The Ford, Farrell verdict on England reviving their old 10/12 combo

George Ford and Owen Farrell have spoken about being reunited in the same starting England team for the first time since March 2021. Steve Borthwick has decided that this Saturday’s Rugby World Cup pool match versus Samoa in Lillie – eight days before they will play a quarter-final in Marseille against most likely Fiji – is the perfect opportunity to revive the 10/12 partnership that took their country all the way to the final at Japan 2019.

Both players have had spells out of the game through injury since the Guinness Six Nations loss to Ireland in Dublin two and a half years ago, while the emergence of Marcus Smith in the final year of the Eddie Jones era was also a factor in the old 10/12 alliance not getting a run.

However, having played the closing 30 minutes of the September 23 pool match versus Chile with Ford coming off the bench to play at out-half and Farrell switching out from No10 to his inside centre position, Borthwick has now decided to use this throwback partnership from the start at Stade Mauroy.

In a further nod to times past, the head coach has also named Manu Tuilagi at outside centre, so this Saturday will be the first time since the March 2020 Six Nations fixture against Wales in London that Ford, Farell and Tuilagi will take the field as England’s starting 10, 12, 13 combination.

After naming a starting England XV that showed 14 changes from the last day with Farrell the only retained starter, Borthwick said: “It’s an opportunity this week for the first time in a while playing George Ford and Owen Farrell together at 10 and 12 and I am excited to see that partnership goes together.”

It was only in August, after Farrell got caught up in red card trouble, that Ford started his first Test match since March 2021. But he has since had official player of the match performances versus Argentina and Japan at the World Cup and he spoke in Lille on Thursday night about his delight at now being named at out-half versus Samoa with Farrell playing at No12.

“It’s something we are excited about,” he enthused. “We have done it many times before and had some real success with it in the past so it’s great. Owen is a great leader for us, he’s another voice in terms of when we want to move the ball, distribute the ball which hopefully leads to some try-scoring opportunities at the weekend.

“Overall, we are all massively excited. The way the week has gone and the way the backline has been it has been very, very positive and we are looking forward to showing that at the weekend.

“We both play 10 for our clubs. I have had a period of time out of the game but in terms of the understanding of the game and the way we want to try and work together as a part of the backline, as part of the team, probably hasn’t changed that much.

“We just want to do whatever the best thing is for the team at that time and it’s probably a little bit irrelevant what number we have got on our backs, to be honest with you. We want to be the best version of ourselves in a great team playing well. That is what we will endeavour to do.”

Farrell was happy with the prospect of starting a Test alongside Ford after such a long gap. “This week felt good is what I will say, this week on the training field felt good. I’m obviously pretty close to George anyway, we speak about everything rugby-wise regardless of what the team is. We are on the same page.

“I’m looking forward to it. People talk about the amount of times we have played together before but not for a while. We'd both hope we have kicked on since we last played together so hopefully we will show that at the weekend.

“We have done everything we need to. As I said, we are pretty much like that anyway. We’d watch training back together at times, we’d talk about anything that we feel has happened in training or the team needs or anything and the work between us comes up in that and that not just there, there are other people around us as well.

“George has had a great partnership with Alex (Mitchell, scrum-half) so far and I’m looking forward to playing with Manu again as well, so there is a lot more than just that single partnership that you are talking about when it comes to team performance this weekend.”

Borthwick confirmed that Farrell will be on goal-kicking duties versus Samoa, a responsibility that should see him surpass Jonny Wilkinson as the all-time England record points scorer. Farrell needs just two points to go past Wilkinson’s tally of 1,179.

“I haven’t given it too much thought,” said Farrell about the impending record. “It’s not something that you like to think about too much before anything is done. My sole concentration is on the game at the weekend and preparing for what is a massive test against Samoa.

“The one thing I will say is it has been honour to have the chance to play for England as much as I have. To be in the vicinity of that record, to be able to play with this group of players and all the players I have played with before and staff, the one thing I would say is it has been an honour so far.”