George is happy to follow Farrell
JAMIE GEORGE has revealed Owen Farrell has already stamped his mark on the England squad after taking over as captain for the tour to South Africa.
Farrell, who is bidding to become just the fourth England skipper to win on Springbok soil after John Pullin, Will Carling and Martin Johnson, has left his teammates in no doubt what he expects in Dylan Hartley’s absence ahead of Saturday’s Test at Ellis Park.
“He spoke about how excited he was at the opportunity of having a crack at the Springboks and about not wasting a minute. We can’t dip our toe in. We have to dive in head first,” said George, who will start at hooker in Johannesburg.
“He is naturally a leader – both driving standards and the way he speaks. He runs the team. I have no doubt he will be an excellent England captain.
“I’m really excited at where he can take the team and his own performances because the more responsibility he gets, the better he gets as a player and as a leader.” Farrell was notorious for letting his temper get the better of him early in his career but his Saracens team-mate insists he has toned that down.
“He has calmed down more with the more experience he has got,” said George.
“At 19 or 20 he was hot-headed but he has learnt that isn’t the way all the time. Owen knows when to flick the switch.” Of Farrell’s predecessors only Pullin, in 1972, has tasted victory inside the cauldron of Ellis Park with England’s last visit in 2012 ending in a 36-27 defeat after they were blitzed in the opening quarter. “We’d gone reasonably well in the first Test in Durban. We were competitive. Then we got to Ellis Park,” recalled former coach Stuart Lancaster, who guided Leinster to the double this season. “I was looking after defence and after about 20 minutes this wave of green shirts was crashing over us. I was thinking: ‘Oh my God, this could be 40 or 50.’ “I think it’s a tough tour this year. Rassie Erasmus, who I’ve coached against at Munster, will do a great job in galvanising the South Africans and probably the person people haven’t talked about much is Jacques Nienaber who was the defence coach at Munster. “He’s a very good defence coach; we know how hard it was against Munster. If you get those South Africans organised defensively, irrespective of their attack, then it’s a tough series.”
EUROPEAN rugby bosses have admitted defeat and gone back to Heineken as title sponsors for the Champions Cup for the next four seasons. EPCR wanted to ape football’s Champions League and create a raft of five corporate partners but only managed to attract two – Heineken – and Turkish Airlines who were not interested in renewing when their current deal ran out at the end of last season.