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The post-game 'joking' George Ford was doing with Owen Farrell
It’s been quite an unexpected month’s exposure for George Ford, getting to start four straight matches as the England No10 two and a half years on from his previous Test-level start.
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Suspension for Owen Farrell was the catalyst for his return to prominence, Ford enjoying successive outings at out-half versus Ireland and Fiji in the Summer Nations Series and then on to the Rugby World Cup with performances against Argentina and Japan deemed man of the match efforts by the tournament’s sponsors.
Now, though, comes a few weeks of intrigue with Farrell available for selection again and a decision ultimately must be taken by head coach Steve Borthwick about who he wants in the No10 shirt on quarter-finals weekend in Marseille on October 14.
“We’re delighted his ban is over,” quipped Ford about Farrell following Sunday night’s 34-12 win over Japan in Nice. “I was just joking with him after the game there because he has not been allowed on the field.
“After that game, he is officially allowed back on the field. We’re delighted to have him back. You can imagine what he has been like anyway in training and the influence he is having, the influence he has had on the team in the past.
“Me, Owen and Marcus (Smith) as 10s, we are doing our utmost to drive this team forward. Steve will make the selections to win the games and we will buy into that.”
England’s blunt effort versus the Japanese was widely criticised, nowhere more vocally than at the stadium where their fans loudly booed them for repeatedly kicking away at a time early in the second half when the result was still up for grabs.
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Ford, though, sounded like he didn’t care much about how England play, that the only item on his agenda is winning and with the team two wins from two at the halfway stage in their pool, that was all that mattered to him.
“We’re here to win games, aren’t we? That’s our job. We’re here to win Test matches and we want to make every England fan proud, of course we do. We understand the sacrifice and the commitment that they make to come and support us and we value that so highly, we do.
“But we want to be a winning team and we want them to be proud of a winning team as well so that would be my message to them. We are going to put everything into it to win games to make them proud.
“I thought we did some good stuff… we moved the ball well at times. There was a lot of let’s get into the opposition half and let’s get good field position but that was the right thing to do.
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“We scored four tries and it was a tough game, Japan caused us many problems but we’re two from two so we want to build a bit of momentum.
“Their [Japan’s] tactical plan caused us a few problems, especially with their attacking kicks and the way they tried to manipulate our defence a little bit.
“They defended very well as well but I’m proud of the way our boys stuck to our plan. We had a good idea it wouldn’t be until the third or fourth quarter to pull away a little bit so the belief and the discipline to do that was great.
“Congratulations and fair play to Japan because the skill, the commitment, the never-give-up attitude is incredible, isn’t it? It’s admirable really, it’s really enjoyable to play against teams like Japan and you know you are in for a proper Test match.”
Handling errors were a regular momentum killer for England in the near 80 per cent humidity. “You have got to understand how difficult it was out there,” insisted Ford.
“It’s actually more difficult than if it was throwing it down because of the grease and the sweat on the ball, we have our best intentions and I thought we did move the ball at the right times and caused some problems.
“But the best way to win Test matches, especially in those conditions, is to make smart decisions, to win field position and then try and be clinical when the clear and obvious opportunities come.
“We are probably going to look back on some of the decisions and say we could have done that better, of course we would, but more often than not I think we got it right.
“The last two games it’s like a bar of soap that ball at times. It doesn’t say you don’t want to have the intent to move it and score tries.
“Of course we want to have that and we need to be good when we do that. but the main thing is building pressure, getting field position and doing the best thing to win the game.”
Comments on RugbyPass
It was so boring
1 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
27 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
53 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
9 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
27 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
9 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
9 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
3 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
1 Go to commentsThe manipulative and cynical Erasmus….
9 Go to commentsWe see you World Rugby….we see you🤡😏
53 Go to commentsBoks are lucky to have a player of the calibre of PSDT in their ranks😍
7 Go to commentsI really like what the boks have done with bringing Vermeulen into their coaching setup. Perhaps they would have gone to france anyway, but Lawes and Farrell could at least have been offered assistant coaching roles. Lawes could probably aptly fill the brief (breakdown, contact skills, and handling) just given to Strawbridge; and Farrell could be a pretty good like for like replacement for Sinfield when he leaves. I probably wouldn’t want them in the national team set up just yet, but it would be good to see strings pulled to either get May, Youngs, Cole, & Care player-coaching roles in the premiership, or to move them into the under 20s coaching staff.
3 Go to commentsSo spiteful that the Springboks won again, they just had to change the laws so that they would stand a chance.
53 Go to commentsWhy would Eben lie? The guy has achieved so much. He saw it as arrogance. Any normal person who plays against the ABs year in and year out would have the same thoughts. Why even talk about the final when you have the biggest game of your lives next week in a stage you have never gotten passed? Rugly is simple in SA. Have fun but the most important thing is respect. I’m not buying any of this misinterpreted nonsense. Eben isn’t English, but no one during that interview was asking what did he say? He's speaking and therefore his understanding is perfectly fine. It was an arrogant thing to say, esp for a team that has never been to a final, never mind a semi. You guys up north can interpret it in a different way if you wish, maybe that s why you don’t win the biggest tournaments.
160 Go to comments> with Sky TV in New Zealand saying it has seen an 11 per cent lift in overall viewership this year. It’s easy for these kiwi “journalists” to throw around meaningless numbers to make it seem that things are improving, but if you look at the stats behind this 11 percent it says that after 10 rounds of rugby there is only a paltry 160k cumulative viewers in total.. That is on average 16k viewers watching a single round of Super Rugby. I very much doubt any of the other numbers that Gregor so proudly “reports” on.
38 Go to commentsGoode is a Prop that played Flyhalf…. Who gives a Sh@#t what he thinks anyway!
160 Go to commentsOne would hope when a player of such caliber is approached for transfer is traversed a lot more carefully. The question I ask, “is the players agent raising red flags in the first instance of contact”. By what I read assumptions are made by nzr based on player welfare provided to them. So what is that? Is it a wholistic approach where family balance is taken into account. Because thay’s what’s in the mix when players go off shore. I realize the money is a huge factor but when negotiations are initiated is nzr involved. As Lendrum says having our best players available is paramount to our success So here’s hoping they are effectively communicating.
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