The George Ford ambition 'to create damage and cause chaos'
George Ford has insisted that players must take responsibility for accelerating the development of England into a Rugby World Cup force. Steve Borthwick’s men ended a three-match losing run by defeating Wales 19-17 at Twickenham last Saturday but Ireland, the sport’s number-one ranked side, are the next assignment on the schedule of warm-up fixtures.
England have yet to fire since Borthwick replaced Eddie Jones in September but with their pivotal Pool C match against Argentina fast approaching on September 9, Ford knows time is at a premium.
“Along with being led by the coaches, it’s the players’ responsibility to grab hold of the team and pull it in the direction we want to pull it in,” the Sale fly-half said.
“Especially when we have got the ball with that amount of experience and those combinations, we see it as our responsibility to get this team going and we have got to do it quicker than we have ever done it before.
“There are two more warm-up games and then there is the first game of the World Cup so we understand there is an urgency about it, but we are going to grab it.”
Since Borthwick took charge England have managed only 14 tries in seven matches, consistently struggling to finish chances or reflect their visits to the 22 on the scoreboard. “I know the attack is the most spoken about subject at the minute. Let me reassure you we are working hard on it,” Ford said.
“We want to be more dangerous with the ball and cause more problems for the defence with the ball and score more tries, that is what we want to do. It is at the forefront of our minds and we are working really hard to do it.
“My experience is that of all departments of the game, it takes the longest to get the attack functioning. We want to speed it up, we want to get there as quickly as possible. We know there is an urgency that we need to start attacking better and causing problems and scoring tries – we understand that.
“The main thing is how we can be more potent when we have got the ball, how we can get the outside backs in space with the ball to create damage and cause chaos.”
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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