Saracens chief eager to sort out Farrell’s England future swiftly

Stuart Lancaster wants Farrell to become a permanent member of the England management team, following his successful secondment during the RBS Six Nations.

The Rugby Football Union have opened negotiations with Saracens over Farrell, who still has two years remaining on his contract with the Aviva Premiership champions.

Talks will resume today and Griffiths does not want the situation to drag on, with Saracens facing Clermont Auvergne in the Heineken Cup quarter-final this Sunday.

“We would like to (resolve it) because we don’t want any ‘will he? won’t he?’ distractions going through the Clermont week,” Griffiths said after Saracens’ 24-19 defeat to Harlequins at Wembley which attracted a world record for the biggest attendance at a club rugby match of 83,671. “It is like any kind of discussions. You would like an early settlement but we will see. It is not very complicated to work out what the discussions are about but the default position is that he is the head coach of Saracens. That is the default position if the discussions are not successful.”

Griffiths does not foresee a situation where Farrell combines his roles with England and Saracens, as Shaun Edwards did with Wales and Wasps.

Harlequins opened a 24-12 lead with tries from Jordan Turner-Hall, George Lowe and Danny Care but required an heroic defensive performance to secure the victory.

Lowe produced two brilliant try-saving tackles in the space of three minutes as Saracens threw the kitchen sink at the Premiership leaders.

Eventually, when Harlequins had Joe Marler and Care in the sin-bin, Richard Wigglesworth stole over for the try on his comeback from injury.

Harlequins then saw Nick Easter replace Marler in the sin-bin and they were forced to finish the match with 13 men but hung for the victory that opens a six-point gap on top of the Premiership table.