George: I could not skip big job
Andy parking World Cup woe to focus solely on the future
JAMIE GEORGE has revealed even the turmoil that engulfed his Saracens mate Owen Farrell could not put him off taking the England captaincy.
George (above) was named last week by head coach Steve Borthwick to replace Farrell, whose switch to French club Racing 92 was confirmed last night.
The out-half (inset top) will move across the Channel in July and, due to the RFU’S policy of not selecting players based abroad to represent England, will be ineligible for the Red Rose having already stepped away from this Six Nations for personal reasons.
Instead George will lead the side, starting with Italy on February 3.
His first engagement as skipper, attending the Six Nations launch in Dublin yesterday, did not go to plan as Storm Isha wrecked his travel plans.
But George is prepared for what is coming and insists he had no qualms about the job, after taking a couple of days to mull over it.
The 33-year-old said: “This is the greatest achievement of my life. Stepping out on the field in Rome is going to be one of the best moments that I will ever experience.
“And I felt like it was a decision that if I had turned it down for other reasons I would have absolutely regretted. I have a good understanding of what might be out there but at the same time I’m also hopeful that we’ve learned a lot of lessons from the Owen situation.
“And a lot of people out there have a better understanding of the reality of life, the reality of professional rugby players, that we are all human beings. I’m at a good stage of my career to step up and take this on.”
Meanwhile, Borthwick has been blown away by Felix Jones, his new groundbreaking coach from Dublin.
Jones (inset bottom), who played for Leinster and Munster, coached with the Reds before joining South Africa’s back-to-back World Cup-winning management team.
The 36-year-old left the Springboks after France 2023 and has been snapped up by England as their new defence coach.
“He’s one of the most intense people I have ever met,” said Borthwick. “Meeting with him, being on the phone with him, having a conversation with him for an hour and not getting a word in because he has so much rugby knowledge is unreal.
“He has a work ethic that is astounding.”
unbelievable stadium, unbelievable atmosphere. A lot of the Irish who had flights for the semi-final, I heard a lot of them transferred it to Marseille so they’re expecting a performance from us.
“We’ve got to stand up to responsibilities like that but again it doesn’t guarantee us being successful.
“We’ve got to show fight and then the rest of the Six Nations is ahead of us.
“You look at what we’ve got after that – two games against South Africa – it doesn’t really get any better as an Irish management, as an Irish player or as an Irish fan.”
New Ireland skipper Peter O’mahony agreed that the time had come to stop looking back. He said: “Those experiences, all the good that we did last year – that’s not gone, far from it.
“You have a decision to make – do you want that game to make you better or do you want it to hang over you?”
Some Ireland fans are disappointed Farrell didn’t take the opportunity to introduce new faces to his squad.
The only uncapped players involved are the trio included as training panellists – Tom Ahern, Oli Jager and Sam Prendergast.
However, Farrell doesn’t see this is a new start, rather a continuation of the journey his team has been on.
“Not for me,” said the 48-year-old. “I don’t know what everyone else is saying but, for me, if you look at the squad that we’ve picked, over the last couple of years we’ve capped a lot of players.
“A good few are under 10 caps or so and some have not been involved with the squad over the last 12, 16 months.
“So trying to grow the squad in that sense is pretty important.
“Is this a new start? It’s not because of everything we’ve been through.
“We want to continue to grow and continue to evolve and you don’t do that by cutting the legs off of it and going again.
“Competition for places is premium and it has to stay that way.
“This is the start of a new Six Nations. I don’t buy into the four-year cycle that comes around World Cups.”