George Ford left Twickenham to the sound of boos on Sunday at what marked the end of a difficult domestic season for the Bath fly-half. Despite his struggles on the field, which started when he was left out of the World Cup match against Wales last September in a tactical volte-face by the then England management, he has retained the steadfast support of Eddie Jones.
The England head coach rounded on the spectators who jeered Ford off the field towards the end of the victory over Wales and then reporters at the after-match media conference. They had kicked it off with a few questions about the No10, who missed six of his seven kicks at goal and was at times indecisive in possession.
Ford looked like a player struggling for form, prompting his father, Mike, to suggest his own sacking at Bath had upset George and to insist his son has the mental strength to lead the line in the three-Test summer series as England fly out to Australia on Tuesday. Nonetheless, Jones would appear to have a clear option at 10 in the player who replaced Ford nine months ago, Owen Farrell, who played throughout the Six Nations, apart from the final 17 minutes against Wales, at inside-centre.
Yet, while Jones has throughout his six months in charge of England referred to Farrell as a 10 and a 12, he has yet to start him in the position the player prefers and which he occupies with distinction at Saracens. The head coach has not gone into specific reasons for his decision but his aim, one reason why Glen Ella will be helping the backs on the tour to Australia, is to oversee a team that is adept at the structured and the spontaneous.
To beat the All Blacks or Australia, you need to have the ability to score seven points at any time in the match from any point on the field. At the moment, Jones appears to see Ford as a better bet than Farrell in that respect, but for how long? It is the transition from defence to attack that has kept Ford at fly-half this year and in Farrell he had a second option outside him. His inside-centre against Wales, Luther Burrell, is a different 12, more direct and physical, and there was at times a lack of understanding between the pair, reflecting the very different way Bath and Northampton play. Moving Farrell to 10 would leave Jones without a ball player at 12, unless Henry Slade, who was unavailable for the Six Nations because of injury, impresses in the next 10 days.
Jones does not see Saracens as cut from his England cloth, most comfortable in structured rather than unstructured play. Had he a Will Greenwood or Mike Catt available, the midfield eyes in the Jonny Wilkinson era, he may have made a different choice at 10 by now, which is where Slade, a player mentioned several times by Jones in the last couple of months, with specific reference to England being able to play “any which way”, comes in. Slade, though, has work to do after fluffing his first audition in front of Jones in Exeter colours in Saturday’s Premiership final.
A year ago, one of Jones’s England predecessors, Martin Johnson, explained why he thought Ford should lead England’s attack into the World Cup and beyond. “George is an exceptional player,” he said. “You could see it when he was a kid. We [England] used to train against the Under-21s and he was very young at that point. His understanding of the game was fantastic, picking the right options, finding holes and seeing where weaknesses were. He was very, very smart. You see it in him now. Not everything he does comes off, but he sees the right option so many times and his passing game is outstanding.”
Johnson made the point that Ford had the potential to become as influential as Wilkinson was but he did not think the two merited comparison because their styles were so different. Farrell has been likened to Wilkinson for his meticulousness, defence, capacity to stick to a gameplan, dedication, competitiveness and accurate goal-kicking, but Jones is looking for more than that in his 10.
Jones has enthused over Farrell’s drive, desire to play for his country and resolve to keep getting better. The Saracen has been more aware in open play this season and should profit from Ella’s tutelage. The former Australia full-back, who was Jones’s assistant at the Brumbies and with Australia, is known for helping players become aware of space and opportunities in what Jones calls unstructured periods of a match.
Three of England’s five tries against Wales came after their opponents had lost possession, but there were occasions when Ford and those around him were not aligned in their thinking. There has been no side more adept at exploiting turnover ball in the past decade than the All Blacks who in that time have also been strong in the structured areas of the game, scrum, lineout and defence.
“I enjoyed our flexibility in attack,” said Jones after the victory over Wales. He trusts Ford to be flexible, and while he got away in the Six Nations without a gainline breaker in midfield, he has given himself physical midfield options in Australia. Not that he intends to go down Wales’s path of confrontation for its own sake and the greatest threat to Ford seems not to be Farrell but the combination of Farrell and Slade.
