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Ex-England international: 'Would be a massive call to drop Ford'
Ex-England international James Simpson-Daniel believes Steve Borthwick can’t drop George Ford at the Rugby World Cup following his match-winning effort last weekend versus Argentina.
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With skipper Owen Farrell suspended, Ford rose to the occasion by scoring all of his team’s points in their 27-10 win and it has ignited a debate over what will happen with the No10 shirt when Farrell’s ban expires.
Having sat out the final two Summer Nations Series warm-ups versus Ireland and Fiji and then missed the tournament opener against the Pumas, the final fixture in Farrell’s four-game suspension is this Sunday’s meeting with Japan in Nice.
Ford will likely start that match (England will confirm their XV on Friday), and Farrell will probably get a run in the following weekend’s clash with Chile in Lille on September 23.
However, who should be the No10 for the final pool match against Samoa on October 7 after the two-week break and then the following weekend’s quarter-finals is an intriguing situation.
“That is the real hard one now for Borthwick,” reckoned Simpson-Daniel. “Do you force Farrell in at inside-centre? There is no doubt he will come back in the side when he is available. Borthwick could say, ‘Thanks, George Ford. You were outstanding but Owen Farrell is my captain and my starting fly-half’. Or you have them play together.
“It would be a massive call to drop Ford. Borthwick has always said he would pick players on form – something he always wanted when he was a player. And on the back of the way he is playing, you couldn’t drop Ford. It will be fascinating to see.
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“The one player I feel sorry for in all of this is Marcus Smith. He is not going to start at fly-half now. He won’t be seeing anything of the 10 shirt. I don’t agree with this talk of him now being the reserve full-back who will come on to be a game-changer.
Speaking to OLBG, Simpson-Daniel labelled last weekend’s Ford display against Argentina and the best performance by an England No10 since Jonny Wilkinsons was in his pomp during the early noughties. “That was an absolute masterclass by George Ford in terms of game mismanagement.
“That was the best performance by an England fly-half since Johnny Wilkinson in his pomp. What he did was adapt, he has such a good brain. Everyone says he basically runs training like Johnny Sexton does for Ireland.
“He immediately adapted his performance to the conditions and the situation England found themselves in so early in the game with Tom Curry red-carded. He changed everything, took the game by the scruff of the neck and literally bossed it. Keeping the scoreboard ticking over, his game management was outstanding. That was a world-class masterpiece that he showed.
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“England were getting a lot of flak in the build-up to the tournament and understandably that was a day to put a lot of things right. England will now be backing themselves to go a long way in this tournament. The confidence this will have given them is enormous.
“England have their ruthlessness back and they won’t fear Wales or Australia in the quarter-finals. Beating Argentina was hugely impressive and will have made people sit up and take notice. We were a totally different side to the one that we saw in the build-up to the World Cup.
Back heel Faz and long ball Marler…
– England had a football loosener before getting stuck into Tuesday's Rugby World Cup training session at La Touquet-Paris-Plage. #EnglandRugby #ENGvJPN #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/URNC0pAqYv
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 12, 2023
“Their discipline was better – the incident with Curry notwithstanding – and at no point in the game did it look like we were going to lose. We have talked about England feeding off the Saracens frenzy. The way they celebrate small things gives them energy.
“That was there against Argentina. It looked as though they’d really honed in on what they were up to and what they needed to do. Did it take the red card for that to happen? I hope not. I would have thought that would be there anyway.
“I’m not getting carried away. I am not saying this side is going to win the World Cup. But you can’t get away from the fact that we are on the ’right side of the draw’. It is always great when something goes to plan.
“Their minds seemed really on the way, they all seemed to do their jobs well individually and collectively and if we take one game at a time, come the knockout stages I don’t think we would be fearing Wales or Australia in the quarter-finals if that is how it pans out.
“It was a statement performance and at no time did the Pumas look to be able to dominate in any area play – and that was with a one-man advantage for 77 minutes. They will be bitterly disappointed. The bookies had them to win. England had complete control and dominance.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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