George Ford may be forced to quit Leicester Tigers says Austin Healey

Austin Healey says Welford Road is not big enough to accommodate both Toby Flood and George Ford.
Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill has opted to select Flood for the opening four games with Ford, who started last season’s Premiership semi-final and final, kept on the bench.
But Healey, who as a multi-talented stand-off was once the darling of the Leicester terraces, believes it is only a matter of time before something has to give, arguing a rotation policy will benefit neither player.
And with near neighbours Northampton crying out for a top-class stand-off, Healey told The Rugby Paper he thinks it will be Ford, 19, who will be the one to make way in search of regular game time.
He said: “There are Premiership clubs crying out for a quality fly-half – Sale and Northampton spring to mind – and it amazes me you have the four best English fly-halves playing for just two clubs.
“I’m all for a bit of competition and beating your opposite number but with players of the calibre of Charlie Hodgson, Owen Farrell, George Ford and Toby Flood they all need to be playing every week.
“Put George Ford in Northampton and they would be able to kick on from just being challengers to being a massive force.
“As a fly-half, more so than any other position, you need to be playing week-in, week-out and building up 15-20 games on the bounce with a break every now and then.
“If you drop out you miss out on patterns within the team and lose some of the understanding you have with other players. Even one week, lots of small things change on the field that you’ll have to relearn. There’s lot of intricacies and even if your timing is off by a miniscule amount, it can make a big difference.”
The scenario bears parallels with Flood’s own situation when he burst onto the scene at Newcastle eight years ago, playing behind Jonny Wilkinson for first club then country.
Both Falcons and England experimented with them in a 10-12 combination. But Healey, a big fan of both Flood and Ford, says shoehorning them into the starting XV would be an unsatisfactory compromise.
“As a Leicester man I’d prefer to see the best playing for the club but it’s hard to say who that is at the moment,” said Healey. “I don’t think you’ve seen enough of George Ford to make a fair comparison and say who is the better fly-half.
“George played something like nine games for the club and couple of those were off the bench. He’s still a very young guy and will improve an awful lot.
“He’s bulked up a bit over the summer and I think he did fantastically well at the end of last season. He has got fantastic timing and a real feel for the game.
“Toby isn’t firing on all cylinders yet but then you look at him last season before he got injured and he was playing brilliantly.
“But why would you play them at 10-12? I just don’t agree with fitting square pegs in round holes – they have tried it plenty of times with Jonny Wilkinson and it never worked. Jonny always played best with a classic centre like Will Greenwood alongside.
“You should not have to make compromises if you have talented players.”
DANIEL SCHOFIELD