NEW SKIPPER’S WONDERMAUL
ELLIOT DALY got a glimpse into Jamie George’s leadership skills on a lads’ golf trip to Ireland when he accepted a challenge from locals.
The pair were in Limerick and headed to a pub which would act as their 19th hole when George took up the gauntlet thrown down by the regulars.
Wing Daly said George was the only one to rise to it and it showed the qualities which led to Steve Borthwick handing him the England leadership.
George will lead Borthwick’s side out against Italy in Rome on Saturday and will have an unfamiliar line-up behind him in the tunnel.
Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi, Tom Curry, Courtney Lawes, Ben Youngs and the rest are all unavailable, and a host of youngsters have been in camp with some old sweats in Girona for the last 10 days.
George has taken to the job like a duck to water, albeit without playing a game yet.
But Daly saw at first-hand his mate is prepared to stick his neck out that day in Ireland.
Daly said: “We went to the pub afterwards and it was like your nan’s living room. There were a group of old guys in the corner and we got a Guinness and they started singing.
“Then they beckoned to us, I saw it and tried to finish my pint as soon as possible but Jamie had seen it and I was like ‘Mate, you are going to have to sing’. And he stands up and sings – and it is not a folk song, it is Oasis.
“They were singing their folk songs they can rattle off and he started singing Oasis in the corner and they loved it. He was, ‘I’ll have it, I’ll take it, I’ll take one for the team’.”
Hooker George spent his early days at Saracens in the shadows and endured a stop-start opening to his England career following his 2015 debut.
Wing Daly reckons the hard times will help him mould a new England.
The 31-year-old added: “He has always been a guy who has shown a talent but early on at Sarries they were signing international hookers in front of him.
“Then when he first started starting for England he hasn’t looked back, he has pushed his game on and become one of the best hookers in the world.
“He is definitely the right person to lead us into this and beyond.”