed.

“I remember one session I attended – Eddie Jones was the Saracens director of rugby at the time and every now and again he would do a session with the academy boys.

“This one random day, he took the session and they asked if it was ok for me to join as normal and Eddie said that was fine, as long as I did everything the academy boys would be doing – tackling or whatever it might be.

“If I didn’t want to do it, then I could go. That was fine by me, I was ready to do this!

“We were doing a game scenario, five versus three, and all Owen had to do was pass the ball down the line but instead he saw me and was definitely targeting me.

“I thought ‘I can’t not tackle him, that will be bad for my reputation’, so I made a hit on him – some people might exaggerate and say I took him right back and dunked him a bit!

“Let’s just say, I made an effective tackle that stopped him in his tracks.

“Andy Farrell was one of the coaches there, Owen’s dad, and I remember him and a few of the other coaches in the corner being like ‘oh my god – she’s just tackled him!’.

“That’s one of the moments that will live forever in my head but maybe in his it has completely gone.

“From what I remember, he was a good sport and said ‘good tackle’. It’s a story I will tell my grandkids!”