Home is where the heart is for George Ford as England fly half prepares for Six Nations duties
Interview: The Leicester Tigers and England No 10 talks to The Independent about the importance of a well-balanced home life and his midfield partnership with Owen Farrell
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Your support makes all the difference.Amid the uncertainty caused by England’s mounting injury crisis George Ford should provide one of the twin pillars of stability in Eddie Jones’ midfield alongside Owen Farrell over the coming weeks.
The intangible benefits of having a settled home life for a professional sportsman or woman cannot be underestimated and the 24-year-old believes his is once again on track following his turbulent relocation from Bath back to Leicester. It can only be good news for England.
Ford, who was already agitating for a move away from the Recreation Ground after his father Mike was sacked as head coach in May 2016, took little persuasion when Leicester, the club where he made his professional debut aged 16, came calling midway through last season with a contract offer worth around £450,000 per season.
The same could not be said of Ford’s girlfriend Jess, who took much convincing to move 150 miles away from her family in cosmopolitan Bath to the outskirts of Market Harborough in her first year after graduating from Manchester University.
“It’s probably one part of being a professional sportsman that people don’t realise,” Ford said.
“You’ve got to live a normal life at home and it’s hugely important to get that right. It can be pretty full on week in week out at the club and when you’re going away playing games it’s nice to come home and be relaxed in a good environment when you can switch off every evening and watch some rubbish on TV. Simple things like that are important.
“Jess was in Manchester at university for the last three years which was great because Manchester is a great city. She finished uni and I dropped the bombshell that I was moving to Leicester and did she want to come. She’s been brilliant and settled in really well.
“It’s a change from city life in Bath to walking dogs around Market Harborough.”
With 40 caps now to his name, Ford is firmly established as England’s No 10 alongside his old friend and sparring partner Farrell at inside centre.
More than three years after first being paired together at senior international level, and nine years after combining for England’s under 16s, the Ford-Farrell midfield partnership has become one of Jones’s most potent attacking weapons.
The model of playing two ball-players at 10 and 12 is being copied by other teams, notably Wales and the British & Irish Lions, and Ford is confident the pair can continue to grow together.
“It’s a bit of the fashionable thing to say ‘put a 10 and 12 in there who are both distributors’ but at the end of the day it’s about making the right decision on the field at that particular time,” Ford said.
“Having two like-minded people who think of the game the same having played fly half week in week out, it’s about coming up with the right decision time after time.
“A good example is always ‘do we need to keep hold of the ball or not or do we have to involve this space or that space?’
“The way defences are now in rugby union, particularly at international level, you need to make those decisions on the pitch. To have guys who can do that in the backline definitely benefits the team.”
The Ford-Farrell axis will be vital against Italy in Rome this Sunday when England kick off their campaign against Conor O’Shea’s men with memories of last year’s “no ruck” policy, which caused England so much first-half consternation, still fresh in the mind.
Jones’s men eventually ran out comfortable winners, and are expected to do so again on Sunday, but they will need to be ready for anything the Italians throw at them after being taken by surprise by their opponents’ unusual ruck tactics in the opening 40 minutes at Twickenham last year.
Ford added: “I don’t think we will be looking at that tactic – but from that last game we have learnt a lot about being adaptable and adjusting on the field. If another team come with a tactic like that then we need to recognise it earlier and come up with a solution quicker.
“It remains to be seen if different teams try and spring tactics against us. It took us to half time to clamp down that day and reinforce what the solutions were.”
George Ford is a Land Rover ambassador. Land Rover has a heritage in rugby at all levels; from grassroots to elite, supporting the game for two decades. @LandRoverRugby #WeDealInReal
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