The Sunday Times - UK (2021-12-19)

2GS The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 15

He can be

a majestic

springboard

in attack,

and a

majestic

organiser

Forget Andrew, Farrell, Wilkinson

(and unfair criticism of his defence) —

subtle skills of the underrated Ford

make him England’s greatest fly half

George Ford will be missing from his

usual place in the pilot’s seat this

afternoon when Leicester Tigers play

Connacht in the Heineken

Champions Cup at Welford Road. The

game will look odd, as a result.

It is more than 12 years since he

first appeared for Leicester, wet

behind his northern ears at 16.

Opinions on him differ; for me, he

has become England’s greatest fly

half, and his absence today hardly

indicates that the European title is a

priority for Leicester.

His present form is making an

utter nonsense of his absence from

the England squad, and with Owen

Farrell, his great rival and friend, still

out of action, it is surely impossible

to believe that Ford will not be

playing for England in the Six Nations

next year. He has been needle-sharp

and the tactical leader for Leicester

all season, and this campaign could

yet end on the highest note for club

and country with Ford at fly half.

Of course, in one sense he is also

winding down because he leaves at

the end of the season for Sale Sharks.

It seems that he and Ellis Genge, the

Leicester captain, are departing, at

least in part, because of the pull of

their heartlands: Ford is from

Oldham, Genge a Bristolian.

It was said last week that the Tigers

will miss each marquee player

roughly equally. Really? Genge has

not yet established himself as a Test-

class loose-head prop and in any

case, there are some fine props

around from which the Tigers can

choose. Opinions on Ford differ. For

me, he is playing beautifully, he is the

best leader and reader of a game in

the Gallagher Premiership, and still

for many of us the man more likely to

bring a winnable match safely home

than Marcus Smith, the England

incumbent and the year’s darling.

Is Ford irreplaceable at Leicester?

Probably, even when you take into

account the status of his replacement

— Handre Pollard, the World Cup-

winning fly half from South Africa. It

is easy to suggest that Ford, much

smaller, neater and less fussy, is the

better tactician and that the massive

Pollard is the more explosive player.

But I am not at all sure. Ford’s kicking

is pure quality in accuracy and

execution. For a smallish man he has

extraordinary length and has now

perfected the spiral bomb; the high

kick that is said to veer alarmingly as

it comes down, leaving the catcher

with two arms full of fresh air. Pollard

is more of an explosive hoofer, than

an accurate kicker.

In terms of defence, Ford is clearly

not a Courtney Lawes with his

tackling, whereas Pollard is a real

defensive hitter.

The perceived defensive weakness

is the reason why Ford has not been

chosen by the British & Irish Lions.

However, again I feel that

perceptions are not entirely accurate.

I have watched a good many of the

games that Ford has played for

Leicester and Bath and almost all his

77 England Tests and it is incredibly

difficult to remember him being

embarrassingly brushed off. Maybe

that is the result of team organisation

around him, but it is not as though

Ford has ever been an open door.

He still has big career games to

play, this season and in his three-year

deal at Sale. How will history then

view him? Ford may not be rated

widely among the game’s all-time

greats when he retires. But part of

that lies in his demeanour. Ford is not

voluble; he is reserved, unfussy and

economical in his movements. He is

wonderfully subtle rather than

crowd-pleasingly impactful.

But he can be a majestic

springboard in attack and a majestic

organiser. Take the long pass over the

midfield players aimed for the wing.

So many players attempt it, and so

often all that it achieves is to bring the

whole of the non-engaged defenders

on to the hapless wing.

But Ford has the gift of delivering

the long pass like a bullet. I can recall

several tries in the past year where he

picked out a wing, who ran on to

score without being touched.

He has never really been allowed,

in the dizzy England merry-go-round,

to deem the fly-half position his own.

He has played just under 70 per cent

of Tests between his debut in 2014

and the most recent. The only other

player in double figures in that time is

the steely Farrell, who has made 39

starts at fly half for England (19 fewer

than Ford) and has also played

frequently in the midfield alongside

the 28-year-old.

And probably, too, Ford has

sometimes been a victim because

England have never been able to

make up their mind about the rest of

their midfield triangle since the

Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall and

Will Greenwood days of what now

feels like ancient history. In Ford’s 58

starts as England fly half (he has also

won 19 caps as replacement), he has

had outside him no fewer than 15

different centre combinations, with

only the Farrell-Jonathan Joseph

combo chalking up double figures.

You would never call the Ford years a

fount of consistent selection.

But perhaps his most significant

achievement apart from the way he

helped guide England to the World

Cup final — it is hardly his fault that

the team were demolished

elsewhere — is England’s purple

patch between 2015 and 2017, when

they equalled the world mark for

Tier One nations of 18 wins in a row

set by New Zealand. Ford was the

starting fly half in 17 of those 18 Tests,

and in the 18th, Ford came on at fly

half for Luther Burrell.

Leicester will find out today, as if

they did not already know, that Irish

teams are deadly dangerous in the

European Cup. There is no secret

about it. The years of the Celtic

League and the part-shambles that is

the United Rugby Championship

have been small stepping stones for

the Irish as their provinces

concentrate on Europe. Connacht

may be severely unfashionable, but

they are not at all bad.

Luckily, Leicester’s fly half has

seen it all before, done it all before. It

would have been a severe shock to

Leicester’s system when they realised

he would not be re-signing a contract

— just as it was to Bath’s system when

Ford and company were putting

together an outstanding team

inspired by Ford, Joseph and Kyle

Eastmond in midfield. Then, we had

the grim Sam Burgess interlude (or

horror show). Ford never seemed to

feel the same about Bath again and

returned to the East Midlands.

He does not evoke the bandwagon

adulation of a Wilkinson, nor has the

easy Yorkshire/Cambridge charm of a

Rob Andrew, or the glower of a

Farrell. But it has never been so

tough to play at fly half in

professional rugby and Ford’s

amazing consistency, control and

execution over the years make him,

for me, England’s best No 10.

Ford appears to be at a career

peak. He still has more than three full

seasons left to convince others. Today,

Connacht followers will be the only

contingent who will not miss him.

KICKING CLEAR

Most points in the

2021-22 Premiership

Alex Lozowski

Saracens

79

Paddy Jackson

London Irish

74

Callum Sheedy

Bristol Bears

71

Adam Hastings

Gloucester Rugby

69

George Ford

Leicester Tigers

118

Ford’s Test career

has been stymied

by the indecision

of selectors

The voice of rugby

Stephen Jones

MALCOLM COUZENS

Star man Ross Thompson (Glasgow).
Scorers: Glasgow Warriors: Try Matthews
(79min). Con Weir. Pens Thompson 5 (13, 49, 53,
60, 75). Exeter Chiefs: Try S Simmonds (71).
Con J Simmonds.
Glasgow J McKay; K Steyn, S Tuipulotu,
S Johnson, C Forbes; R Thompson (D Weir 77),
A Price (captain; G Horne 77); J Bhatti (O Kebble
51), G Turner (J Matthews 51), Z Fagerson
(E Pieretto 65), S Cummings, R Gray (K McDonald
57), M Fagerson (R Harley 63), R Darge (T Gordon
72), J Dempsey.
Exeter S Hogg; J Nowell, H Slade, I Whitten
(T Hendrickson 59), T O’Flaherty; J Simmonds,
J Maunder (S Maunder 59); A Hepburn (B Moon
59), L Cowan-Dickie (captain; J Yeandle 65),
S Nixon (P Schickerling 49), J Gray (D Armand 65),
J Hill (J Kirsten 59), D Ewers, S Skinner,
S Simmonds.
Referee P Brousset (France).

youngsters who are unemployed, on

drugs or otherwise struggling is
colossal.
Last week, it was impossible to

find a Native American spokesman in
any of their various bodies who

would condemn fripperies when
their people are depressed and

dying. All these issues are just so vast.
Surely to goodness we need all our

energy for the real dark hearts of
racism, violence, abuse and

deprivation.
Perhaps Exeter should borrow a
whole set of proper headdresses and

put them on show at Sandy Park,
together with an exhibition set up by

Native American experts, revealing
some of the history and some of the

appalling tragedy.
What they categorically do not

need to do is change their happy
culture in any way.

Glasgow Warriors are examining
appalling history through a narrow
slit, and therefore missing the whole

point.

CRAIG WILLIAMSON