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'I will make sure that I will never let that happen again'
Saracens’ Jamie George has shed some light on why things didn’t work out for him in the second half of 2021, the hooker slipping down the pecking order while touring South Africa with the Lions and then falling out of favour with Eddie Jones’ England. Despite playing only Championship rugby with his club in the build-up, the 31-year-old would have gone on tour with great ambitions of being a Test team pick versus the Springboks, but that selection didn’t materialise.
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His lack of Lions recognition then carried over into the early part of the England season where he was omitted from the squad originally picked for the Autumn Nations Series. It required an injury to Luke Cowen-Dickie to get him back into the fold and despite picking up an injury himself versus Australia in November, he managed to play in seven of England’s eight matches, starting on five occasions.
George is now back at Saracens and gunning to land the club’s first Gallagher Premiership title since their 2019 final win over Exeter at Twickenham. They have defending champions Harlequins in this Saturday’s semi-finals and he heads into that encounter having reflected on his recent ups and downs and how he coped.
“It has been a bit of a roller-coaster season for myself personally,” he said on Tuesday regarding his mixed fortunes. “Injuries, selection, form. You learn a lot about yourself in testing times and I felt like I bounced back from those kinds of things pretty well.
“I’m hugely excited about this week and will then be excited about the following week all being well [the Premiership final] and then hopefully in Australia in the summer (with England). I’m very confident where I am at phsyically and the biggest compliment I can pay myself is I know that I am ready to give as much as I can to the team and I won’t be in a position to let anyone down.
“It’s hard to give too much away,” he added when asked to elaborate on why it went wrong for him. “I play at my best when I feel like I am challenging myself, if that makes sense, and I often need to go and seek that challenge, I don’t want to ever feel comfortable in my place or anything like that. I need to make sure that my motivation stays on top of it.
“What I have also learned is that looking after myself physically, recovery wise, nutrition-wise, all these kind of things has a huge impact on the way that I perform so that has been a big focus for me without giving too much away.”
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Did playing in the Championship with Saracens contribute to his slowdown in form? “Probably at the time I didn’t think so but maybe it did. There were times throughout that season where I don’t want to come across as arrogant but you almost hit cruise control, you rely on other people around you more, you think that things are just going to happen, the team doesn’t need me as much, whatever that might be.
“That probably came into my mindset and I’m disappointed that I allowed that to happen and I will make sure that I will never let that happen again. I played for this team for a long time now and I’m very clear in my role, my responsibility to this team – it’s quite a big one which I love and I can’t let anyone down.
“I need to make sure that it hit everything that I am required to do and it is a big responsibility but with great responsibility comes great opportunities. It’s an exciting opportunity for me [the end to this season].”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments