Thursday 9 April 2015 15:18, UK
In George Ford, England possess a world class fly-half that can cut open the best defences in the world, says Dewi Morris...
I’ll start this week by making a bold statement: George Ford has the potential to become the greatest fly-half in English rugby history. Even better than Jonny Wilkinson.
The Bath youngster has got ability and vision that belies his years and is scaring the life out of defenders. He has almost been a forced find for England; the ironic thing is that he would have had to settle for five or 10-minute cameos from the bench had Owen Farrell been fit for the Six Nations.
Ford may not the biggest but he’s a hard nuggety player and is learning how to get in the way and hold people up. And the vision he showed for his try against Leinster will have shut the begrudgers up.
Unlike certain manufactured players, Ford has been born with this talent, and the one thing that tends to separate a great player from a world class one is pace. Ford has got that in spades; even if he makes a wrong decision he has the pace and feet to get out of it. There’s a old saying that you need to keep back-rows honest; well they can’t leave him alone now.
Ford has taken a march on all of the other English fly-halves. His skill set is superb, he has got a great passing repertoire, his kicking from hand is excellent and will only get better from the tee.
Farrell is nearing a return from injury and given his goal-kicking record, there will be the temptation for Stuart Lancaster to put him on the bench. However, I’d continue to go like-for-like with Danny Cipriani. If Ford goes down injured in the early stages of a game, you need a replacement 10 who can fit into the gameplan. What would the All Blacks do? They’d decline the safety net and continue to attack. Lancaster can’t put his head in the sand and decide to go back to territorial, low-risk rugby.
All England now need to find is a 12. We’ve got bosh merchants but need a distributor, and I think Henry Slade would work well alongside Ford. People may say they’ll be too lightweight in midfield but I think that’s rubbish. Conrad Smith and Matt Giteau aren’t the biggest blokes in the world but they’ve done pretty good jobs for New Zealand and Australia respectively. We can always put a physical centre on the bench and react if we’re getting run over.
England have an abundance of pace and steppers in their backline and because the opposition cannot drift off Ford, it holds up their back row and creates space out wide.
Ford and Slade are not going to smash it up, but what they can do is step off both feet. You’ve also got Slade’s left boot and Ford’s right, and their distribution skills will create gaps for the likes of Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson to exploit. England have an abundance of pace and steppers in their backline and because the opposition cannot drift off Ford, it holds up their back row and creates space out wide.
Granted, Ford has had some shaky moments with the boot but what fly-half hasn’t? Everyone goes through that, even Wilkinson, and I would back the players that impressed during the Six Nations.
The final game of the championship was slightly freakish and England got a bit loose, but it’s all about learning to play that way. You won’t do it all the time, as certain games and conditions won’t allow it, but if you’ve got that in your weaponry you’ve got to use it.
England have a threat that can challenge the best in the world. Ford’s only 22 years of age so he has plenty of time on his side. That’s why I think he could be the greatest 10 of all time. He brings out the best in his team-mates. Get a good 12 alongside him and a pack of ball-carrying forwards, and the world will start to tremble.
I’ll be on commentary duty on Saturday for what promises to be a proper Top 14 tussle between Castres and Bordeaux-Begles.
Castres, with all their money and talent, are second from bottom and they could be further adrift of safety should Brive beat Lyon earlier on Saturday afternoon. They got a lifeline by beating Grenoble in their previous match. It was a game they didn’t deserve to win, with Jonathan Wisniewski missing some crucial kicks and both Castres half-backs, Remi Tales and Rory Kockott, spending 10 minutes in the bin.
Bordeaux have been something of a surprise package this season but they have fallen away of late and are desperate get back in top six contention. Both sides badly need a win here.
