Ford wants success at scene of Beckham’s triumph
George Ford hopes to draw inspiration from David Beckham’s penalty heroics against Argentina at the 2002 World Cup as the Leicester fly-half seeks his own redemption against Tonga at the same stadium in Sapporo tomorrow.
Beckham’s penalty in England’s 1-0 victory buried painful memories of his red card at the 1998 World Cup against the same opponents.
Ford is seeking to face down his own World Cup demons, having lost his place as the starting fly-half four years ago after an unconvincing victory over Fiji before the side crashed out of their own tournament in the pool stages.
Back in the side as the starting fly-half, with captain Owen Farrell at inside centre, the same positions they started the game against Fiji four years ago, Ford revealed he had searched for footage of Beckham’s goal.
“Someone said that England football played here in 2002 – I was nine, I think,” he said. “I don’t remember watching it, but looking back, I remember it now. I think they were wearing red that day and Beckham scored – so that’s pretty cool.”
Ford admits that 2015 experience has been a reference point for him with Japan.
“You look back four years and you think the game has changed massively and you have changed massively as a player,” Ford added. “You almost think sometimes, ‘How the hell were you in that position?’ You’ve got four more years of learning and experience. You think you’re in a good position back then and four years later you think, ‘I knew nothing, I’d experienced nothing’. “The key thing for us is to stay in the moment, not think what’s gone on previously and not think beyond Tonga tomorrow. They’re a very passionate nation who wear their heart on their sleeve and they’re very physical, so we’ve got to get our stuff right to get the result.
“We keep saying that we don’t want to go through what we went through in 2015 again. We want to be part of a successful England team at this World Cup and that starts against Tonga tomorrow. As soon as that was done and dusted, we moved on and looked forward.”
The option of picking both Ford and Farrell was revived in England’s record victory over Ireland in the World Cup warm-up match at Twickenham last month after it had seemingly been shelved following the series defeat by South Africa last year.
Selecting two playmakers will enable England to probe Tonga’s wide channels and test their back three solidity with a bolstered kicking game at the sold-out stadium, which is home of baseball’s Hokkaido Nippon-ham Fighters and has a capacity of 41,000.
To prepare for the match, the pitch had to be wheeled in from outside, with the stands twisting to accommodate the retractable grass surface. Ford was impressed after his first visit for a training session.
“The pitch is unbelievable. And the stands are very steep, so I would expect the atmosphere to be pretty special. There’s not much wind so there’s no excuses for us kickers,” he added. “But it’s brilliant. For a game of rugby where both teams would want to attack and score some tries – we want to defend well, of course we do – but it’s going to be perfect conditions for that.”