Nick Cain: Fizzing George Ford ready for next step with club and country

George Ford has come of age. Finally. It has been a long time coming because Ford has been lumbered with the tag of English rugby‘s prodigy since he broke all records in 2009 by making his pro rugby debut for Leicester at 16. Two years later he claimed a new first by being the youngest recipient of the IRB Young Player of the Year award – and is still the only English player to win it.
However, the true breakthrough for the 21-year-old fly-half has come this season. Ford’s move to Bath from Leicester last summer has seen him flourish, developing into a No.10 playmaker with few peers in Europe when it comes to challenging packed defences on the gain-line and, through his footwork and sleight of hand, prising them open and creating serial disorder.
Ford has been fizzing. He has that priceless ability in a No.10 to be a constant gain-line threat, and is Bath’s fourth best carrier this season (651 metres) with only the back three trio of Anthony Watson, Semesa Rokoduguni and Nick Abendanon above him. Whether with England, for whom he won his first two caps as a replacement in the Six Nations victories over Wales and Italy, or with Bath, who are still in the chase for the Premiership and the Amlin Cup, he has combined flair with precision execution.
The result is that Ford offers England head coach Stuart Lancaster a classic fly-half alternative to the more custom-built attributes of his close friend Owen Farrell. This was highlighted by the darting break he made in injury time in Rome to put Chris Robshaw over for England’s last try.

Ford reflects: “It was just 90 seconds against Wales, but it was still a great feeling. It is a relief to get that first cap under your belt. To get 12 minutes against Italy felt like a lifetime by comparison! It is unbelievable to play for your country – to pull on that white shirt is what you’ve dreamed of.”
It is probably not a coincidence that Ford’s arrival in the squad spurred the steel-nerved Farrell on to his best Six Nations campaign, with the Saracens No.10 augmenting his outstanding goal-kicking and tackling by improving his distribution.
Ford says that his relationship with Farrell has not been jeopardised by the rivalry: “It’s intense in that we both want the shirt, but we’re great friends. In the Six Nations camp every Wednesday he and I would go out to watch a film or to get some food. I played Rugby League against him when we were both youngsters, with him at Wigan St. Pats and me at Saddleworth Rangers. He played loose forward, which meant that he could also act as a stand-off, and I was purely a stand-off.”
He adds: “We have a shared Rugby League background which we benefited from. The skill level in training is unbelievable. In League there are not as many technical aspects as Rugby Union, so there is a much bigger emphasis on catching, passing, manipulating defenders, and putting people through gaps. They put that much detail on it. They spend a whole session on where and how you grip the ball, so that you when you go to pass it’s as good as it can be.”
So, can he see a future with him at 10 for England and Farrell at 12? “That’s out of our hands. But I don’t think they’ve ruled that one out – what’s clear is that England want two distributors in those positions, and we both are.”
Not having enough pitch time to challenge for top honours while Toby Flood called the shots at the Tigers led to Ford’s decision to leave Welford Road and hook up with his father, Mike, who is the director of rugby at Bath. Ask if he would you have stayed if he’d known that Flood would be on his way to Toulouse 12 months later and he says: “I didn’t know, so I made a decision based on what was in front of me at that time, and I’ve no regrets.”
Since arriving at The Rec match practice has not been a problem for Ford, who has played 24 games already for Bath this season. This has seen him supplant Tom Heathcote, the young Scottish international who stepped in at fly-half after the Stephen Donald experiment backfired. However, charges of nepotism levelled after the son hitched onto his father’s wagon have been almost non-existent simply because Ford’s transition has been an almost unqualified success.

So, what’s it like being at the same club where his dad is head coach? “It’s been brilliant. He treats me like anyone else in the squad in that he wants to improve me as a player and a person. When I was at Leicester he and I still spoke about rugby all the time. The good run has helped me to settle in, but there will always be people who think there will be a bias because he’s my dad. My aim is to focus on playing the best I can for the team, and for myself.”
He adds: “It’s fierce in training in terms of high standards and competition for places. With Tommy (Heathcote) and Gavin Henson both able to compete at fly-half you have to be on your toes every training session.”
The roll-call of improvement is evident wherever you look. Although the Premiership play-offs are not yet fixed, Bath are well-placed at third in the league. Should they succeed in making the semi-finals it will be their first since 2009. Furthermore, they have qualified for next season’s European Champions Cup, remedying their failure to qualify for the Heineken Cup for the past two years.
What’s more the strength of Ford’s influence in his first season at the club is endorsed by a welter of statistical evidence that starts with him topping the Premiership points scoring charts with 251 points (see panel). This appears contradictory because the one clear weakness in his game this season has been goal-kicking, where his success rate is 69.6 per cent.
Ford explains: “The latest statistic is that I’m attempting more goal-kicks than many of the other kickers because Bath have scored plenty of tries, and I’ve already played 20-odd games this season. Dave Alred is employed at the club and he gives advice with a few pointers. You still want to be high percentage – if you want to be a world-class fly-half then you expect to kick them from anywhere.”
He adds: “I’m in a good place. Sometimes you have off days, but you keep practising. There is a learning curve at 10 and it comes with the pressures of trying to run a team and goal-kick at the same time.”
What about range? “When the pitches are dry I can kick from about the halfway line – but any longer than that and Gav (Henson) will take them.”
However, now comes the difficult bit of delivering in the glare of an end-of-season spotlight that generates such heat and intensity it often leaves players frazzled.
Ford leaves no room for doubt about his ambition for Bath. “I had no preconceived ideas – but I wouldn’t have come to the club if I didn’t think we’d be challenging for silverware.”

Ask him if Bath can win the Premiership and the answer is as quick as one of his breaks. “We can, 100 per cent. We have to secure a top-four place, but a semi-final is a one-off game, and we can win it. There are a number of areas where we are good, but what stands out is our ability to score points. We want to challenge teams ball-in-hand, and with Kyle Eastmond, Jonathan Joseph, Matt Banahan, Nick Abendanon, Anthony Watson and Semesa Rokoduguni we have plenty of players capable of scoring tries.”
The next step on the road is the Amlin semi-final against Wasps at Adams Park today, and Ford has a clear order of priorities: “We are looking at it as the biggest game of the season. It’s Europe, it’s a massive stage, and it’s a massive game in our learning curve. It’s another semi-final – and we were very disappointed to lose to Exeter in the LV= Cup. Wasps are a dangerous team enjoying a good run of form, but I don’t want to let this chance go.”
Some judges have said that Ford’s biggest hurdle is that his 5ft 9in, 13st 7lb (86kg) physique is a serious handicap in the modern power game. The England and Leicester coaches agreed to the extent that he was instructed to take the summer off in 2012 to bulk up, missing out on the England tour of South Africa and the IRB Junior World Championship.
Ford’s view of it now is: “I probably could have gone and played rugby – that might have been the better option.”
“I’ll try to get stronger, but not really bigger. It’s all about what you do in collisions, and handing-off. Dan Carter and Matt Giteau are not the biggest, but they are so strong. It’s about dynamic strength, and you improve it through plyometrics and power sessions. When we played against Toulon last season and I saw Giteau I thought, ‘he’s tiny’, but he is so powerful in contact.”
What must he do to be a better fly-half? “Everything. At 10 now you can’t rely on any one thing. You have to energise your team in defence, and in attack you have to manage the game and run it.”
My view, expressed before the Six Nations, is that Ford’s England debut should have come earlier (against Scotland), especially with the need for Farrell to have competition and an urgent need for cover at 10 with the New Zealand tour next on the agenda.
Ford says he hopes to go. He adds: “You have to have respect. They are the best team in the world – but England are also in a great place. We have to go there expecting to win games. If we want to be world champions in 2015 we have to start to think like world champions now.”
Ford is 21, but the words are those of a genuine fly-half general.