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George Ford: 'We’re playing the way we train'
By PA
George Ford admits England must conduct an uncomfortable inquest into Saturday’s Fiji debacle if they are to halt their freefall in time to make an impression on the World Cup.
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Twickenham was stormed 30-22 by the Islanders as England fell to a current tier two nation for the first time in their 152-year history, registering a fifth defeat in six matches.
Fiji’s magnificent victory has heightened the sense of crisis at the Rugby Football Union with the pivotal World Cup opener against Argentina on September just two weeks away.
Even the Pool D fixtures against Japan and Samoa are fraught with danger given the depth of England’s current malaise and Ford insists that only by confronting hard truths will disaster be averted in Marseille.
“We don’t want the benefit of the doubt, we know we haven’t played well enough and know the results haven’t been good enough,” Ford said.
“When you lose for England you understand what’s going to come with it. We’re not shying away from that.
“We’re going to stick together and sort ourselves out in terms of making our preparation as good as it can be for Argentina. I’m comfortable we’ll be in a good place.
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“What separates good teams from the great is that when things aren’t going well and you need to front a few things up and be honest, you do that.
“Look it square in the face because you can’t ignore those things – if you do then they will come back to haunt you later on.”
Head coach Steve Borthwick repeatedly highlighted the error count and missed tackles when explaining the nation’s first ever loss to Fiji, whose customary magic in attack was matched by tactical cohesion and smart decision-making.
England started like a freight train with Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence running on to Ford’s fizzing passes, Jonny May crossing in the left corner and the breakdown being bossed by a high-energy pack.
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But as a downpour of heavy rain came and went, Fiji took control to expose a defence that has now conceded 30 tries in nine matches under Borthwick.
In recent weeks England have repeatedly stressed the quality of their training, suggesting the performances on a Saturday were an anomaly, but Ford insists practise has also been sub-par.
“Any time you play for England – especially at Twickenham – you you’ve got to pull out on the right side of the scoreboard and unfortunately we had a lot of errors against Fiji,” Ford said.
“We’re making too many errors. Now what the reason for that is I can’t be sure. Maybe it is a little bit of over eagerness or a little bit of inaccuracy, or maybe it is a little bit of understanding.
“It’s probably a little bit of all of it, to be honest. But one thing for sure is we can’t keep doing it.
“When it comes to our plan for Argentina and our understanding of what we need to do to win that game, we’ll be crystal clear on it. I’m more than confident we’ll be able to get it right for that game.
“We understand that we need to make fewer mistakes. There’s an urgency that we need to fix it and get better.
“The way you do that is to be more consistent in training. We’re clearly not consistent in training, there are probably too many errors in training. We’re playing the way we train at the minute, which is not good enough obviously.”
Ah there's the problem. If they know that their training will reap pathetic results, they obviously must change the way they train, or change something. It's only fools who think that they can change results by sticking to the same routine, same playing style, same players. Something must change, if not then prepare to not make it out of the pool stages this year.
Im a big fan of Ford and think England at their best was with him at 10. And he is clearly a very smart player, but this is a lot to turn around in 2 weeks.
There is a lot of talk about 2007 and player led response, which I think Ford and Lawes could try. But I think the coaching tickets have moved on in 15 years so a group players is never going to be able to reset this much today.
I will follow somebody else and say, I hope, without expectation.
Playing the way they train? At least they are consistent.
I paid good money to be at Twickenham and love England....But Fiji on and off the pitch entertained us!
Too many basic mistakes! Both the winger and full back missed tackles and looked slow and sluggish!
Yes England made mistakes but England only scored from the Fijian mistakes especially in the line outs!
20 minutes of the first half was watching Fiji attack us?
Lack of vision at least 3 times from flyhallf and scrum half when we had players over and clear overlaps especially on the blind side.
Why a chip into the spaces wasn't used as an option I don't know!!!
Why are we kicking the ball away to one of the best attacking teams I don't know? ... and kicking the ball to them when we have an advantage!
Tooo many glory hunters standing on the wing, especially the No.8 who had one chance and fumbled his lines taking his eye off the ball!!
I could go on but hey...I only played Essex and Eastern counties a few years ago.
Highlight was meeting Will Carling and watching Fiji celebrate..
And so the World Cup dawns! oh dear England....