'I'm sorry, George Ford’s time is up as an England player'

Former England out-half Andy Goode believes it is time for Steve Borthwick to end the international career of George Ford, despite him recently being one of the 17 players awarded an enhanced elite player squad contract by the RFU.

The 31-year-old has failed to best use his experience when featuring off the bench in the recent losses versus Australia and New Zealand. Ford, who had little or no form coming into the Autumn Nations Series due to an early-season injury with Sale in the Gallagher Premiership, was sent on as a replacement on two successive Saturdays at Allianz Stadium.

However, rather than getting his team over the line after taking over at out-half from Marcus Smith, he instead produced error-ridden cameos that left England beaten 42-37 by Australia and 24-22 by New Zealand.

Ford’s introduction against the Wallabies resulted in Smith switching to full-back where he was left defensively exposed, while he was taken off and missed the final part of the loss versus the All Blacks.

Goode now wants Borthwick to stop using Ford, while he has also called for better coaching from the head coach and his assistants heading into this Saturday’s third outing of the November series, the Twickenham encounter with the world champion Springboks.

“I want to go hard enough but I don’t want to go so hard. There were positive signs from England at times,” began Goode on the latest episode of The Rugby Pod, his weekly podcast with Jim Hamilton, the former Scotland second row.

“The big thing, and I’ll say it now, the crowd reaction, George Ford gets his tracksuit off and he is stood on the side of the pitch and this is how I think Steve is out of touch a little bit with the game, what he goes on, his stats and A plus B equals C but sometimes it doesn’t.

“He is bringing George Ford on at 65 minutes and the whole crowd is booing and that is a sign of everyone has been talking about you have got to leave Marcus Smith on at 10. At this point we are chasing the game a bit and Marcus Smith at 10, he creates two or three tries and then you move him to full-back and bring George Ford on.

“I’m sorry, George Ford’s time is up as an England player. I don’t think he should be in the squad. He hasn’t played enough rugby this year to earn the right. Fin Smith at Northampton has played exceptionally well.

“Like, last week you are bringing George Ford on to close out the game and this is a Steve issue and a George Ford issue. This week, with five minutes to go, we have ourselves in a (winning) position because (Alex) Dombrandt chucked that ball across and (Ollie) Sleightholme scores in the corner.

“We are two points up, winning 30-28 with five minutes to go, have a lineout just around the halfway line, George Ford is now at 10, Marcus Smith is at full-back, so George Ford is calling the shots and they have gone to a three-pass play off a driving lineout which (Andrew) Kellaway ends up intercepting.

“Now, I have looked at the play loads and George Ford gets the ball out the back. He throws the ball behind Ollie Lawrence and if you look defensively, (Joseph) Suaalii has stepped so far, the ball is to Sleightholme out the back and we are three versus one around the edge.

“When you are talking about game management, you are talking about experience and you are talking about 75 minutes into the game, you are two points up and you have got a lineout in and around the halfway line – that is an awful play to call at that point by George Ford.

“You box kick and say, ‘There you are’. Best-case scenario is you [Australia] have caught a ball in your 22 with a mark because the kick is too long or something and play out from there, and then you back yourself to defend around the 22.”

With Richard Wigglesworth now promoted to senior assistant coach with responsibility for attack and Joe El-Abd involved as the new defence coach while the soon-to-depart Felix Jones remotely works out his notice, Goode was adamant that the struggling Borthwick, whose current record is six losses in the last matches, needs a more experienced coach to help him.

“I don’t think they are coached well enough by this coaching group and I don’t like what Steve said after the game around the players didn’t run the lines that they had trained and they have gone away from the game plan,” reckoned Goode.

“That has got to sit with the coaches. They have not drummed it hard enough into them or that is an excuse. You have got players that play very well at club level – are we thinking the Prem is way better than it actually is?

“Well, these players at times after 20 minutes, there wasn’t a great deal of structure to England’s attack. That is what I can’t understand. You have had so much time together and structurally there was a lot of one-out runners; we rely on bits of magic from Marcus Smith to score us tries and then the deceive from Dombrandt towards the end.

“But our attack doesn’t look well organised and that has got to sit with the coaches, and Steve’s decision to bring George Ford on sits with the coaches. I’m not calling for Steve’s head, I’m not saying he should he sacked or anything like that, but if we lose to South Africa by a decent score and then we lose to Japan and Eddie Jones, then you have got to sack Steve.

“At the minute there is a lot of positive shoots around how we are playing but it could be so much better. He needs an experienced coach around him to help him and that is an RFU issue as much as it’s perhaps Steve Borthwick not wanting that as an issue as well.”