George Ford is a self-confessed rugby obsessive, so when he reveals Steve Borthwick has been setting the England squad homework you suspect the fly-half is top of the class.
Now 30, Ford is one of the game’s deep thinkers – “trying to stay a step ahead” – as he describes it, but someone who is rarely happier than when sat digesting the action.
Occasionally it is as a fan, but more often than not, scheming and gleaning anything he can. “What you see a lot around the world is a successful team do one thing and everybody starts to follow it because they’re the successful team,” he says. “But what intrigues me is, what’s next?”
To look into the future Ford must start with the present and he is only too happy to give chapter and verse of his insight into New Zealand’s breathless starts against Argentina and South Africa, the variety of their kicking and their ability to generate such quick ruck speed. It helps that he has already covered a lot of this at Borthwick’s behest.
“We’ve been doing little projects as a team, looking at different aspects of those games,” says Ford. “We get put in little groups and watch the footage and chat about it and all come back together and see if we’ve got the same ideas and answers to the proposed questions. It’s great because it keeps you mentally [on top of] where the game is at the minute and, also, different people see the game differently – we all think differently. We have an inside back, an outside back, tight five, lock and back five all in so we’ve got a good spread.
“The projects are on different things, so it could be who gets out of their half best, or it could be who is the best in the opposition 22 or set-piece or kicking game. We did a first 20-minute project and we got posed a few questions – why New Zealand are doing this, what can South Africa do etc. – and then we feed it back.”
Ford is unequivocal that, as much as he has been impressed by the All Blacks, he and his teammates are not looking to imitate anybody. Equally, he is aware that question marks have lingered over England’s attack since the last World Cup. He knows Richard Wigglesworth is the fourth man since Japan 2019 to be tasked with igniting it, and that he has little time to do so, having reunited with Borthwick this summer.
“We’ve got to be the quickest learning team, it’s just the nature of where we’re at,” adds Ford. “But the way we’re training, the way we want to play the game, the way we want to be on and off the field is unbelievably simple, which is a massive positive. Sometimes, in a funny way, when you’ve got less time to get somewhere, you’ve got less thinking and less messing around to get there. You’ve just got to go and I think that’ll help us.
“I know a lot has been made out about England’s attack over the past how many years but again with Wiggy there, making it simple and the players getting hold of it … the players have got a certain responsibility. Sometimes it’s the players’ choice and responsibility which way you want the game to go, which way you want to play, and delivering it on the field. And that’s where we’ve got to step up.”
Ford has not yet had the chance to do so under Borthwick but he was called into the camp during the Six Nations, combining England training sessions with regaining match sharpness with Sale. He steered Leicester to the Premiership title last year under the current England coach and, though Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell have shared fly-half duties under Borthwick to date, it seems Ford is nailed on to make the World Cup squad – for his coaching brain as much as his playing prowess.
Increasingly, the feeling is that Borthwick will take all three – a luxury perhaps but one that he can afford with squads increased to 33 and with such a short distance to travel for any injury replacements. It was telling, though, to hear Ford reveal that he and Farrell have been reprising their 10-12 partnership in training and it would be no surprise to see it employed in England’s World Cup warm-up fixtures for the first time since the 2021 Six Nations.
“As a player you’re always itching for a game but it’s been a good few weeks of getting the squad together and doing some quality training,” says Ford. “We don’t usually get that at international level, only every four years. Everyone says they have a great pre-season but we genuinely think we’re improving and getting better but the games are the test and we’ll look forward to it.”
