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The Danny Care stat that fuelled George Ford's drop goal burst
George Ford revealed on Saturday night how a Danny Care statistic ignited his imagination about kicking Rugby World Cup drop goals for England. The No10 needed just 10 first-half minutes to score three times with the tactic of dropping back into the pocket and sweeping over a kick from an Alex Mitchell pass.
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With England forced to play a man down following Tom Curry’s third-minute red card, Ford’s ability to rack up the points was pivotal.
Aside from his drop goal hat-trick, he landed six penalty kicks off the tee to account for all 27 England points in their deserved 27-10 win over Pool D rivals Argentina in Marseille.
The crazy thing about Ford’s drop goal accuracy was that in his 80 previous England caps, he had scored just two drop goals – and you had to go back six years to the most recent of those kicks.
It was June 2017 versus Argentina in Santa Fe when Ford struck his last drop goal two years after opening his account versus Ireland in Dublin in 2015.
It meant that in the England team picked to face Argentina in Marseille, sub scrum-half Care had kicked more drop goals – three – than Ford in his Test career, but that was to change with an incredible scoring burst between the 27th and 37th minute at Stade Velodrome.
“Marcus (Smith), Owen and myself do some drop goals after every session,” he explained post-game in Marseille. “It is such a crucial, critical weapon at times, and you have seen how influential it has been at World Cups.
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“We get the nines to pass us the ball and get other players to put pressure on us (in training). We try to make it as realistic as possible.
“The thing with drop goals is the best time to take one is when the opposition least expect it, so you try to disguise it a bit to give yourself more time and space. But the whole plan wasn’t about drop goals, it was just about imposing pressure and coming away with points.
“We were laughing because out of this squad, Danny Care is the one who has the most drop goals for England, so I thought, ‘That’s not right, I need to put an end to that’.”
Five drop goals in one game is the Rugby World Cup record, the Springboks’ Jannie de Beer putting England to the sword in a 1999 World Cup quarter-final.
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Ford quipped that he thought he would match that record because such was the greasiness of the ball in the 60 per cent Marseille humidity, striking for the posts was easier option than trying to put the ball through the hands in and around the Argentina 22.
“That’s incredible,” he said about the de Beer record. “I thought I was on track at one point! But the crucial one was probably the third one, which took us more than seven points ahead. That was critical in a game where the ball was greasy and it was going to be hard to move the ball and score tries.
“You saw (in the France-New Zealand game) how far lads were kicking the ball. The temperature makes a massive difference. The ball is different from the ones we use in the Premiership. I’m not sure how but they do seem to travel a lot faster and further in the air.
“Inside the camp, we know we have not been too far away in certain areas. We felt like there was a performance building. The boys up front did a brilliant job of putting us in the right field position. Alex Mitchell and Danny Care both kicked brilliantly and we were so disciplined defensively, which gave us an opportunity to score the points.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Big 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.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 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.
2 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.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
34 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.
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