Ford ready to kick on as a leader
GEORGE FORD will step into Owen Farrell’s boots as England’s goalkicker against the Barbarians on Sunday aiming to avoid the ugly reception from his own fans that came his way the last time he did the job at Twickenham.
The boos rang around the stadium as he missed six kicks out of seven against Wales in the corresponding fixture a year ago.
It was a chastening experience for Ford and, with Farrell on Lions duty, there is a vacancy to be filled for the upcoming series against Argentina. Eddie Jones is happy that he is up to it.
“I’m confident he’s a good goalkicker,” said the England coach. “I’ve seen Owen Farrell have bad days too.”
Many of the foundations on which England’s success under Jones have been built have shifted ahead of Sunday’s match, including Farrell’s boot, with two teams’ worth of players unavailable or injured.
With no Dylan Hartley, who is on Northampton duty in the Champions Cup qualification play-off, Farrell or Billy Vunipola, there is a lot more responsibility on players such as Ford, 24, to provide leadership.
“I try to develop that all the time,” said Ford. “As a No10, you are an on-field leader but especially last week and this week with Dylan not being here, there’s more off-field stuff I’ve tried to take on myself.
“Obviously we’ve got Chris Robshaw here who’s brilliant at that, Mike Brown and Danny Care as well so we’ve got people trying to take a bit of a lead and make sure everything is in order.”
This will be Ford’s first start for five weeks having lost his Bath place to Rhys Priestland at the end of the regular Premiership season.
Jones’ assessment was that club rather than player was to blame for the way in which things tailed off for Ford at the Rec ahead of his summer move to Leicester.
“The way he was being asked to play for Bath didn’t really suit how he plays and so it restricted his development. It was certainly not a lack of effort,” said Jones, who feels that with Ford nose to nose with the opposition defence once more, he will flower again for England.
Despite missing out on the Lions squad, neither Ford nor Jones wanted him to take the summer off. “Eddie rang that afternoon and we just said, ‘Look, we’re cracking on here’,” said Ford.
“The question of whether I wanted to go to Argentina wasn’t even asked – of course I do. I want to be part of this team, this journey and these next couple of weeks will hopefully develop us as a team.
“The strength in depth in England is unbelievable, so I fully believe we can go over there and get two really good results.”
The Barbarians will bring some big names with Thierry Dusautoir and Adam Ashley-Cooper on show as well Saracens’ hooker Schalk Brits but their preparation will have been largely pub-based. Their defence will be ripe for the unpicking.
“Eddie has challenged me to keep improving our attack, asking more questions of the opposition and being more dangerous,” said Ford. “It’s a great chance to play like we want to play against Argentina.”
Denny Solomona is out of the Barbarians game with a foot injury but clings to the hope of going to Argentina “I’m not out of it yet,” he said. “I’m doing everything I can to be sure I make the trip.”
Harlequins centre Joe Marchant (toe) and Northampton prop Paul Hill (neck) will miss the tour. REBOOT: The onus will be on Ford in Argentina