1
The bold hunch Jamie George has about 'huge strides' England
Jamie George has predicted a bright future for England after they came within a whisker of recording a first Guinness Six Nations campaign with four wins for the first time since 2020, the last time they were crowned champions.
ADVERTISEMENT
England were ahead until the final minute in Lyon, falling to a 31-33 defeat from a monster Thomas Ramos penalty kick from halfway following a tackling infringement by Ben Earl.
It was a bruising outcome in total contrast to the euphoria seven days earlier when Marcus Smith dropped a goal on penalty advantage to beat Ireland in London, but a wounding last-minute loss for England in France wasn’t anything new.
It was October 21 when a halfway line scrum infringement allowed Handre Pollard the opportunity to kick South Africa into the Rugby World Cup final and that painful nightmare sprang to George’s mind 21 weeks later when he attempted to verbalise the trauma of falling victim to another late kicking tee sucker punch.
“That’s just the way Test rugby goes sometimes,” he shrugged following a to-and-fro fixture where England outscored France four-three on the try count. “The boys knew it was going to be hostile and France were going to come out and give it a good crack.
“I thought it was a great Test match all in all. Of course, I’m gutted about the result. I feel like we deserved a lot out of that because of the way that we attacked the game, the way that we went after it and there was a lot to be very pleased about, a lot to be very proud of.
“Fair play to France for coming back and getting that penalty at the end. Fair play to Ramos for knocking it over. There was a bit of déjà vu from the Pollard penalty a few months ago.
ADVERTISEMENT
“That’s always going to be tough to take but there is so much to be proud of the last few weeks. We genuinely feel this team is on an upward curve and we are going somewhere.”
It was January 24 when England assembled in Girona, their warm-weather training base ahead of a campaign that heralded respective three- and two-point wins over Italy in Rome and Wales in London before the devastating crash that was losing by nine points to Scotland in Edinburgh.
The response to that damaging setback was immense, though, with England ambushing the back-to-back Grand Slam-chasing Ireland in London before going toe-to-toe with France in Lyon.
Asked to sum the entire seven and a half weeks, George began: “What a question that is. There has been a huge amount gone on. If you look at the rugby side, where we were when we met up in Girona seven weeks ago to the team we are now we have made huge strides.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We spoke a lot pre this tournament about reconnecting with England fans, bringing them on a journey, putting a smile on their faces and we have certainly done that.
“Ultimately we are going to be disappointed because we came into this tournament genuinely believing we could win it. We have shown in parts that we are a good enough team to do that.
"We weren’t beaten tonight, we just ran out of time…"
– England boss Steve Borthwick reacts to Saturday night's agonising 31-33 Six Nations loss to France, from Liam Heagney ?? in Lyon. #GuinnessM6N #FRAvENG #EnglandRugby #rugby pic.twitter.com/mbqgIrtmIl
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 16, 2024
“Overall, I’m so excited what the future holds for English rugby. The people, I am not talking necessarily about the players on the field, the people that we have in the staff, the way that everyone has looked after each other, the environment that we are creating, that’s special.
“You guys [the media] might not be able to get too much of a feel of that but I’m in the heart of it and I believe we have got the right people in place to do very, very special things with this England team. That’s a really exciting place to be.
“We are on an upward trajectory. We are working really hard behind the scenes to go and improve. There is a lot of talk about our attack, scoring tries and that kind of thing but not many teams come and front up in the set-piece in France like we did.
“Set-piece is in a really good place. Our attack is building really nicely scoring four tries away here off the back of the way we played against Ireland.
“And then defensively what Felix Jones has come in and done and the way the players have picked that up, it’s coming together nicely. We didn’t find a way to win. It’s something we have got to look at moving forward, but we can be really happy with where we are going.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t worry Sonny bill Williams leave that awkward situation about the curfew in the pass whoever it was it doesn’t matter its no big deal we back our All Blacks through the storm and the thunder until we see the Sun light again.
41 Go to commentsWho listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
41 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
41 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
39 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
41 Go to comments